Bashkir ornaments and patterns are an important component of material culture and at the same time one of the forms of spiritual creativity of the people of Bashkortostan. In this sense, folk art is the result of centuries of development: in ornamentation, in individual patterns, in colors, in their combination, folk craftsmen figuratively reflected people's lives and their understanding of the surrounding reality at different stages of history.
Ornament as a relationship of cultures
Major events in the history of the Bashkirs, these or those twists and turns in their fate have always or almost always found artistic reflection in art, including decorative: in ornamentation, in performance technique, in the development of new or the extinction of existing types of creativity.
Bashkir ornament, ornamentation techniques, colors, pattern terminology are a concentrated reflection of the interweaving of the ethnic history of the Bashkir people. This applies to its origin, ethnic processes during the Middle Ages, ancient and modern cultural and historical interactions with neighboring peoples. Fine art, for a number of reasons, first of all, due to the great stability of the ornament, more fully and more clearly than many other types of material culture, bears traces of different eras and the interaction of different ethnic groups.
National ornaments and patterns can be found on almost all types of products made by the caring hands of folk craftsmen:
- carpets, clothes, towels, curtains, bedding;
- leather goods, decorative crafts made from natural materials;
- dishes, household utensils;
- art painting, drawings, prints, printing and so on.
Carpet weaving
The ornament of the Bashkir people is especially clearly seen in carpet weaving. Patterned carpets were an indispensable part of the dowry of the girl. Striped patterned rugs were distributed throughout southern Bashkiria and among the Bashkir population of the Kurgan region. In the southwestern, western and partly central Bashkiria, in the basins of the Dema and Ik rivers , as well as in the middle and lower reaches of the Belaya River, mainly carpets with geometric patterns were woven.
Since the mid-20th century, in the south-west of the republic, plant motifs in the form of curls and branches with flowers, leaves, berries, apples, etc. have become very widespread in carpet ornament. In fact, this is a new, modern stage in the evolution of ornament and patterns on the territory of Bashkiria.
Striped Carpets
Striped carpets are woven with 20-22 cm wide cloths. A longitudinally striped pattern is created by the basis of colored yarn or goat wool. The pattern of the palace is simple - it is longitudinal, serrated or smooth multicolor stripes. A very simple striped Bashkir ornament suggests that this is the most ancient type of carpet.
Carpets with geometric and floral patterns
They are sewn from two, sometimes three woven panels, 40-60 cm wide and are enclosed in a narrow border. The border is usually woven with a separate panel and with a pattern slightly different from the central field pattern. Sometimes such a carpet does not have borders.
The Bashkir carpet ornament with a geometric pattern is mostly straightforward, with clear figures. Its main elements are caved in multicolor rhombuses, squares, eight-pointed stars and other figures that fill the ornamented field of the carpet in regular rows. They, in turn, are designed inside by the same, but smaller figures. Ornamental elements, if considered separately, are found in the ornamentation of many other peoples. However, in combination, in the overall composition, especially with well-chosen colors, they form that peculiar colorful pattern that gives the ornament a unique Bashkir national flavor.
In the case of a vegetable interpretation of the geometric pattern, the processes of the traditional rhombus take the shape of twigs with leaves, and the eight-pointed star is interpreted as an eight-petalled flower.
Color spectrum
The Bashkir national ornament regarding colors is diverse. The colors of the stripes are red, yellow, green, blue, blue, violet and others in the deepest tones with an absolute predominance of madder color. In an effort not to repeat each other, weavers achieve significant diversity in color. With the simplest composition, skillful selection and combination of colors, they achieve great colorful ornamentation.
Patterned fabric
Bashkir ornaments and patterns are still found on ceremonial national clothes. Fabrics from plant fibers at the Bashkirs are distinguished by a rich and juicy ornament, a variety of decoration techniques. For sewing ordinary clothes, everyday items, the so-called motley was made - a colored canvas in a cage or in a strip. Festive and ceremonial clothes, objects decorating the home were ornamented with patterns of mortgage or branded textile (woven fabric).
Women's shirts, aprons, women's and men's pants were sewn from multi-colored fabric. Tablecloths, towels, napkins, curtains, various bags, etc. were made from it. A checkered pattern of a motley is formed by the intersection of colored stripes. In the southern regions of Bashkiria and in the Trans-Urals, the motley is weaved by large cells. The colors are dominated by red, white and black. The national ornament of multicolored fabrics of the northern regions is distinguished by small cells of the pattern and a more variegated color. Often the checkered motley designed for aprons, tablecloths and curtains was adorned and adorned with branded patterns like medallion rosettes.
Types of Ornament
Embellished textile patterns adorned only home decoration items: curtains, towels and tablecloths. In the ornamentation of clothing, the mortgage technique was not used. The simplest elements of the bookmarked ornament are massive yielding lines - this is a typical Bashkir ornament. The pattern of these lines is complicated, they, connecting together, form X-shaped, 3-shaped, diamond-shaped, 8-shaped figures and other more complex patterns. An eight-pointed star, a cross, a swastika, a rhombus with extended sides or with paired curls at the corners, horn-shaped figures are very characteristic.
Embroidery
Traditionally, embroidery in Bashkiria was even more important than patterned fabrics. This is explained by a simpler working technique, while more creative efforts can be made. For weaving, raw materials and looms were required , and with the spread of finished fabrics, the manufacture of their own became an anachronism. But embroidery is still in demand today. Bashkir patterns and ornaments are very diverse. The drawings depend on the embroidery technique and the method of applying the draft image on the embroidered surface.
The main elements of the ornament are figures in the form of twin ram horns, S-shaped lines, which in various combinations give patterns in the form of the letter X, swastikas or form highly stylized floral motifs. Bashkir ornament is executed by embroidery on cloth, velvet, less often on cotton fabric with silk, woolen or cotton threads. Patterns on shabraki are usually embroidered on a red or green background, and on pouches and decorative ribbons there is also a black background, which gives the pattern more brightness and provides a clear sound for each color in the pattern. For the patterns themselves, colors of warm tones are usually chosen, but, as a rule, contrasting with the background. Often used red, yellow, green and very rarely blue and blue. Favorite red color is often found on patterns with the same red background.
Wood carving
Carving, ornament on dishes and wood painting were not so widespread among the Bashkirs, such as, for example, embroidery or weaving. An exception is architectural carving, which from the second half of the 19th century appeared in Bashkiria everywhere. The most widely used woodcarving was in the mountainous part of southeastern Bashkiria, where the vast taiga forests of the Southern Urals are concentrated, which provided a variety of raw materials for "wooden production".
The needs of subsistence farming and the availability of forests have long made it necessary and possible to make various utensils and household items from wood. Moreover, the Bashkirs practicality, expediency was associated and closely intertwined with aesthetic tastes. By making household items, the Bashkirs sought to make them not only durable, easy to use, but also beautiful. It is no coincidence that the most striking and interesting ornament was on dishes and objects that were constantly used daily in everyday life. At the same time, in the manufacture of ladles for koumiss, in the ornamentation of utensils, in the painting of wooden supports for the chest, along with the national color, worked out over the centuries, the elements of patterns characteristic of ancient tribes that once participated in the ethnic formation of the Bashkir nationality are preserved.
Output
The ornament of the Bashkir people is the same folklore. It is a product of the collective creativity of successive generations. Each pattern is the result of collective creativity, at the same time it is a product of the artistic imagination of an individual. Many masters not only make changes to the patterns they know, but also create new ones. In turn, the newly created patterns do not remain unchanged. Other artists polish them or, based on traditional patterns, create their own. Hence the diversity and richness of the forms that we observe in the folk ornament of Bashkiria.