Mushroom Khokhloma Spice or Dusting Powder Set

Description

Beautifully detailed Hand painted wood salt & pepper shakers. Perfect to use with spices or…. now I know you are all going to look like I am crazy and maybe I am. This Slavic shaker would make the perfect spell powder shaker. Just fill the shaker with any Witchery Dusting Powder and all you have to do is shake shake shake. You can dust your hands, clothing, petitions or items you wish to gift to people you are working on. Only you will know whats inside! The other interesting aspect of keeping your protective dust in these is that Slavic patterns were often done to add protection and magic. So think of this little dust receptacle also as magical talisman and amulet that you can keep in your home.

Many depictions in art of the Russian folk witch Baba Yaga show her with mushrooms, especially the Fly Agaric (the red-capped, white-spotted mushroom also associated in children’s illustrations with fairies and gnomes). As Baba Yaga is Russia’s most famous witch, hunting mushrooms is Russia’s favorite pastime, and both Baba Yaga and mushrooms are found in the forest, it makes sense that the two would become entwined. Also, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a psychoactive mushroom that can cause hallucinations, euphoria, and death. Baba Yaga is immortal and embodies the dual nature of life and death, and, like a hunter of mushrooms in the woods, you can search out Baba Yaga and perhaps be granted a boon, if you are clever enough. Or perhaps you’ll die. With her long scraggly white hair, large nose, and iron teeth, Baba Yaga is so ugly she is almost beautiful, like many types of mushrooms. The past few years have seen an interesting trend of women connecting with Baba Yaga and her fierce countenance.

The Khokhloma style is named for the village of Khokhloma in Koverninsky District, Novgorod Oblast, Volga region, where it first appeared in the second half of the 17th century. The production of painted dishes in Khokhloma is first mentioned in 1659 in the letter of a boyar called Morozov to his bailiff, containing an order for the following: “One hundred painted dishes polished with powdered tin, both large and medium, of the very same kind possessed by us earlier, not forgetting twenty large painted wine bowls, twenty medium, and twenty somewhat smaller”.

The handicraft owes its origin to the Old Believers, who, fleeing from persecutions of officials, took refuge in local woods. Even earlier, however, local villagers had experience in making tableware from soft woods. Among the schismatics there were icon-painters, who taught local craftsmen the special technique of painting wood in a golden color without the use of genuine real gold.