Art metal-working

The old traditions of artistic metal-working are developing successfully in modern applied art. This can be seen in the lacelike filigree of the decorative patterns which are a feature of the work of jewellers at Krasnoye-on-Volga, Kostroma region.

Truly virtuoso are the niello designs on silver in the works of craftsmen at Veliki Ustyug, Vologda region, and in Daghestan. Engravings on steel done by craftsmen of Zlatoust are distinguished for their delicate patterns, and the artistic open-work cast iron of the Kasli factory in the Chelyabinsk region for its intricate ornamentation.

Craftsmen in the Urals are successfully continuing the local traditions of stone carving. Very beautiful, hard kinds of stone are cleverly worked by masters in Sverdlovsk, while the material used by carvers in the Perm region is soft stone. Miniature sculptures of multicoloured anhydrite are made in the village of Bornukovo, Gorky region.

The art of bone carving continues to flourish at traditional centres in the north. In Kholmogory it is, above all, a complex open-work carving, in Tobolsk carving in relief and in the round, and in the Chukotka district carving in the round and engraving. In 1947 bone carving was started at a centre in the Zagorsk district.