Dymkovo toys

What it is

It is a hand-modelled clay figure, painted after firing. People and animals are the usual subjects, and some pieces are whistles as well. The name comes from the village of Dymkovo, beside Kirov in Russia. Figures are built up heavy and simple rather than true to life, and they are finished with bright colour. Ruffles, puffed collars and similar details give the shapes extra weight. The craft is still alive and counts among Russia's older folk arts.

Origins and history

The first Dymkovo shapes were whistles: a horse, a rider on a horse, a bird. The tradition connects these to magic images used in rites of the farming year. In time the magic meaning was lost and the figures became children's playthings, and making them grew into a craft. Until the twentieth century the work was done for a spring fair known as Svistunya, the whistler. A written mention of that fair survives from 1811. People believe the fair itself ran for around four hundred years, which places the toy's history in the seventeenth century or earlier.

Decline and revival

In the last years of the nineteenth century the trade shrank. Factory-made plaster statuettes, copied from porcelain, took the market from the village makers. Under Soviet rule the craft was brought back. In 1933 the makers formed a cooperative named Vyatka Toy, and in time it passed to the Artistic Fund of the RSFSR. The 1930s also brought new subjects: fairy tales and scenes of the life people were living then. Today the figures are known well beyond the village as a Russian souvenir.

Figures and motifs

Old subjects and later nineteenth-century types sit side by side in the modern range. Among them are the barynya, or landlady, the nyanka, or nanny, and the vodonoska, a woman carrying water. Painting is done freehand rather than planned: circles, squares and dots in many colours and sizes cover the white ground. That pattern of simple geometric marks is what most people recognise first. Since the 1930s fairy tales and everyday scenes have joined the older figures. Makers also build pieces with several figures on a stand, and single figures over thirty centimetres tall.

How Dymkovo toys is kept

Women shape each figure from local potter's clay mixed with river sand. Limbs and other parts are joined with thin, watery clay. The finished figure is left to dry, then fired in a furnace. Once out, it is coated with chalk thinned in milk, which leaves a white ground. The painting comes last, in tempera, in anything from four to ten colours or more, and gold leaf is added as decoration. Until 1953 the colours were aniline dyes bound with egg.

When and where

The toy's calendar was set by the spring fair called Svistunya, or the whistler. A written note of that fair dates from 1811, but people hold that it had already been running for about four hundred years, which carries the toy's own history back to the seventeenth century at least.

The craft belongs to the village of Dymkovo, beside the city of Kirov in Russia. Kirov was earlier called Vyatka, which is why the same figures are also sold as Vyatka toys and Kirov toys. Dymkovo is where the makers are, and the work is named for that village.

What Dymkovo toys means

The oldest figures were whistles shaped as a horse, a rider and a bird. The tradition traces these to magic images used in farming calendar rites. When that meaning faded, the shapes became playthings for children, and the making of them turned into a craft. For Dymkovo itself the toy is local work and local pride; further away it is a familiar Russian souvenir.

Questions people ask about Dymkovo toys

See also

Kupala NightA summer solstice folk festival marked by bonfires, water rituals and herbal gatherings across Eastern Europe.Tsagaan SarThe Mongolian Lunar New Year festival of peace, elders, white foods and renewalKoliadaA traditional winter caroling and solstice festival kept across Slavic EuropeTrndezAn Armenian fire feast forty days after Christmas, kept with bonfires and shared sweets

Good reading and sources

• Dymkovo toys on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.