Pictures using technique of wool watercolor painting created in Mangystau region

Works of art made of sheep’s wool. In one of the villages of the Mangystau region there is a club where paintings are created using felt. The technique of wool watercolor painting is taught by teacher Shynar Raliyeva. She revives the ancient traditions of applied crafts that have remained unchanged for centuries.

“I'm currently making a ‘kesekap’. There is just a little more work to be done until the item is ready. Our ancestors used it during nomadic migrations. This case was intended for bowls. It was used to keep the dishes from breaking. I hope to finish it in two or three days. After that, I’m going to begin working on other things,” school student Zhanylsyn Aibergenkyzy said.

According to the handicrafts teacher, there are now 15 schoolgirls attending the club. Teenagers have already created more than 25 paintings in several genres of fine art. But it takes a long time for a single painting to be born. Because a picture needs to be laid out layer by layer using thousands of colorful threads. Thanks to this, volumetric effects and shadows are created, which is difficult to achieve using paints.

“I asked myself, why not make something new out of sheep’s wool? And I went with the ‘wool watercolor painting’. This special technique is now forgotten. No one in our region uses it. My students like it a lot. They create still lifes, floral landscapes. The most popular genre in their works is sea-themed, as our region is located on the Caspian coast,” handicrafts teacher Shynar Raliyeva said.

Translation by Aruzhan Bizhigitova

Editing by Assem Zhanmukhanova