Fashionable St.Petersburg

I was on exibition named "Fashionable Petersburg. Game field of culture". I wanted to go there so much because there was shown all parts of social life in Saint-Petersburg in 18 and 19 centuries. Items on the exibition are the part of  national Pushkin museum, and all costumes are the reconstructions made by famous costumier Anna Nekrasova. 

It was really impressing to find out that social culture in Saint-Petersburg had many traditions and nuances! I'm sure that's why our city is still named as "culture capital of Russia"! Because for several centuries citizens there were (and, proudly saying, are ) super-attentive for everything!

 At this exibition were shown the masquarades' etiquette, the boudoir and study room routine, the culture of mutual visits and first balls.

It was interesting to know about little nothings of life, which formed the life in 18 and 19 centuries. For example, even young girls sniffed tabacco! And ink were made from blueberry juice and burrs. Some of traditions are still alive-  the beau monde still goes to the Ekaterinhoff on  the 1st of May! 

The exibition took place at Derzhavin museum, which still have the atmosphere of the past - refined and noble, as if it is still life in 18th or 19th century!

Every year a landscape design exibition in the Mihailovsky garden take place. So, this june was 6th international festival "Emperor Gardens of Russia". This time it was as impressive as in other years!

Some of the showpieces was in a classical garden styles.

And some of the installations was abstract and unusual!

There were even statues made of bushes! 

Some of the installations were stunning!

Some of them weren't typical for our  northern climate:

Some of the installations were lovely and nice:

There I understood  that gardeners are really creative people! 

Also there were several "ordinary" statues. For example, this one is "Worshipping sprouts". It's really good idea - they are so tiny, but they are worth admiring them!

Also there everybody could have a tips for their own villages on the countryside. Swans made of  tires were  lovely!

Some of the installations were simply beautiful!

Also all around the city there are celebrations of 400 years of Romanoff Imperial house. This exibition was not an exception:

This exibition was really impressive! There were a lot of creative and patriotic works!  I'm really glad with visiting it, and I'm waiting for the next landscape design exibition so much!

Hobby -21st century

The citizens of Saint Petersburg have many hobbies! So "Hobby-21st century" is actually one of the important exibitions of the city. I was on the last such an exibition and I want to show you things which people here are interested in.   

Many people here are fond of history and historical things. Old cars, fashion of our grannies, everything connented with the past is really popular in Saint Petesburg!

Some people collect medals.

And some collect things which our ancestors used.

Also it is really popular to renowate everything! For example, this beautiful suitcases have really long story! Many years ago they were just usual luggage bags with no floral pattern.

After attique and unique things come modern ones. These fans were made specially for Asia-lovers.

The very special theme for Saint-Petersburg is porcelain little figures and statues. Everybody can find something special here!

Also there were clothes made of wool and felt. The weather in Saint Petersburg is usually windy and cold, so  woolen things are recommended for four seasons! If you can't make it by yourself and don't want to buy factory-work, you can buy hand-made clothes here! And the quality is high! Just look at it - how it is done  head-to-toe.

And If you can make something by yourself on this exibition you can buy all you need- from pins to canvas.

Also usually there take place a lot of master-classes!

People of Saint Petersburg have many hobbies! So do I (that's why I'm a regular visitor of such exibitions, as you can understand :)). And what about you?

Felt sculptures by Irina Andreeva

In "The times of dolls" ( I told you about it here) there were an exibiton of felt sculpturer Irina Andreeva. The exibition was named " The string on the finger". It was all about childhood memories about live on the countryside at grandma's.  

The exibiton gave me real feelings, that I'm at my grandma's house- every felt sculpture looked so cosy and warm!

Do you remember a cat's murmuring? When it was lying on a Russian stove and licking her new-born kittens.

Do you try to play with fish? And how your cat accompany you in this game?

Do you remember, how little you were? You even needed a chair to look outside a window!

Who is under the bed?

Helping out to adults:

And these fantastic grandma's homemade dumplings! You even tried to do them by yourself .

"Oh my dear goat! Do you want some bread? It's tasty, take it!"

Is it "Zinger"?) Looks pretty good!

It was such a wonderful, cheery exibition! I enjoyed it very much! And how about you? Did this exibition remind you your own childhood?

"The time of dolls" and Craft-market

Last week there were several big hand-made events in Saint-Petersburg. The first one was "The time of dolls". It was the 11th international exibition of dolls and teddy-bears. And the second event was the craft-market. Both of that events took place at the same building, so it was both useful  and intertaining!

You could buy there different garment accessories, if you are a craftsman:

 

Also you could find some inspiration there, and even buy the most part of craftworks! Look! Aren't they lovely?

The marine theme is really special for Saint-Petersburg! So there were a lot of sailor teddy-bears!

Some of the toys were really fantastic and imaginary:

And some of them were super-realistic!

Also there were a lot of non-traditional craftswork. For examle this tiny book includes one of the famous rhymes of Lermontov- "The Sail":

In craft-market you could even find hand-made soap. Some of them were really impressive:  

There were a lot of displays and exibition materials. Two of mini-exibitions were so interesting, that I decided to make other post for them! So stay tuned, I'll show them soon!

"Museums at Night" - 3. The A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications

So, here are the third and the last part of my"Museums at night" route. If you missed two previous parts, you can find the first part here and the second part you can find here . For my third place I chose The A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications. When I were making my route before "Museums at Night" I marked this museum as the most interesting among all. And actually it turned out that it is the most impressive one! I was so exited, and  I even decided to visit it one more time... or more!

If you would like to know The  Popov Central Museum of Communications is one of the oldest museums about technologies and science! It was founded - just imagine! - in 1872! 

The museum of communications have several exibitions in it. The first hall is dedicated to post service in Russia . I was impressed by different types of mail boxes! For example that one is for air mail:

Also in this hall there were many pieces of stationary which were used many many years ago.

Just look at it! It's so massive, but nevertheless beautiful things were used in postal service!

The other hall is separated for two parts. The first one is interactive. There you can see frequency of your voice, try to make a Morze message, or to play zootrope - if it's correct to call it "play". Just make it spin, and you can see the bird's fly. Like this:

In the second part you can see the old technical things which were used to make photo, cinema and TV. It's very captivating! You can also see how all that techmical things were constructed.

In other halls there were a lot of impressive things! There is a collection of old electronics of different years. 

And it was also interactive! You can listen to different radio pieces and gramophones, how it sounded. I believe many people have a kind of nostalgia there! And all that can also inspire the young people! As for me, it really impress me - ho have a chance to hear "how it was 20,50, or almost 100 years ago! 

And also in that museum you can make an oldstyle" call. Just look at this! It's the same as in  old movies! 

I really love this museum so much! The exibition is really impressive and I should say it make me think about how complex and complicated every technical device is, and how smart should be people to create such  things!