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Nancy Badciong - Russian Firebird
Category: Wall-hanging.
Loom-woven.
I found several different Russian folk tales involving a Firebird. The main theme in them all was that a Firebird was helpful to a prince in freeing the princess that he desired. The tales end happily because the Firebird is magical and uses his powers to help the underdog - even a prince. One of the tales is to used to illustrate an old Russian proverb - “In the course of time, everything will come out right” -which of course it does. The prince ends up with his princess.
In two of the tales the Firebird was noted “to pluck golden fruit from a silver tree” and to be the nightly thief that ate the king’s golden apples from his special tree which had fruit even in the depth of winter. I chose this scene to depict the colorful bird in flight on its way to eat the golden fruit. The Firebird Tale has also been the subject of Russian Lacquer Boxes - often done with a black background.