After I finished writing this morning's post on Simply June, the business that Karen June Grant started as her Russian adoption was progressing, it occurred to me that it was time to dust off some material I had been saving on Matryoshka dolls. The Russian nesting dolls figure on Karen's onesies and she has written about her effort to learn more about them.

Matryoshka, as you will likely discover on your adoption trips to Russia, are pretty much the country's staple souvenir. They are a collection of wooden shapes that fit snugly one inside the other. The classic style features serene-faced women, though you will see them with political leaders (ours and theirs), sports figures and more. If you like the Russian fairy tale "Turnip", there is a set of Matryoshka to go along with it. I picked up a lovely set with images that looked like the characters in Russian fairy tale books on my first adoption in Vladivostok in 1999.

There's a lot of good history about Matryoshka dolls on Wikipedia and you can read about it here. The most interesting aspect of it for me was that the dolls do not appear to be an indigenous Russian handicraft, but rather something that was inspired by Japanese nesting dolls brought to Russia a bit more than 100 years ago. I can remember seeing these kind of figures when I was traveling through southern Japan about a decade ago, but I don't know if I ever learned their name.

The Japanese dolls are rather squared off on top, which seems to me a much easier shape to carve than the Russian figures. The one thing I've always wanted to learn about Matryoshka was how they were made; nothing I've ever learned about woodworking seems to quite fit the bill, although I'm guessing that some of the souvenirs you find now are molded, not carved. (Alas, "How It's Made", one of our favorite Science Channel shows, has yet to get around to explaining Matryoshka manufacturing.)

I've found a few resources to create your own Matryoshka, if you are so inclined. This Web site has doll images to print and color. There's a paint-it-yourself set on The Spoon Sisters, with all the major decoration lines thoughtfully drawn in. The most intriguing resource I uncovered was a class on Matryoshka decorating offered at a continuing education school in Exeter, N.H., though there isn't a new class on the schedule now.

But one of the most baffling appearances of Matryoshka imagery for me is in a children's television show, "Higglytown Heroes", which runs on the Disney Channel. You can watch the characters pop out of each other here. I have called and e-mailed Wildbrain, the San Francisco company that is home to the show's creator Denis Morella for information about his inspiration, to no avail. So for now, it will remain as much a mystery as how the dolls are made.

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