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Lynn Shansky - Vasilisa the Wise and Clever
Category: Wall-hanging.
To construct the main portion of the piece the beads are embroidered upon the backing, Vasilisa’s dress is made with free-form circular peyote.
This is a Russian Folktale called “The Frog Tsarevna”. TheTsar had 3 sons. In order to find their wives they had to shoot an arrow and where it landed would be their wife to be. The youngest was Tsarevich Ivan.His arrow landed in a swamp. When he retrieved it a frog was holding the arrow in its mouth so he had to marry the frog. The Tsar wanted the three son’s wives to each make him a shirt. Tsarevich Ivan was sad because he didn’t think his frog wife could sew. At night whenhe was sleeping she took off her frog skin and became Vasilisa the wise and clever. She made the most beautiful shirt of all the wives and she turned back into a frog by morning.Next the Tsar wanted bread made by each wife. Again at night when Ivan was asleep, Vasilisa took off her frog skin and made the best bread of the wives. Then the Tsar wanted all the sons and their wives to attend a feast. Vasilisa arrived later after shedding her frog skin. Everyone was enchanted by her including her husband Tsarevich Ivan. When he got home he found her frog skin and threw it in the fire. When Vasilisa arrived home she’d dicovered what he’d done and told him if he’ d waited 3 more days the frog spell would be broken and she’d be free. Instead she turned into a Cuckoo Bird and flew out the window. Tsarevich Ivan went in search of her. An old man he met told him that Vasilisa’s father was jealous of her because she was more clever and more wise than he and so he had turned her into a frog for 3 years. The old man gave Ivan a ball of thread to follow to find Vasilisa. He proceded to follow it and he met a bear who told him not to kill him because he might need him someday. He also spared a Drake, a Hare, and a Pike who all said that Ivan might need them someday. Then Ivan met a witch named Baba-Yaga who told him Vasilisa was at her father’s palace.The only way to kill the father was to break the point of a needle that was in an egg in a duck and the duck was in a hare and the hare was in a chest at the top of an Oak tree. Ivan went to the Oak tree and suddenly a bear appeared and knocked over the tree. The chest broke open and the hare ran out. Another hare caught it and tore it to pieces. Out of the hare flew a duck but then the drake struck the duck and the egg fell in the sea. Then the pike brought the egg to the shore and Tsarevich Ivan got it cracked it open and broke ther needle. The evil father died . Vasilisa was free and she and Tsarevich Ivan lived happily ever after.