ragladies and a saint

One day, at the folklore museum in the village of Varnavas I found this
he is a saint, an icon with a cheap print face, lovingly embellished in piety by a nun.
I thought you would like to see him.he stands in the kitchen of the museum, not deemed interesting enough to be exhibited.

a few rag ladies. they are called "koutsounes" in greek, children used to make them with scraps of cloth, clothes that had been worn to rags, in the time when all clothes, every fabric in the house was handmade.they have a walnut for a head, if you place it well you get a proper head with facial characteristics. All scraps are tied, there is no sewing involved, small children can make them if you help with the cutting and tying, and they can be undressed and dressed again indefinitely.they look like real people,. they don't have arms or hands, but village ladies would never wave theirs around in public, they would keep them folded across their breasts or in their pockets. if you are careful how you tie the body to the head, with cloth, of course, string or yarn would be too precious, you can create a suggestion of breasts...
children love it when I tell them that :-)) and when teachers look at me I go into teaching mode and talk about how wisely tradition found a way of portraying the real human body ;-)the very little ones like to draw eyes and mouths on their faces, older ones are satisfied with the suggested scuptural features of the walnut. Every time I make them I am amazed at the economy and art that is involved in such a simple work of representation. the ladies always turn out elegant, as a work of art, and powerful in their abstraction. If you give them enough cloth for their bodies they can even sit..

many children go to the piles of rags and surrepititiously take some to make another one at home. I never stop them.