The collection of teddy bears «Enjoy Your Bath» is dedicated to the illustration of the same name by my favorite graphic artist Leonid Soyfertis, the author of genre compositions and caricatures. In each line of his sketches you can read the character of the person, feel his world and feelings. In this case, the artist needed a minimum of pencil movements to convey these feelings. Soyfertis – the most talented artist of his time.
There are three bears in this collection: mother Galya, grandmother Jeanne and son Antoshka. Their clothes are made of natural fabrics. Galya has green padded jacket, cotton sundress, felt boots. On the head is a down shawl, crocheted by hand. Jeanne is dressed in a drape beige coat with a fur trim. Bear Antoshka is wrapped up in a light fur coat and a crocheted shawl with black felt boots on his legs. In their hands they hold bath accessories: veniks and basins.
Teddy bear Galya gathers her son Antoshka every weekend to bathe in a bathhouse on the other side of the village. This idea occurred to me when memories of my childhood surfaced. At that time, in a distant Siberian village, my mother gathered me to a bathhouse, dressed in a warm fur coat, and tied a large shawl over my head. In the winter in deep snow, in the fall in the rain or in the summer in extreme heat, at any time of the year we went every week to wash ourselves in a hot bathhouse that was far from home.
Teddy bear Jeanne – another to represent the collection «Enjoy Your Bath». This bear reminds me of my grandmother, just as fashionable and stylish. Even going to bathe in the bathhouse, she always dressed with a needle – in a jersey coat, leather shoes and a knitted shawl. In winter, she rolled me on a basin and lowered down a hill. Basins and brooms we took in the bath from home, so we walked down the street with them.
Teddy bear Antoshka sewn in the image of those little children of the Soviet era, when they were wrapped in winter in warm coats and shawls, and warm felt boots and mittens were put on their feet and hands. And in this form, the kids barely walked out into the street, moved with difficulty, were clumsy and looked like little penguins.
