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Making Ukrainian dolls

Making Ukrainian dolls

Ira Buch, Ukrainian national and current junior at The Hotchkiss School, led a traditional doll-making workshop Wednesday, May 8.

Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — Ira Buch, a Ukrainian student at The Hotchkiss School, showed a group of children how to make traditional Ukrainian dolls at the Scoville Memorial Library Wednesday afternoon, May 8.

With backup from Caroline Burchfield, Buch demonstrated how to make the simple, colorful “motanky” dolls from available fabric — in this case, an old tablecloth and some ribbon.

As the group worked, she explained that the dolls are meant to protect the household from evil spirits.

The dolls do not have faces.

Asked why, Buch said “a face could annoy the spirits.”

Buch was a natural with the small children, asking them about what they like to do and putting them at ease.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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