The Krasnoselsk school of artistic metalworking dates back to 1897, when in the village of Krasnoye, Kostroma province, on the initiative of the villagers themselves and the district zemstvo, a technical drawing class was founded. Such an undertaking was not accidental: jewelry craft has been known in Krasnoye since the 16th century, and the goal of the new educational institution was to give Krasnoye Selo jewelry a higher artistic level.

The head of the technical drawing class was a graduate of the Stroganov School S.G. Monastyrsky, and soon - after only seven years - on the basis of this class there was an Artistic and Crafts Training Workshop (HRUM). Among the teachers here was another graduate of the Stroganov School, K.A. Apukhtin, as well as the artist and master of filigree technique I.A. Deryabin, whose name is associated with the birth of the Krasnoselskaya filigree. In the pre-revolutionary years, students of KhRUM repeatedly exhibited their works at international exhibitions, where they received well-deserved awards and high marks from connoisseurs. It was then that the workshop, and later the school, became the true keepers of the traditions of artistic metalworking: enamel, engraving, filigree, embossing, casting, embossing - all these techniques are taught at the school to this day.

And today the works of students and graduates of KUKHOM continue to win numerous competitions and participate in jewelry exhibitions. Most of these works occupy a worthy place in the collection of the cabinet of art samples of the Krasnoselsky school. It must be said that the history of the existence of this educational institution, to some extent, began with a collection - a collection of an art and craft training workshop. It houses jewelry made of silver with natural inserts in the Art Nouveau style characteristic of the early 20th century. Cutlery, stationery, and interior items created using the techniques of chasing, engraving and casting deserve careful study, and the collection is truly adorned with exhibits made using the technique of “ground casting” and “living nature” casting. Exhibits, which combine the skill of the famous Krasnoselsky foundry workers and the high artistic training of KRUM. Among them there are works of very delicate work: these are the branches of rowan, pine, Christmas trees; fir cones; frog, lizard and fish. In general, the collection of the cabinet of art samples from the Krasnoselsky school is extremely diverse and includes several sections.

The pride of the school is the meeting teaching aids, which was acquired during the formation of an art and craft training workshop. This includes plaster reliefs, metal products, chasing, artistic ceramics from the funds of the Stroganov School, ornaments on vases, ornamental tables, works of students, copies of works by famous artists of the St. Petersburg School of Baron Stieglitz, Kaslin casting, A. Zvenigorodsky's album-collection enamels ", issued in 1892. In subsequent years, the methodological fund was replenished with collections of bone carving, stone carving, wood painting, stitching and embroidery products, as well as products of filigree and enamel craft. A special place in the collection is occupied by the products of the Krasnoselsky handicraftsmen - masters of the jewelry craft, made in the period from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. Among the exhibits: chests, boxes, casting, chasing, engraving and works related to the Orthodox religious art, including carved wooden crowns. The collection of the museum also includes the products of the Vocational School, which was organized in 1934. Here, the traditions of folk craft and the Khrum school found their continuation in jewelry, interior products and tableware. The project of the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of Education in the Field of Art and Design "Stroganov Foundation"

Today's task is to preserve these traditions and pass on the secrets of the profession to the younger generation. This is what the teachers and masters of industrial training of the Krasnoselsk College of Artistic Metalworking (KUKHOM) do.

This is the oldest and unique educational institution in our country, which trains highly qualified specialists for the jewelry industry.

The class of technical drawing at the zemstvo school of the merchant Zotov appeared in the village of Krasnoe-on-Volga near Kostroma back in 1897. It was created to enhance the artistic value of the manufactured products. The head of the classes was a graduate of the Stroganov School of Technical Drawing S.G. Monastyrsky. A few years later, in 1904, this class was transformed into the Artistic and Crafts Training Workshop of Gold and Silver Business. In the future, the educational institution changed its status several times: in the 30s, a vocational school was created, in the 40s - a technical school, and in 1957 - a school for artistic metalworking.

The teachers carefully preserve and develop the skills and techniques of teaching young masters, which were laid down more than a hundred years ago by S.G. Monastyrsky, - says the director of KUKHOM Lyudmila Bystrova. “They share their rich experience with their students, including passing on to them the secrets of the Kostroma jewelry craft, the origins of which date back to the 16th century.

At present, in KUKHOM the training of master artists is carried out in two specialties: "Decorative and applied art and folk crafts" (in directions) and "Design" (in branches).

We opened the specialty "Design" this year, - Lyudmila Vitalievna continues her story. - Our school received a license to conduct training in this area, the first set of future designers will take place in the 2011/2012 academic year. We really want to train designers who could not only create jewelry, but also equip the space around these items. This is an indicator of the highest skill! It is planned that we will train them to also create jewelry using various equipment- minting, engraving, filigree, enamel, etc. They will also master these types of work in the learning process.

The training program at the school consists of a cycle of general education, general humanitarian, socio-economic subjects, as well as special and general professional disciplines: "Composition", "Performing Arts", "Technology and Materials Science", Folk Ornament "," Drawing "," Painting ", "Sculpture", "Plastic Anatomy", etc.

Within the framework of educational program on the "Drawing" subject, students perform still life drawings with geometric bodies, ornamental relief, learn to depict the head, figure details, and a plaster figure. Training in this subject ends with drawing a living model of a person.

In painting classes, students develop a sense of color harmony. The program on the subject "Painting", as well as on the subject "Drawing", begins with a still life and ends with a depiction of living nature.

The main task of the "Sculpture" subject is to develop students' spatial perception of a volumetric form, the ability to see its constructive and plastic features.

As part of the Composition course, students master the design of various products, which are then carried out in the material.

Modeling is a kind of link between composition and performance. This course promotes the development of imagination in students by creating image objects. It also helps you learn how to work with different materials.

On the subject of "Performing Arts", students master the technique of artistic metalworking, starting with the simplest tasks and ending with the implementation of products according to their own composition.

By the way, in the 4th year all students pass the term paper "Defense of the Working Profession", according to the results of which they receive a working grade and a qualification certificate. At the same time, future specialists need to show the ability to use various techniques. Typically, work in this case corresponds to the specialization of the department where the student is trained: jewelry department - defense of the profession in jewelry, engraving department - defense of the profession of engraving, etc.

By the way, in the defense of these term papers there are always specialists, including potential employers of future graduates of the school.

Our graduates find work almost immediately after graduation, they do not stand at the labor exchange, - says the director of KUKHOM Lyudmila Bystrova with pride. - They can prove themselves both during the defense of the working profession and during the internship. We actively cooperate with the Krasnoselsky jewelry factory, the Topaz Kostroma jewelry factory, and the Krasnaya Presnya factory in the Volga region. Many students underwent practical training at these enterprises, some remained there for permanent work. By the way, our graduates not only work at large enterprises, but also start their own business. At the school, they receive all the necessary skills, they can do almost everything with their hands. They work on casting, soldering, grinding and mounting. They know all the GOST standards, all the requirements for jewelry. There is a demand for such specialists, so we are confident about the future of our graduates. Moreover, recently we have been trying to give them not only the basics of the profession, but also to teach them how to use modern technical means. So, for the second year we teach students 3D modeling using a special computer program... I am sure that with these skills they will be even more in demand as specialists in their field. These new technologies will be mastered in the specialty "Design".

The Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking is proud of its strong teaching staff. Among the teachers there are 7 members of the Union of Artists of Russia, many are actively involved in exhibition activities. Teachers strive to do everything in order to transfer their knowledge and experience to young people. And they do it very well - highly qualified specialists come out of the walls of the school.

Curiosities of the "jewelry capital" of Russia
Exhibition of works by students of the Krasnoselsk College of Artistic Metal Processing
N.B. Fedotov

Pre-revolutionary Russia was a country in many ways unlike the states of Western Europe. One of the unique features of the empire was the neighborhood of tiny, rural-style county townships and large, rich commercial and industrial villages, which was typical for the Nizhny Novgorod region. The economic life of the province seethed not in Gorbatov, Knyaginin or Makariev, but in Pavlov, Bogorodsky, Lyskov and Bolshoi Murashkin, formally subordinate to them.

Settlements similar to those listed above existed in other regions of Central Russia. In the neighboring Kostroma region, about forty kilometers southeast of the regional center, there is a working village Krasnoe-on-Volga, a small (with a population of less than eight thousand people) regional center, often and not without reason in the press referred to as the "jewelry capital" Russia.

In May 2010, the Pavlovsk Historical Museum hosted an exhibition "Curiosities" of the jewelry capital of "Russia". She talked about one of the main attractions of the Krasnoye - Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking.

The Pavlovsk Museum has long been working with masters of folk arts and crafts from different regions our country. Per last years in its halls were exhibited Seminskaya and Semyonovskaya Khokhloma, Kazakov's filigree and Balakhna lace, Rostov enamel and Msterskaya embroidery, Palekh and Kholuy lacquer miniatures. But this is a special case.

In the history of Krasnoye-on-Volga, much has something in common with the biography of Pavlov-on-Oka. They even arose almost at the same time. The first written mention of the village of Krasnoye in the Kostroma district dates back to 1569 - only four years later than Pavlov.

Like the inhabitants of Lower Poochye, the Krasnoselsk peasants have long suffered from the poor quality of local soils. It is not surprising that, like the people of Pavlov, they almost completely abandoned agriculture in the 17th century and switched to handicrafts. The choice of a specific craft was determined thanks to the county Kostroma. In the era of the first tsars from the Romanov dynasty, this Volga city was famous as one of the centers of jewelry production in Russia. Precisely by the jewelry business - fulfilling orders for local churches and making cheap silver jewelry for peasants and poor townspeople, and the inhabitants of Krasnoye took up.

Gradually, by the middle of the 19th century, Krasnoselsk artisans surpassed their Kostroma teachers. If only 12 jewelers worked in Kostroma in 1858, then in Krasnoye and neighboring villages and villages there lived at that time 27 members of the Kostroma Council of Silver Crafts.

By the end of the century before last, a whole artisanal jewelry district had formed around the village of Krasnoye, which included 51 villages in the Kostroma and Nerekhta districts of the Kostroma province. As in the Pavlovsk steel-locksmith area, in different villages and hamlets of the Krasnoselsky artisanal region, various varieties of general jewelry craft developed. For example, in Krasnoye itself, earrings, rings, pectoral crosses were made, the village of Sidorovskoye was famous for its craftsmen who created silver frames for icons and various church utensils, in the villages of Aferkovo, Varkino, Zdemirovo they collected chains for jewelry, in the village of Podolskoye they made key rings and bracelets, and in the village Aleevo - table setting items.

At the end of the 19th century, both Pooksky and Volga artisan metalworkers suffered from common problems - growing competition from factory production and the dominance of buyers (in the Krasnoselsky district they were called prasols), who robbed the craftsmen. Attempts to solve these problems were also common - both in Pavlov and in Krasnoye, attempts were made repeatedly to cooperate with handicraftsmen, to unite them in artels.

In order to support the ancient jewelry craft, to make it competitive in the conditions of the rapidly developing Russian capitalism, technical drawing classes were opened in Krasnoye in 1897. Their task was to train competent specialists who could not only copy the old centuries-old types jewelry, but also independently create completely new designs.

The first director of the new educational institution was a graduate of the Moscow Stroganov School, Sergei Grigorievich Monastyrsky.

The financial and methodological support of the administration and teachers of the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A.L. Stieglitz. A significant amount of money was received by the Krasnoselskaya training workshop thanks to the outstanding Russian artist V.D. Polenov, one of the executors of the Kostroma entrepreneur and philanthropist F.V. Chizhov, who left a substantial jackpot for the development of special educational institutions in his homeland.

In the first decades of Soviet power, the young educational institution experienced many misadventures. It was transferred to Kostroma, turned into an ordinary FZU, which trained locksmiths and turners, and only in 1934 was transformed into a professional technical school for the artistic processing of metals. In 1943, the vocational school received the status of a technical school, and in 1957 it acquired its modern name - the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metal Processing (KUKHOM).

Over the 113 years of its existence, the Krasnoselsky School has trained over 5000 jewelers. Today, its graduates work not only at the jewelry factories of Krasnoye and Kostroma, but also at the enterprises of Yakutsk, Kaliningrad, Penza, Rostov Veliky, Uglich, Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Odessa, Riga and other cities of the former USSR.

The pets of the Krasnoselsky school played a significant role in the development of artistic metalworking in our area. For example, one of the first teachers of the Pavlovsk art and craft school was Mikhail Fedorovich Averin, who had studied at the Krasnoselsk gold and silver craft workshop even before the revolution.

Olga Ivanovna Tarakanova, the founder of the Kazakovsk filigree craft, also graduated from Krasnoselsk vocational school. And this is no coincidence. In the 1930s, Krasnoe-on-Volga became the site of the revival of Russian filigree, one of the oldest forms of Russian jewelry art.

The exhibition in the Pavlovsk Historical Museum collected about a hundred graduate works of students KUKHOM. The oldest of them was made more than half a century ago, and the newest - a little over a year.

The variety of forms and techniques used by adolescents, practically children, to create small masterpieces was striking (by the way, originally, in the Middle Ages, the work that a young artisan presented at the exam for the title of master was called a masterpiece). Filigree, artistic casting, cloisonné enamel, edging, metal inlay on wood: There is no count of everything.

Figures of people, animals, and fairy-tale characters, cast in bronze or drawn from thin wire, froze in the showcases. The firebird, made of filigree, stood side by side with a funny tiger cub, and as if a cockerel that came from Pushkin's fairy tale was located in the company of steep-horned yaks and a greyhound frozen on the run.

A miniature copy of the main architectural symbol of the village - the Epiphany Church, a wonderful monument of Russian hipped roof architecture, built in 1592 with money from the boyars Godunovs, the first owners of Krasnoye, was also made using filigree techniques.

The women's jewelry presented at the exhibition was distinguished by an inexhaustible riot of imagination. Here in their theses, young jewelers, not yet constrained by the rigid framework of mass production, managed to show everything they are capable of.

Some of the works almost immediately receive a passport for jewelry of high artistic value.

Girls in the Krasnoselsky school are taught not only to create beautiful earrings, necklaces and rings, but also to wear them beautifully. This is taught in the circle operating at the school.

An important place in the process of training future masters of artistic metalworking is the art of graphics. For many years now, a common task for students in KUKHOM is the development and creation of bookplates (owner's book signs), which were also presented in the exhibition in Pavlov.

In recent years, among the works of graduates of the school, products of church themes have also appeared: panagias, icon frames, pectoral and pectoral crosses.

The Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking actively promotes the work of its pupils. Every year, the products of young jewelers from Krasnoye can be found at exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg and, of course, in Kostroma. KUKH was able to adequately represent their country at the international level, for example, at the EXPO exhibitions in Osaka and Montreal.

It is all the more annoying that the works of Krasnoselsky masters have never been exhibited on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region before. Our exhibition was designed to fill this gap.

P.S. Following the results of the exhibition "Curiosities" of the jewelry capital of "Russia" in the Pavlovsk Historical Museum, a trip of teachers of the Pavlovsk technical school of folk arts and crafts to Krasnoe-on-Volga took place. Its goal was to establish business and creative cooperation of Pavlovsk specialists in the field of artistic metalworking with a related educational institution. One of the Nizhny Novgorod travel agencies also took an interest in Krasnoye-on-Volga as a promising object of excursion trips.

The Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metal Processing is a unique educational institution that trains highly qualified specialists for the jewelry industry.

Origins

The school began its history in 1897 with simple drawing classes, created at the initiative of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, the Kostroma zemstvo and local merchants to increase the artistic value of jewelry produced in Krasnoye Selo. The origins of this craft in the region date back to the 16th century. The head of the classes was a graduate of the Stroganov School of Technical Drawing S.G. Monastyrsky. For seven years, he prepared programs, formed a staff of teachers, the merit of this leader can be considered the construction of a building for an art and craft training workshop in gold and silver business. And now the collective of the school develops the skills and methods of teaching young masters, laid down more than a century ago.

For more than a hundred years, a lot has changed, the school has turned into an educational complex with a canteen, a hostel, sports and assembly halls, a separate building of production workshops. Only remained unchanged high level training specialists in the design and manufacture of decorative and applied jewelry using precious and non-ferrous metals, synthetic and natural stones, amber, bone, leather and other materials. The Krasnoselsk school is a member of the Guild of Russian Jewelers and a constant participant in jewelry exhibitions Jeweler, gold ring Rus "," Junwex ".

Always create ...

In total, the school employs 30 teachers, 15 of them are graduates who have continued their professional education at the university and gained practical experience in jewelry production.

Today 6 teachers of the school are members of the Union of Artists of Russia and are successfully engaged in creative work, participating in regional, Russian and international exhibitions. Thus, T.N. Galkina, made using the filigree technique with hot enamels, are included in the catalogs of modern jewelry exhibitions. Together with a colleague, teacher L.N. Lovygin, she is a member of the regional art expert council on folk arts and crafts. Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, teacher of drawing A.V. Nechaev is a member of the board of the Kostroma branch of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation.

Together with teachers, students annually participate in jewelry exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kostroma. Over the past three years, their work has been awarded a dozen diplomas and thank you letters. Creativity allows students to achieve success in regional competitions "Student of the Year", "Art-Profi", "Student Spring", "Freestyle", " Star of bethlehem". Camp of youth activists "Patriot", regional and district youth campaigns "Week of Kindness", the best youth business project, competition of snow and ice figures - this is a far from complete list of events in which students show their abilities.

Demography with geography

With the introduction of the 4th generation Federal State Educational Standard, the teachers of the school actively participated in the work on drawing up new programs, a system of control and measuring instruments and updating the requirements for entrance examinations and student certification. Competitive conditions sometimes have to change drastically: the contingent of applicants in recent years, unfortunately, has not become more prepared, and the demographic failure and the availability of higher education lead to a decrease in the competition for admission. In this regard, in the first year, you have to start from scratch, and not continue your art education, for which the previous curricula were designed. Probably, this is the problem of many colleges. But for those wishing to acquire the skills of a future profession, it is simply necessary to go through an open source school, which is valuable precisely through practical experience.

For all the years of its activity, the school has trained 5 thousand specialists representing almost the whole country: the Far East, the Urals, Krasnodar Territory, Murmansk, and the central regions of Russia. And the border does not become an obstacle for the authority of the school, in which students from the countries of near and far abroad acquire knowledge. Yakutsk Jewelry Factory, Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Kaliningrad, Riga, Odessa, Kostroma - this is the geography of jobs for performers who graduated from the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking. And also the Czech Republic, Denmark, the USA ...

In this educational institution, they help not only to master a certain set of knowledge and skills, but, above all, to penetrate the fascinating and wonderful world of paints, canvases, metal and, most importantly, creative people. And those unique products that come out of the hands of masters who graduated from the school begin their life, their long history.

Student years! It's even scary to think how long ago it was! How quickly time flies. But pleasant memories always remain with us. It seems that quite recently, I, a fifteen-year-old girl who had just graduated from an eight-year-old, came to enroll in an art school.
It was the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking (KUKHOM). It is located thirty kilometers from the ancient Russian city of Kostroma.

4th year, group A, our boys-engravers

The history of this school began even before the revolution, when in 1897 a teacher came from Moscow and opened technical drawing classes in an ordinary village hut. This was the initiative of the Kostroma district zemstvo and representatives from artisans. The decision came after the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, held in 1892, where the products of Krasnoselsk craftsmen were not successful. Further, in 1904, these classes were transformed into an art and craft training workshop for gold and silver business. Especially for this educational institution, according to Benoit's project, a new building was built, aboutthe opening of which took place in the same year.

4th year, group A, our girls-jewelers

During the years of the revolution, the workshop could not resist, and only in the thirties began its revival. On its basis, a professional school was created, and in 1943 - a secondary special art school. For a long timee time, KUKHOM was the only educational institution where they taught jewelry craftsmanship. It was here that specialists were trained for all major jewelry factories. Many of them work there to this day.

Creative practice in the Vologda region

At the beginning of each school year we were sent to a collective farm. Those who studied in those years probably remember such trips! I don’t know if we provided much assistance to the collective farms, but the fact that we rested there heartily is for sure!

Vladimir Denisov

Fellow students were mostly adults and serious people. There were not many yesterday's schoolgirls like me. Of course, everyone had the same attitude to learning - at the age of 16, you more want to think not about learning. Perhaps, if I had entered there five years later, the attitude would have been completely different. But, in general, this is a controversial issue, of course. Yes, and to be honest, I was not particularly interested in jewelry making. This is probably why, unfortunately, I did not become a good specialist. But I loved drawing and painting lessons very much. In any case, studying at the school was not in vain for me.

Alexander Akhanov

Many of my fellow students worked at jewelry factories, and later organized their own jewelry workshops. Someone has his own jewelry salon... In general, well done! And I am pleased to see their names on the Internet, it is nice that I once studied with them in KUKHOM.

Now our school is thriving, and as far as I know, everything is also very popular. And the works of graduates are kept in the Krasnoselsky Museum. The museum is located in a building that until 1977 belonged to the school. And for some reason, to this very old building, I still have inexplicable feelings that cannot be expressed in words.

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