Vladimir Potapov

In Russia, like everywhere in the world, to give gifts is an old good tradition that has been having its second birth in our days. With the country’s transition to free market, the necessity to brush up one’s memory and start making gifts to business partner, to boss has become as pressing as it has ever been. Everyday occasions have also remained important. In their turn, foreign partners of Russian businessmen have begun asking themselves a question: what gifts people choose and how they are generally given in today’s Russia that is changing so fast? Some even would not mind becoming eccentric enough to give them to their friends "the Russian way".
More often than not gifts are presented in Russia with other people being around. This makes the whole procedure a real ritual with assigned roles of gift giver, presentee ("hero of the occasion") and witnesses. In contrast to other countries, gifts in Russia are usually given unpacked and they are not shown in public. That is the way to stress: the gift itself is not as much important as the very demonstration of one’s liking and attentiveness. There is also a certain tact with respect to those, who cannot afford expensive gifts: generosity demonstrated by other gift givers may put them in an awkward position.
However, these rules can be ignored, if the situation requires it. In any case it is much better to rely on one’s own feelings as well as on the nature and quality of relations with real people than to be guided by something once read or heard somewhere. Sometimes foreign guests make a blunder: for example, it happens, when they greet hosts with strong handshakes and embraces believing for some reason that this is a "Russian habit", an accepted norm. But people just do not want to disappoint them and prefer to tolerate their abundant expression of emotions with patience.
Choosing gifts is not a simple matter, however pleasant it is. At present, Russia’s gift business is really booming. There are a lot of specialty stores with a wide range of goods: the choice is enormous and it is extremely difficult to make up one’s mind. Fortunately enough, advanced technologies are ready to help: the Internet shopping.

Director of the Dedushka Odarim Store Irina Frodinskaya

We asked Irina Frodinskaya, the director of one of Moscow’s most popular Internet gift store Dedushka Odarim, to tell us about her business. And here is her story:

– The idea to open an Internet gift store was born two years ago, although I felt the desire to have my own business much earlier. I wanted to make it close to my interests as much as possible, to make it useful and in demand on the market. As the experience shows, the choice of business direction was right. Now we have quite a few patrons.
Advantages of the Internet shopping are well-known: it saves time and efforts. Besides, we provide complex services: gift packing, flowers, delivery, personal congratulations both in verses and prose. We fulfill practically any gift order.

"Saxophone", panel. Author Bakhva Mekvabidze. Dimensions: 30 cm high, 20 cm wide. Author’s tools. Bronze, copper, brass, cupronickel

Gifts are delivered to client’s office or home, mainly, by courier services. This ensures high reliability. Thanks God, we have not had any complaints from our clients so far. Payments in Moscow are made after the order is fulfilled and the item is delivered. Clients from Russian regions and foreign buyers should transfer money to the store account in advance.
Quality of goods is carefully checked before dispatching them. Gifts, you know, should bring happiness and even the slightest displeasure of clients is inadmissible! We assume the full responsibility and, if the item is damaged while being delivered, we are ready to pay our client back the total cost of the order.
The specific feature of our store is that we show author’s originals only. Every day we have a choice of over 200 items. Each of them is a work of art, in a sense. We try to select original works that have something peculiar about them. Today, more than 300 authors are cooperating with us.

"Bicycle", rack for business cards. Author Bakhva Mekvabidze. Dimensions: 23x25x9.5 cm. Author’s tools. Copper, brass, cupronickel

Since they are originals, many items have no copies whatsoever and, therefore, it is just impossible to single out a sales leader among them. Decorations, women’s accessories, small-scale sculptures of animals, lamps are very popular. The same is true for wall clock, wall plates, carafes, paintings, hand-made toys, repoussage...
The gift list also includes metal that is quite popular because it is a durable and effective material for hand-made items. Metal artistic processing occupied a prominent place even in ancient Russia, when such things as enamel, filigree, gold and silver blacking were created and perfected. And today items with enamel, fine flowery filigree are highly valued. Decorative forged items have gained much in popularity too, although initially forging had a very limited use.
Judging by our experience, the most popular metal-made gifts are decorations, accessories, engravings, beakers, cigarette cases, statuettes, sculptures of mythological heroes, animal figurines and portrait sculptures.

"Violin", sculpture. Author Bakhva Mekvabidze. Dimensions: 12.5 cm high, 11.5 cm wide, 28 cm long. Author’s tools. Copper, marble

When choosing a gift, our clients attach much importance not only to decorative features but also to quality of metal that an item is made of. Preference is given, mainly, to gold, silver, bronze and tin. Gold, the warmest metal because of its color, should be especially mentioned. Gifts made of gold are charged with positive emotions demonstrating esteem and respect. That is why I think that gold will forever remain the most popular gift metal.
At present, it is fashionable to combine materials of different properties and textures. This way compositions that are unique by their beautiful appearance can be made of metal, which is harmoniously combined with stone or wood.
In my view, today it is difficult to talk about stable Russian traditions of choosing a gift, although the breadth of the Russian soul remains its permanent component. Of great importance is the originality of an item, its decorative value. The gift shows not only one’s personal attitude, but also gift giver’s aesthetic passions and taste. In modern Russia the most common gifts are paintings and household goods (tableware, home appliances). A special attention is paid to their design, novelty of the very idea and contemporaneity of their theme.

"Gramophone", sculpture. Author Bakhva Mekvabidze. Dimensions: 17 cm high, 14 cm wide. Author’s tools. Copper, brass, iron

There is a category of "neutral" gifts that can be presented to anyone regardless of age and social status. These are flowers, works of art and artistic handicraft business, specially designed books, stationeries. Hard liquors can be included in this category but, as a rule, they are presented to males while ladies are given candies in boxes and fancy souvenirs.
If a client starts doubting when choosing a gift, we are always ready to provide him with additional information: more detailed photos, more precise data on color, texture, size. We practice an individual approach and we want to make our clients happy with their choice.
If clients have no time to look for gifts even on our site, they can simply call us and express their wishes. Our consultants will make a selection free of charge and offer the most appropriate sets of gifts. 

T

he word "fashion" can be defined in two ways. Fashion is something that at certain time is widespread the most, enjoys the greatest popularity and recognition among most people. But there is another definition as well: fashion is a short-lived domination in certain circles of these or those tastes that are demonstrated by exterior forms of life. Fashion’s typical features are systematic change and shortness of time.
But people are seeking a single harmonious form, exemplary model, i.e. classics that will always please and delight them by elegance and adequacy, bring about emotional comfort and well-being. As for the feeling of reliability, nothing can be compared with artistic metal. Skilled craftsmen managed to get perfect works by applying many processing methods and using different metals, enamels, semi-precious stones. Metal has wonderful properties. It can be smelted, cast, pressed, drawn, twisted, engraved, blackened. It can be coated with enamel and tinted in different ways.
That is why the Russian traditional handicraft business of metal’s artistic processing is still popular:

The Zlatoust steel-plate engraving, city of Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region. The art of steel-plate engraving dates back to the early 19th century as cold steel and, first of all, saber blades were decorated. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century a wide range of new items became available: tableware, paper-cutting knives, decorative dishes. The traditional methods of metal processing in Zlatoust are engraving, etching, inlays with gold and silver, gilding and silvering combined with blueing.

The Kasly artistic casting, cities of Kasly and Kusa, Chelyabinsk region. The craft of cast iron artistic moulding sprang up at the Cast Iron Plant founded in Kasly by merchant Ya. Korobkov in 1747. The artistic moulding was developed there in the early 19th century. Decorative sculptures were especially famous. A complicated technique of moulding and forming items with subsequent manual finishing, i.e. stamping, was used at Kasly’s plant. Its artistic moulding shop has been in operation since 1934. The Kusa Iron-Melting Plant started artistic moulding in 1883. Kusa-made furniture such as tables, chairs, bookshelves was far-famed.

The Pavlov metal items, city of Pavlov-on-Oka, Nizhegorod region. The emergence of metal processing craft in Pavlovo dates back to the 16th century. Knives, arms, locks, including those with figured carving and secrets, tableware were made there. At present, a link to the craft’s traditions is preserved through producing knives with decorative finishing. There is also a production of jewelry with enamels.

The Tula artistic metal, city of Tula. The Tula metal processing handicraft works were developed in the 17th century. During that time there was a handicraftsmen’ settlement or the so-called armory village. At the beginning of the 18th century the first Russian armory plant was built in Tula. It developed artistic methods of metal processing to decorate arms: casting, nielloing, engraving, stamping, plaid relief. A unique technique of steel processing, the so-called "diamond facet", was worked out there. Tula samovars were very famous in Russia. Even at present the Tula armory plant carefully preserves the tradition of arms’ artistic finishing.