Growing up, my father collected traditional German nutcrackers that were brought out every Christmas. I wanted to give my father a unique gift for Christmas 2020 (pandemic Christmas), so I found unfinished nutcrackers at my local craft store and decided to modify them to be dressed in traditional tautiniai drabužiai.
With a background in woodworking, I was able to adapt a snowman nutcracker to represent the female Lithuanian folk dancer, and a traditional nutcracker to represent the male. Cutting, sanding, and gluing all the parts together to begin the painting process was all part of the fun. I then referenced old photographs from having been part of Los Angeles dance group Spindulys to design the pattern that would cover the majority of the nutcrackers. The design was originally inspired by snowflakes and poinsettia flowers, with traditional green and red Christmas colors. The nutcrackers are fully hand-painted and then sealed for protection. Hair and final accents are added at the very end.
With such a positive response, and a large collection of unfinished wood nutcrackers, for Christmas 2021, I decided to make them available to my friends and other small business supporters. I posted about the nutcrackers on my Instagram account @janinaandjosefina and quickly got to work following the same process I took to create the set for my father. I offered a few different color options: Linen & Gold edition, which featured linen-colored tautiniai rūbai with gold and rose gold accents, Classic Christmas edition, with shades of red and green, Frozen edition, which mimicked all of the shades of blue tautiniai rūbai I recalled seeing as a dancer, and a Poinsettia edition, that included red poinsettia flowers on nearly white tautiniai rūbai.
I continue to dream up new ideas of how traditional designs, songs, or myths and legends, can be reimagined with modern art techniques or new materials. A lietuvaitė can never have too much amber jewelry and a Lithuanian home can never have too many pieces of art inspired by our culture and our beloved Lietuva. Here’s to many more ideas to come - ačiū!