Khokhloma Painting Semyonov

Khokhloma looks like gold and contains none. Turned wooden bowls and spoons are primed, rubbed with a metallic powder - tin historically, aluminium now - painted with grass, berries and curling stems in red and black, varnished with drying oil and then baked, and the heat turns the varnish amber so the silver ground reads as gold underneath it. The technique came out of the Volga forests around the seventeenth century, possibly from icon painters using a similar trick to imitate gilding cheaply, and it took its name from the village where the ware was traded rather than made. Semyonov is the main centre now, with a factory that still turns and paints by hand, a museum with historical pieces and some enormous display objects, and workshops where you can watch the stages. Nearby Semyonov also makes matryoshka dolls in a distinct local style with a big flower on the apron.

What you actually see

• The false gold - a silver ground turned gold by baked varnish, with no gold used.
• The grass and berry patterns - red and black painting over the metallic ground.
• The factory floor - turning, priming, painting and firing done by hand in stages.
• The Semyonov matryoshka - the local doll style with a large apron flower.

When to go

All year. Two hours. Factory tours are booked ahead and run on weekdays.

Honest expectations

Tours are in Russian and need booking; the factory does not run at weekends. Much khokhloma sold in tourist markets elsewhere is printed film on wood rather than painted. Semyonov is a small town with limited facilities.

Nearby

Nizhny Novgorod is about an hour and a half south; Gorodets is west on the Volga.