Matryoshka dolls

Matryoshka dolls are famous in Russia, and such a lovely concept too. I knew we had to make some for our ‘Russia week’, but I wanted to make them entirely from scratch, using very readily available materials. So I came up with a nest of cones that could be painted with dolls.

I made my own set of dolls first, so that I could show my preschooler what we were aiming for. He was really excited as we had read ‘The Littlest Matryoshka’ – see my post on books for Russia week. I made the cones by drawing 4 different sized circles (I used objects I found around the house – glasses and bowls – for templates). I cut these circles out and then chopped a segment out of them. I folded one flap of the circle round and glued it on top of the other. I made sure that each cone fitted into the next biggest one. I drew templates for my preschooler to cut and copy.

Once the cones were made, then it was time to decorate them. I went for a fairly conventional looking set of Matryoshka dolls, my son for a more ‘modern’ take! He was so pleased with the result!

Here are the links to the supplies we used. Please note that these are affiliate links, which means that if you purchase the items here I get a small commission at no cost to you.