The family business of the Namdakovs presents a unique collection of designer dolls.
Dasha’s relatives have been fond of this art for more than 10 years, the first doll appeared in 2005. For all the time, more than fifty dolls have been created, and all of them are sold to private collections. Before the Namdakovs have time to complete the work, she already has a buyer.
And only when Dashi decided that there would be an exhibition, his relatives “saved up” material for the exposition – all the dolls were made in 2015
The elder Namdakovs have eight children, all of them, except for Dasha, live in Ulan-Uda. People are very creative – the surname belongs to the ancient family of blacksmiths-darkhans “Darhate”, which gave the world famous jewelers, craftsmen and artists. The whole family is working on dolls – Dasha draws a sketch, a simple black-and-white pencil sketch, sends it from distant London by e-mail, and the family is already embodying it.
The workshop is located in the parental home, where their children come to work every day … and parents look after their grandchildren and see their grandchildren, and the work is done together 
“My fascination with dolls began when I was presented with a book with photographs of author’s art dolls,” says Dorjima’s older sister. “The whole family decided: why not try yourself in the role of a make-up artist, a seamstress, an artist and a fashion designer. Make-up, for example, is applied with acrylic paints, in clothes we use fabrics, lace, which we weave ourselves, leather – we thin it to a state of weightlessness. Then we decorate everything with beads, feathers, braid, applique. ”
It is impossible to take your eyes off these dolls – grace, beauty, peace and dignity. And what hairstyles …
A thin crochet, one strand at a time, implants the yak’s hair into a head molded from plastic, and then beauty is created from braids decorated with beads, ribbons, braid. This is a very delicate job.
As a result, a doll takes from one to three months, but like every master, the creators are critical of the next masterpiece: “If we didn’t sell the work, we would always like to finish something, change something,” smiles sister Dorjima – “And so I send them to different parts of the world, and we get an incentive to create again.”
The Ulger exhibition is being held in Irkutsk at the Victor Bronstein Gallery of Contemporary Art.
The success is huge – there are no indifferent spectators. So my adult son, who is now there on a business trip, visited this exposition and, being far, far from the topic of dolls, received a culture shock
“My parents are peasants, but my father is also a Buddhist artist. Not an artist by profession, he always painted, carved wood for Buddhist temples. Only a believer can be such an artist. All the upbringing in the family focused the children – and there are eight of us – specifically for artistic creativity. We all sculpted, carved wood, painted, weaved wool, minted metal. They sat in a circle and weaved, for example, a carpet. The father gave a certain theme, and each weaved his own part of the overall pattern in his own way. In the same way, they drew: each, to the best of his ability, performed that fragment of the overall picture that he could handle. So I have always dreamed of being an artist. ”
