However, wood was used not only for items used for daily domestic needs. There are abundant examples of wood sculptures. These involve a lot of religious scenes: crosses, pietas, Biblical saints. The folk artists portraying saints used to interpret religious motifs in their own way, reflecting the typical characteristics of the local villagers, their social status, lifestyle and environment. Saints often used to be portrayed with peasant clothing and shoes — jackets, skirts, scarves and clogs.
These sculptures also used to be painted, mostly using oil paint to highlight the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, lips and eyes. Such attributes as the nimbus, halo or a crown used to be bronzed, imitating gold or silver colour.
Traditional sculpture includes wooden masks used for Pancake Tuesday celebration or during wedding rituals, etc. Masks usually represent negative or funny types of people (greedy merchants or pranksters), as well as fantastic beings (devils and witches). Wooden masks often used to be decorated with sheep wool or horse hair.
Folk sculptors, the so called “god makers”, usually were peasants with little or no land, carpenters, blacksmiths, woodworkers or musicians with loads of skill and artistic talent, but no education. Wood carvers used to begin their career already in the young age while herding animals.