Kargopol clay toy making is a traditional craft, the most recognizable and famous brand of Kargopol. Over time, the methods and means of making and decorating toys have changed. Forms of the toys go back to the old times, have a symbolic meaning and retain the connotation of ancient beliefs.

The Kargopol toy represents single figurines, holidays, scenes from village life, as well as fairy-tale characters – a mythical creatures Polkan and Berehynia, toys in the form of birds. Kargopol clay toy takes one of the first places among Russian folk crafts toys, thanks to the masters Ivan Druzhinin, Ulyana Babkina and the dynasty of potters-toy makers Shevelevs.

An unique art of Kholmogory bone carving has been flourishing for more than 400 years. Since ancient times, the northerners have harvested seals and gathered “fish tooth” (walrus fangs) and walrus bone in the polar seas. Mammoth fossilised bone was collected on the Arctic Ocean shores.
Expensive ivory was brought from abroad to fill the needs of bone carvers. A simple tube cow bone was beginning to look like a noble one in the hands of skilled craftsmen.
The bone was carved all over the north: from Arkhangelsk to Solvychegodsk and Veliky Ustyug. However, Kholmogory, the birthplace of great Lomonosov, became the center of the bone carving craft.

At the end of the 19th and early 20th century the women's clothing set with a sarafan remained traditional in the Russian North. The sarafan set consisted of a shirt, one or more skirts, and an apron. A belt, a scarf (or shawl), headwear and shoes were mandatory attributes of the outfit. An important part of the festive sarafan set was shoulder clothing: korotena (or dushegreya – a sleeveless jacket), epanechka (a mantle), shugai (a short jacket). In additions there were neck and chest ornaments made in various shapes and designs and jewelry – earrings, rings, bracelets.

Gold embroidery craft was widely spread in Arkhangelsk region. Clerical clothing was embroidered with gold threads. Monasteries in Shenkursk, Solvychegodsk, Kargopol, and Sumsky Posad were the centers of gold embroidery craftsmanship. Gold embroidery in the north was done as early as the 16th-17th centuries when the gold thread was brought to Arkhangelsk from abroad. However, gold sewing became more widespread in the 18th century, which has to do with the development of domestic production of gold and silver threads.

The Arkhangelsk North is a treasury of oral creativity of the Russian people, it is known as the birthplace of great poets. Scientists have long noted that the Russian North gave its own northern versions of the all-Russian fairy tales. The tales are so distinctive and so vividly reflect the colors of the north, the personality, life and work of the northerners that they inspired works of professional creators.

It was the origins of northern fairy tale that nourished the creativity of innumerous unique first-class writers such as Mikhail Prishvin, Boris Shergin, Stepan Pisakhov.

Arkhangelsk region is called the richest treasury of folklore.

The northern peasants were not only farmers, hunters and fishermen – in their spare time they “engaged in crafts which were meant to preserve epic songs”. Weaving nets, making equipment for hunting and fishing, tailoring and shoemaking skills gave them the opportunity to tell and listen to bylinas (epic poems) for hours.

It was said that bylinas are “told” or “sung”. But they were not just sung, they were performed in the recitative style. Each storyteller considered himself obliged to sing the bylina as he heard it himself, traditionally.

Tetera means “sun in the house”, so on the day of the spring equinox, when winter and summer converge, in the villages of Kargopol people begin to bake teterki – crullers made of dough rolled into bundles. It is laid out in the form of spirals, lattices, circles, plants and birds. The sun appears which means spring is coming in a hurry and pushing the winter away...

Housewives baked the northern ritual cookies for the day of the spring equinox. Children ran to hillocks with it to call out the spring. They climbed higher, stretched their teterki to the sun and called for it with ringing voices: “High sun, show yourself! High sun, dress up.”

The first commercial seaport of Russia was founded in 1584 in Arkhangelsk. An active trade fair with foreigners began here. Because of this cinnamon and sugar appeared in the Russian North, and with the merging of Pomor and European traditions, a beautiful Arkhangelsk kosulya was born!

Traditions of ceremonial Pomor and Leshukonskoe kosulys intertwined in this kosulya, but now with the addition of European spices. Arkhangelsk kosulya has received well-deserved attention and still catches tourists’ eye.