prosphoras

Wheel thrown bread stamps with hand-carved symbols.

Bread is holy to Bulgarians.

Kneading ritual bread and decorating it are essentially an enchantment: the process symbolizes a wish for health, prosperity, happiness, love... Breadmaking is truly a kind of spellcraft, a conjuring of good and protection of evil through symbolic images.

In the past, it was a common practice to stamp holy symbols onto the ritual breads for various holidays and celebrations using stamp tools called prosphora. In large parts of the country, they were quite common and each household had its own prosphora. For household stamps, the shapes were not strictly designated and craftsmen would enrich the symbolism using their own imagination and faith.

For this series of prosphora stamps, I used elbetitsa as a base ornament.

Elbetitsa is an ancient ornament which can be found through centuries on Bulgarian embroidery, on buildings, staves, wooden wedding wine jugs and chests, baby cradles, carriages, ceramic objects, as well as in the decoration of holiday bread. The double cross, also known as Bulgarian cross, is etched on for health, love, fertility, prosperity; it symbolized harmony in the world and in people's behavior; it protects and heals.