In 1929, after the closure of the Dormition Convent, the museum received many artifacts, including icons, fabrics, vestments, and books. Some of them were made in rare, unusual techniques. For instance, in the décor of the presented orarion straw plays an important role.

Straw has long been used as a material for weaving baskets and rugs, making hats, toys, shoes and other items. In the mid-19th century, there was a fashion for everything “natural”; “rustic” motifs became popular among urban residents even more than in the villages themselves. One of such fashionable hobbies was straw embroidery.

The most common technique of straw embroidery included the following steps: the straw was steamed, cut into thin strips, smoothed out and used in the same way as threads. The embroiderers had to act quite quickly while the material remained wet and did not lose elasticity.

In the case of this orarion, a different, rarer method was used. Straw stalks served as the basis for the drawing: they were laid out on top of a dense white fabric and “sewn” over with woolen threads. At first glance, it could be hard to see the original lining under the image of a curved shoot with leaves and flowers.

The item was created by the nuns of the Dormition Convent. At the turn of the 20th century, when Mother Varvara, born as Vera Alexandrovna Tikhomandritskaya, became abbess, there were about 200 people in the monastery. Soon the abbess “saw the ignorance… in the sisters, who were mostly almost or completely illiterate, or could only read without being able to write.” At the same time, they were all hard workers and skilled needlewomen. Many were able to earn a living by creating items using straw embroidery after being evicted from the monastery.

Oraria are worn during divine services by deacons and subdeacons. At the same time, deacons wear them on the left shoulder so that one end of this long narrow stole descends to the chest and the other to the back, as a sign of symbolic acceptance of the grace-giving gifts of the priest. Subdeacons do not yet have such gifts, so they bring the ends up over the shoulders, which forms a cross in the back.