Matryoshka dolls fascinate me; even as a child I adored the lovely set of wooden, hand painted ornaments that so perfectly fit inside of one another. These Russian dolls, also known as nested dolls, were originally crafted in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin who was a folk crafts painter. It is believed the dolls were inspired by a set of Japanese wooden dolls representing Shichi-fuku-jin, the Seven Gods of Fortune. 
My first encounter with these dolls as a young girl inspired my present obsession with infinity; it was these pieces that ignited my fascination and utter astonishment over the concept of infinite. I remember opening a set belonging to a childhood friend of mine and was bemused by the fact there were several inside one another, all looking very similar. How small can these dolls get inside one another? Will they ever end? Of course, there is traditionally on 5 dolls in a set but it was the notion of an everlasting design principle the natural world seems to abide by: “similar, smaller objects within similar objects.”
I have yet to find a set of Matryoshka dolls (who knew it’d be hard to find them?) but I am determined to scope out a few flea markets and antique stores and discover these little treasures that, perhaps, influenced my interest in philosophical literature regarding the mysteries of the infinite world and the uncertainty of the never ending possibilities of life.
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