Like most folk arts in Russia, this art form is named after the village that specializes in the technique, a town in the Ural Mountains named Kusa. These pictures are formed on a marble base, and are created with multiple, staged, layers of crushed precious and semi-precious stone. Lapis, jade, serpentine, citrine, rhodonite, malachite, quartz crystal and many other stones are used.
Every painting is unique and charming, showing outdoor scenes in every season.
Many arts in Russia were formerly subsidized by the government and no longer are. Consequently, economic pressures may make these art forms very rare in the future.