On Short Breath
Since ancient times, craftswomen have captivated with the beauty and, most importantly, the uniqueness of their highly artistic creations. It so happened that the fast-paced rhythm of life in megacities has practically pushed handcrafting out of the hobbies of modern women. Today, few can boast of true designer clothing or jewelry; they have long been replaced by inexpensive mass-produced items from the Celestial Empire, making representatives of the fair sex resemble cloned twins. Most women have forgotten, and many never knew, that handcrafting is not only a wonderful pastime but also an excellent remedy for stressful situations.
In one of the capital's schools, we found a true artisan – a craftswoman and jewelry designer, Alexandra Lysenko, who leads a club for girls, trying to instill in them an interest in creativity and share her secrets of craftsmanship.
Alexandra creates wonderful jewelry from natural stones and beads. Each piece, as she herself admits on her social media page, holds a piece of her soul and love for the process. Each piece of jewelry is a new little love.
But, as is known, such love undergoes careful selection and sorting before making a choice.
- Sasha, who initially "hooked" you on crafting?
- Of course, it was my mom. She sewed and embroidered. At first, I just watched, and then I wanted to try it myself. My debut in creativity was embroidery with floss. In childhood, I did small, simple projects, then I found a traditional shirt – an embroidered shirt online and brought it to life myself. By the way, I can sew too. I want to try myself in different areas, but over time you realize that to achieve a certain level of mastery, you need to concentrate on one thing. It's impossible to cover everything at once. Later, I decided to work with plasticized clay, but at that time it wasn't available for sale here. I had to order it from Russia; I was so captivated by this idea. I made earrings and bracelets from it – they turned out well, and many liked them. For a while, I even displayed my works for sale in stores.
- What prevented you from making your hobby commercially self-sustaining?
- The thing is that the price I set was marked up by the merchants by 100%. You could say it was for nothing. It turns out that my materials, time, and work, while their percentage is made up of thin air, and the product loses its buyer due to inflated costs. Making such a hobby self-sustaining is practically impossible. To do that, you need to set it on a stream, hire people, and "push" it to the masses, but that is no longer design or author work; it becomes ordinary mass production. Plus, doing the same product over and over is no longer interesting; I don't want to. It inevitably raises the choice between creativity and craft. I still choose creativity.
- However, such an expensive hobby does not prevent you from engaging in charity work. As far as I know, you sell your products to provide financial assistance to children with cancer and homeless animals?
- Periodically, craftswomen from our city participate in charity fairs. As a rule, 10% of the sold item is donated to a needy fund, and the remaining amount covers the costs of materials for making the craft. We usually make donations for children from large fairs and for animals from smaller ones.
- After plasticized clay, what was the next material you mastered?
- Jewelry made from copper patinated wire. I found the description of the patination process online and started bringing it to life. The process itself is quite troublesome and labor-intensive. First, you need to thoroughly beat the copper wire, burn it, then soak it in vinegar and ammonia. My hands were black and cut in places – the wire cuts the skin while working, but what stopped me was not even that, but the ammonia and vinegar fumes inhaled during processing.
Later, I was attracted by products made from natural stones on a craftswomen's website, and I wanted to try again, and to this day. I find all my ideas online, as well as descriptions of how to execute them.
- Do you have to order materials from outside again?
- Unfortunately, yes. Our markets do not have materials of the quality necessary for making jewelry. Imported materials, both beads and stones, are significantly more expensive. But the look is completely different! The better the material, the more elegant and neat the jewelry, and the more possibilities for creating almost jewelry-level work. But I do buy some things here too, and my "creative hamster" is omnivorous! If I see a nice material, I definitely buy it and drag it into my "burrow."
As a "companion" of Alexandra in creativity, it's not hard for me to imagine her home workshop filled with all sorts of boxes, containers, and bags with threads, beads, fishing lines, stones, and ribbons. Stashes of truly stunningly beautiful items that are quite difficult to part with because a lot of effort, time, and, most importantly, soul and patience have been invested in them. Often, Alexandra manages to create "on short breath" in the intervals between work and training: one row, another row. And only on weekends, comfortably settled in a chair under a bright lamp, can she enjoy the process of making a product, anticipating and envisioning the final result.
While Alexandra and I were talking, her students, sniffling in the cold school classroom, finished beaded crocodiles of non-traditional colors and, attaching them as keychains, started to gather to go home. Of course, there are no red and pink crocodiles in nature, but can one really limit a creative personality and confine them to boring, mundane frames!
In one of the capital's schools, we found a true artisan – a craftswoman and jewelry designer, Alexandra Lysenko, who leads a club for girls, trying to instill in them an interest in creativity and share her secrets of craftsmanship.
Alexandra creates wonderful jewelry from natural stones and beads. Each piece, as she herself admits on her social media page, holds a piece of her soul and love for the process. Each piece of jewelry is a new little love.
But, as is known, such love undergoes careful selection and sorting before making a choice.
- Sasha, who initially "hooked" you on crafting?
- Of course, it was my mom. She sewed and embroidered. At first, I just watched, and then I wanted to try it myself. My debut in creativity was embroidery with floss. In childhood, I did small, simple projects, then I found a traditional shirt – an embroidered shirt online and brought it to life myself. By the way, I can sew too. I want to try myself in different areas, but over time you realize that to achieve a certain level of mastery, you need to concentrate on one thing. It's impossible to cover everything at once. Later, I decided to work with plasticized clay, but at that time it wasn't available for sale here. I had to order it from Russia; I was so captivated by this idea. I made earrings and bracelets from it – they turned out well, and many liked them. For a while, I even displayed my works for sale in stores.
- What prevented you from making your hobby commercially self-sustaining?
- The thing is that the price I set was marked up by the merchants by 100%. You could say it was for nothing. It turns out that my materials, time, and work, while their percentage is made up of thin air, and the product loses its buyer due to inflated costs. Making such a hobby self-sustaining is practically impossible. To do that, you need to set it on a stream, hire people, and "push" it to the masses, but that is no longer design or author work; it becomes ordinary mass production. Plus, doing the same product over and over is no longer interesting; I don't want to. It inevitably raises the choice between creativity and craft. I still choose creativity.
- However, such an expensive hobby does not prevent you from engaging in charity work. As far as I know, you sell your products to provide financial assistance to children with cancer and homeless animals?
- Periodically, craftswomen from our city participate in charity fairs. As a rule, 10% of the sold item is donated to a needy fund, and the remaining amount covers the costs of materials for making the craft. We usually make donations for children from large fairs and for animals from smaller ones.
- After plasticized clay, what was the next material you mastered?
- Jewelry made from copper patinated wire. I found the description of the patination process online and started bringing it to life. The process itself is quite troublesome and labor-intensive. First, you need to thoroughly beat the copper wire, burn it, then soak it in vinegar and ammonia. My hands were black and cut in places – the wire cuts the skin while working, but what stopped me was not even that, but the ammonia and vinegar fumes inhaled during processing.
Later, I was attracted by products made from natural stones on a craftswomen's website, and I wanted to try again, and to this day. I find all my ideas online, as well as descriptions of how to execute them.
- Do you have to order materials from outside again?
- Unfortunately, yes. Our markets do not have materials of the quality necessary for making jewelry. Imported materials, both beads and stones, are significantly more expensive. But the look is completely different! The better the material, the more elegant and neat the jewelry, and the more possibilities for creating almost jewelry-level work. But I do buy some things here too, and my "creative hamster" is omnivorous! If I see a nice material, I definitely buy it and drag it into my "burrow."
As a "companion" of Alexandra in creativity, it's not hard for me to imagine her home workshop filled with all sorts of boxes, containers, and bags with threads, beads, fishing lines, stones, and ribbons. Stashes of truly stunningly beautiful items that are quite difficult to part with because a lot of effort, time, and, most importantly, soul and patience have been invested in them. Often, Alexandra manages to create "on short breath" in the intervals between work and training: one row, another row. And only on weekends, comfortably settled in a chair under a bright lamp, can she enjoy the process of making a product, anticipating and envisioning the final result.
While Alexandra and I were talking, her students, sniffling in the cold school classroom, finished beaded crocodiles of non-traditional colors and, attaching them as keychains, started to gather to go home. Of course, there are no red and pink crocodiles in nature, but can one really limit a creative personality and confine them to boring, mundane frames!
