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My name is Lyudmila Gubinova, I live in a small town of Izyum in Kharkov region in Eastern Ukraine. Since my childhood, I was a creative person: I was fond of drawing, knitting, crocheting, and needlework. I've burned pictures on wood, made paintings of straw and other crafts from natural materials. In general, I have done everything on that lacked imagination.

In my youth I wanted to be not like the others, so I was happy to any piece of fabric that happened to get into my hands - I immediately replenished my wardrobe inventing and sewing a new thing. I was so fascinated by this occupation that I graduated sewing courses and after that - courses on modeling and knitting.

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Now I'm fascinated by felting, but beading and jewelry making is still in the first place, I don't have enough time to do sewing, knitting and felting - it's a pity! My husband jokes about it: all Gemini (my birthday sign is Gemini) want to do everything, but do not follow through. That's the whole truth: I might have 5-6 started and unfinished projects and it's not the fact that one of them is completed before I start another...

A big role in that I started making bead jewelry, played my personal acquaintance with Albina Polyanskaya. I first met her on the Internet, but when I got to visit her (Albina lives in Kharkov, and our cities are close to each other), I realized that the beads was what I needed! When you hold Albina's beadworks in your hands, there are no words to express admiration! And you begin to understand that beads allow limitless possibilities in creative self-expression. When I showed Albina my first works, I heard something that made me move on, "Go ahead, keep going, you can do it!"

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In the beginning, I was completely frustrated and even looking at the simplest beadworks I couldn't realize how to create them. In the process of getting beadweaving techniques I wanted to learn making everything that I liked in my idols' works, so the stylistic features of some individual artists in my early bead items are visible quite clearly. Now that everything is passed stage, I always want to make something by my own. I still admire the beadwork by Albina Polyanskaya, Angelika Motzkin, Irina Belinskaya, Natalia Busheva, Angelica Susoenkova, Olga Shumilova, Anna Braginskaya, Sue Horine, Sherry Serafini, Jamie Cloud Eakin, - I can list the artists whose works I love for a long time!

Ideas for jewelry come to me in different ways; some elements are often seen in my dreams. Sometimes, when I see a very interesting decoration I keep it in my mind, and over time I see the continuation in the little things around me, and mentally "recycle" everything I saw, and put them all together. Those way interesting images appear from which my imagination goes further in the future. As a result of something, it would seem, has long been invented, a brand new is being created, not what was originally planned.

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So I do not even try to draw sketches, and can only sketch on paper some detail in order not to forget to use it in the process. I like to work mixing techniques and materials: beads, plastic, metal accessories, leather, and textiles; in general, I don't limit myself when I want to add something to a piece something unexpected. Several years ago at one of the Kiev's Exhibitions I met Natalia Balitskaya, and she taught me the basic techniques of ganutell, a Maltese art of making flowers, so I fell in love with it.

Now, when I'm tired to weave with beads, I make jewelry in this technique. In the summer of 2013 I was fascinated with soutache, and I'm resting working with it, too. As a creative person, I cannot pass by those places where you can get any materials for my future items: I can use everything since old brooches from flea markets to materials in crafts stores. I think that you need to have at hand everything and the more - the better; and most luxurious gifts for me are materials for creativity.

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I have participated in many craft shows, contests and exhibitions. My debut took place in Moscow in 2009; it was an exhibition "Bead Design. New Wave". Since then there have been exciting events in Hamburg (Germany), Minsk (Belorussia) and Prague (Czech Republic). Many times I've entered Kiev's and Moscow (Russia) exhibitions, I've got publications in many bead magazines.

I'm planning to create series of beadwork in free-form which is my favorite, and to improve my skills in working with soutache. At this stage I'm not very interested in participating in any competitions, I want to make the only jewelry to which I feel inspiration. In addition, I spend a lot of time on making jewelry for sale because beading turned from a hobby to a means to make money for living. It's a pity that the sales are not as often as I want, however, it does not matter, and the most important and the main thing are: I do love what I do.

My beaded jewelry
 
My soutache jewelry
 
My ganutell jewelry

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