My name is Irina Slobodyanik; I was born and live in the city of Kiev, Ukraine. Fascination with beads came to me in 2009, quite by accident. Once I went to the craft store and saw how one customer has opted for a frame for a picture, which she created using cross-stitch. I loved this picture; I immediately chose the scheme of embroidery and set to work.

The second picture made me want to embroider with beads, as a small cross from a distance look like small beads. Then I wanted to make the volume picture, and I decided to learn beading, because I did not even know how to attach beads to one another, and to hide the ends of threads - it's all been a complete mystery! In the search engine, I typed the word "beads, courses" and saw the unreal beauty items, created with seed beads!

I must confess that for me it was a great revelation. I could not imagine that the beads can create such beauty! My idea of the beads was short on knowledge about what is Baubles, and on the Internet I saw a magnificent three-dimensional braided work by Albina Polyanskaya, wonderful "terry" fabulous jewelry by Irina Belinskaya, embroidery by Sherri Serafini and still a huge amount of absolutely fantastic beaded items!

And from that moment my whole life has taken a different course. All this I immediately wanted to learn. I chose the six-month course and signed up for the next lesson. The courses I was completely captivated, I learned the basic techniques of weaving, to understand how to combine them, learned to weave on elastic and thread. In parallel, I sought more information on how to weave, as well as buying interest magazines and books.

I bought and came across a Lark's book "500 Beaded Objects" and it's still my favorite book, I do not get tired for the umpteenth time to review it and always find there's something new. In my own computer, I created several folders, which collected all liked my work, I was sure that after graduation will do everything that I like it.

When I learned the basic techniques of beading on the course, I had the weight of its own interesting ideas, which I wanted to bring to life, and I began to create their own invented ornaments. So I do not have any work that I repeated for someone of my favorite artists, but the contents of folders with my adorable inspiration growing right before our eyes, and I am very pleased that I am able to constantly admire the variety of designs, styles, paints and materials.

Beading so captivated me that I was determined to do it seriously in a professional manner. I quit my job (I had a network of shops selling jewelry and items for women) and all of my time I devoted beads and creating jewelry.

The first of my works are decorations from the Ukrainian Ornament Collection. The creation of these beadworks was inspired by Ukrainian patterns created by the talented Ukrainian embroiders. I was excited by their bulk, woven by beads from one base on one strand - and I started to use multi-way of weaving, with which I was able to create fine articles.

The collection was a very diverse, as each new product I tried to come up with something more complex and interesting. These works I really love, because they were the good school for me and I have used many of the techniques for the first time for myself. With this collection, I participated in the exhibition "Magic Beads 2010", and there I discovered a great many interesting works of other masters.

The exhibition I saw the jewelry with a combination of various materials and techniques, it inspired me to create a new, more gentle and romantic jewelry made from very fine beads. So on this work, "Moonlit Night", "Russian crown", and others. I continued to use the method of multi-netting, but tried to make these products more luxurious.

The next step in my work was a combination of different materials in one operation, so there was a collection of "Wonderful Thais" where I used silk ribbons woven into the beads. Now I learned tatting with beads and kanzashi, I want to learn Irish lace and mikromakrame. All this - in order to make my products from beads more diverse, open unlimited possibilities of beads, its just an amazing ability to combine with the most diverse materials and techniques used in mixed crafts.

Great stimulus for my further development of the original is to participate in exhibitions, competitions and festivals. Particularly pleased that my work took first place in competition "Masters' Golden Hands 2010" and "Magic Beads 2010", and were awarded Bead Association "Art-beads" diplomas at the festival "Magic Beads 2010" (Kiev, Ukraine) for the original design, a creative approach to work, excellence and professionalism of the performers and the diploma for the collection "Ukrainian Ornament" at the exhibition "Colors Of The Soul" (Minsk, Belorussia).

I also participated in the exhibition "Biserfest 2009" (Moscow, Russia) and Internet competition, "Fashion Colorworks 2010" (organized by website MyLovelyBeads.com). In general, participation in events like this I think is very important for myself. Always wanted to do something else more complicated, interesting, really want to surprise and please others!

Beads for me - it is absolutely inexhaustible source of inspiration, which provides unlimited opportunities for creativity, it can be used to try to realize the most daring ideas! I was just at the very beginning and very much hope that I can implement my plan and show what a huge variety of craftwork beads can acquire new dimensions and give new opportunities for self-expression!

My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com

About author:

Irina Slobodyanik, Kiev, Ukraine
Email address:	irika-art@mail.ru
Blog (in Russian):	irika-art.livejournal.com
Beadwork gallery:	irika-art.gallery.ru