My name is Apollinaria Koprivnik, I was born and studied in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. A few years ago, while in magic Prague, I met a man-of-my-life, got married and moved to the ancient city of Maribor, in Slovenia. Here I continued my studies and live now. I love this city with all my heart, and now it's one of my sources of inspiration.
Every year, creativity acquires new features, but no one wants to forget the stages of the path and most importantly, the very beginning. It's always interesting to remember how it all began. Earlier I couldn't even imagine that I would completely find myself in beading. The random events led to the series of ideas and experiments, attempts to work in different techniques and with different materials, but I'm true to the beads.
My wedding dress was completely designed by my mother and me and the belt was embroidered with beads and pearls. I watched all the stages of creating the dress and the belt and saw how something beautifully real comes from nothing. Of course, all the moments were very interesting for me: you pickup beads on the needle, attach them, go back, string beads again and so on, until the pattern comes to life... All this fascinated me and I kept that in my mind.
After a while, I decided to try the techniques I already knew in creating jewelry. This was in early 2011. Without basic skills, without a clear idea of what I want to see in the end, I started my experiment. It still doesn't end, but it has made new turns and taken new features. Previously, I did not notice a tendency to a certain style, but gradually, from one piece of jewelry to another, I feel that I want to say about something meaningful in my work. And I understand how I want to express it.
The material itself dictates to me what to do, I assemble it into the whole one to let it tell its story. I like using Swarovski elements and beads of different shapes in my works. Due to the fact that I'm a member of the amateur group of BeadSmith company designers, I often receive samples of new types of beads for testing the coatings and possibilities of material.
It's very inspiring and helps invent new forms of woven details, some of which become parts of jewelry items and then appear in tutorials. I really like to play with shapes and color combinations. Sometimes illogical and non-standard at first glance solutions appear in the process, which acquire an interesting and fresh sound.
A big step in my creative work became the opening of my small studio, which I called "Beaded Architecture"; there I can devote myself entirely to creating jewelry. When I'm there, I completely immerse myself in my favorite work because it has long been for me not just a job, but a lifestyle. I'm an architect by education, and I think this sometimes helps me come up with compositions, adjust the proportions and select color combinations.
It seems to me that beads can evoke different emotions and having rich history it becomes something very important... Perhaps a tool for expressing one's emotions, thoughts, feelings; beads can be implemented new way every time.
When people ask me about my sources of inspiration, the answer is simple: this is undoubtedly the world around me, nature, events, people, and mood. And, of course, the material itself because sometimes one stone can light sparks of inspiration and immerse in its world. I very much like to use woven elements in my works, to process basic techniques in my own way, to search an interesting solution for them.
I consider it very important that in 2016, together with three other beadweavers, Anna Kurtova, Galina Dietrich and Julia Rybakova, I first organized and conducted the contest "The Art of Weaving" (artbeading.ru), which I hope will now become a pleasant annual tradition. The competition is dedicated to jewelry made entirely in the technique of beaded weaving without using embroidery or other techniques. It was very nice to see how many amazing masters took part in this holiday, many new and bright ideas and many creative discoveries!
In general, all contests are very helpful for the development of our own capabilities because you always want to take a step forward, raise your skills to a new level, try to embody a complicated idea, and do something unusual. They inspire, let artists knew each other, help communicate and share skills and experience. There are a lot of contests with different subjects, you just need to choose one that finds a response in your soul, which helps create something special. So dare!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Apollinariya Koprivnik, Maribor, Slovenia | |
| Email: | pikapolina@gmail.com |
| Website: | www.pikapolina.com |
| Blog: | livemaster.com/pikapolina |
| Etsy Shop: | etsy.com/people/pikapolina |
| Facebook: | facebook.com/apollinariya.koprivnik |
