My name is Maia Otkidach; I was born and grew up in the small town in the Ukraine, and now live in Zabrze in Poland. In my early childhood my mother instilled in me a love for the arts and crafts. Among my favorite toys was a set of postcards with reproductions of paintings of the St. Petersburg's Hermitage, which I could watch for hours. My mother was a beautiful cross-stitch embroiderer and taught it to me, and I've done that craft for a while.
When I was about 10-12 years old, a friend of mine and I we got into the hands a women's magazine with bead stringing patterns. We didn't have such a material for creativity in our provincial town, and we cut Grandma's necklace made from the Czech beads. Of course, then I had unpleasant conversation with her, but my first beadworks turned out beautiful!
Later life rewrote seemingly well-defined scenario - I became an engineer although dreamed of studying arts and art history, and I forgot about beads for years to come. And then my life suddenly made a turn, it was just like in the proverb, "There was a blessing in disguise." In hot June 2012 I broke my leg and it was in a cast, and during this forced inactivity occurred to me, a crazy idea - as I thought then - came to me: I'll make jewelry.
It started simply - a pin, a ring and a bead, then it was a great introduction to microscopic (as I thought then) and huge (as I think today) beads 6/0. But the most important thing was that the door to the secret garden was found! My beading universities were beading books (my favorite authors - Diane Fitzgerald and Sabine Lippert) and the hours spent at the computer in the study of techniques, patterns and tutorials. A lot of useful things on bead embroidery I learned from Maria Vukolova and Tatiana Panina.
A great source of inspiration for me are the works of art - it can be a picture, an architectural object, and the individual elements of the decor - whether painted on a plate or an old tile. For example, stained glass with stylized roses by the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired me to design Art Nouveau Roses Necklace.
New creative ideas come always unexpected and often radically alter the original project. I was going to enter Fashion Colorworks 2015 with a completely different beadwork, but by chance in May I visited the Castle Museum in the village of Golukhow (Poland, near the center of the triangle Lodz - Wroclaw - Poznan), formerly belonging to Izabella Dzialynska (daughter of Prince Adam Czartoryski).
The museum features not only the former owner's collections of paintings, furniture, tapestries and antique vases, but also the old park with many rare trees and shrubs because Isabella was also fond of dendrology.
In the park I was caught in the rain and I hid under an old chestnut tree, which buds which already pink and red. I looked at the stream of water flowing from leaves and suddenly felt very light, fresh and slightly sweet smell. It surprised me, probably more than the unusual pink inflorescences. Yes, for me spring is always associated with a view of blooming chestnut trees, but I never thought about how they smell. The impression of heartfelt was so much that I wanted to pass it in a beadwork. So, I created Smell Of Wet Chestnuts Necklace which took the Third Place in Fashion Colorworks.
Photos of some of my works have already been published in Beading Polska Magazine - the openwork beaded earrings and necklace (February 2014) and Clover Brooch (June 2014), but I'm pretty far from creating "monumental" jewelry pieces. I like to create a small-form and non-overloaded with details wearable items, especially when I can manage to find my own interesting design solutions.
There are more and more unusual in shape, color and coating varieties of beads appear in shops, long time known materials are being used in jewelry designs, and I try to use these in my work. An example is a necklace-tie "Adele" inspired by the eponymous painting by Gustav Klimt.
I can bead only on weekends or work-free days and hours, and for me beading is rather a source of creative realization than a source of profit. But my career began and I would like to see this road has been long!
My gallery on MyLovelyBeads.com
About author:
| Maia Otkidach, Zabrze, Poland | |
| Email: | maja188@poczta.onet.pl |
| Blog: | glowart.blox.pl |
