"A doll is something that stays with you forever"
“I don’t remember when I wanted to make dolls ...”
- Unlike those artists who know exactly how and when the desire to make dolls sparked in them, I don’t remember such a moment in my life. Somehow I tried, but I could not determine the exact date. I will not say that they have always been, but they merged somehow, as a matter of course, and remained.
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The preconditions, of course, have been there since childhood. Like most girls, I sewed on dolls and the dolls themselves. And with my diploma work in arts and crafts at an art school, I had 2 dolls in Russian boyar costumes. I remember now from what improvised means I made them then, and my eyes begin to twitch nervously ...
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The favorite subject in the art school was sculpture. So it was at the university. However, having decided for myself before entering that the sculptor is not a female profession, I chose another ... Very female, apparently ...
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By education I am an artist-designer of furniture and equipment. And for many years she worked in the field of furniture and interior design, but the craving for sculpture, plasticity of forms and human images was embodied in dolls.
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When I decided to make my first "adult" doll (and it happened 15 years ago), there was almost no information on the Internet about how and from what it is made. So I, like many others, invented my own “bicycle”. And, in general, in the end, even invented.
"It is very important to be on the same wavelength with like-minded people."
Later there was training, and, by the way, my first teacher at the School of Puppet Design was Nina Radzikhovskaya. There were courses of the club-studio "Doll Collection" from favorite artists Lyubov Lukyanchuk and Natalia Lopusova-Tomskaya. And the one-year course "Dolls: Art and Design".
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All this gave new valuable knowledge and presented many wonderful like-minded people. Then I realized how important it is for me to communicate with people charged with a common hobby, with whom "on the same wavelength."
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Of course, many of those with whom I studied swiftly swam forward, while my sailing, for various reasons, was rather unhurried. Therefore, so far I have much less implemented ideas than conceived ones. But, step by step, I am becoming more and more confident on the path that I have always wanted to follow.
“… I am constantly looking for inspiration.”
One of the main recent achievements for me was the 2nd prize in the competition "Let's dance" and membership in the Creative Union of Artists of the DPI as a prize. I would like to thank the organizers and other participants for the inspiration, and I thank myself, which is really there, for making up my mind. After all, the dolls made for the competition were the first in my work for several years. Now plans are growing with a vengeance. And for this, thanks again to the artists of the Art Doll section. They are one of my main inspirations.
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Have I found my style, direction? Like any creative person, I have hobbies and distractions in different directions. There are so many interesting, beautiful, deep things, so many I want to try to study and do myself. And I think that's okay.
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I have textile dolls, folk dolls, and blythe dolls, and not only dolls, but also animals, jewelry, drawings, even fairy tales (about dolls, there were none, except perhaps made of baked plastic - this is not at all my feelings) ...
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But in the variety of interesting activities, techniques and directions, there is always what he did and, as they say, calmed down. And there is something that always remains with you. Among such constant interests are: sculpture and self-hardening plastics, Slavic (and not only, as you can see from the photo) folklore and costume. This is what I want to learn, do and give to others.
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What inspires me (besides like-minded people)? Anything! - Music, painting, fairy tale, poem, natural phenomenon or some kind of human feeling. A doll for me was never just a beautiful girl Masha, Natasha, etc. in a smart dress. I want to say more with her. And in each of my dolls I try to put an idea, fill it with meaning, write a whole story in its image. And the main reward is to see that the meaning I put in is felt by the audience.
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In general, summing up all of the above, I see that dolls have been in my life for a very long time. Although, in fact, I am only at the beginning of the path. Wish me good luck!
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By the way, furniture has remained one of my not passing interests ... Only now it is furniture for dolls. But that's a completely different story.
Julia Gapunik @yugdolls
TOP 100 Daily Doll 2023
TOP 100 Daily Doll 2023
"Bambolandia" by Beatrice Perini
Evoking vivid emotions...