Yulia Ustinova

Yulia Ustinova is a Russian artist who uses the art of crocheting to replicate famous artworks or to arrange new shapes totally made by her.She is creating soft sculptures from crochet with a sculptural form inside. There is nothing granny about her work. It is bold, direct and brings a smile to the viewer.

Yulia has been formally trained in art and has taken her training along with using the old craft of crochet to sculpture her ‘big women’ or in Russian, “tetki” – it means uneducated and ungroomed women.She explains how she decides on the positions "I am taking all my ideas from real life which surrounds me, from my reflections about some events.

Sometimes plasticity dictates the plot, sometimes, on the contrary, feelings and impressions from real life get shape in my works"Works are crocheted very tight and solidly filled with cotton wool. So they are quite solid and about 25cm to 60 cm in size.They are not exhibited constantly, except in Olga Okudzava`s museum of author dolls. Sometimes she has periodic exhibitions at The Central House of Artists.

All images  Copyrighted YULIA USTINOVA

contact to her: ustinova1961@gmail.com

                                                                                       

Natalia Margulis

National and International exhibited fiber artist Natalia Margulis was born in Russia and graduated from Saint Petersburg University. Since 1993 she worked in U.S.A. as full time artist. Participating in the most prestigious art and craft shows, she has gained recognition and won numerous top awards in contests. Her works were published in the books and magazines, and she taught embroidery classes.

Masterful command over a needle allows Russian born Natalia Margulis to sketch with thread in a three dimensional manner that pulls the viewer into the image like a magnet.Using both machine and hand embroidery to create the imagery, Margulis first lays down a background of stitches, strips of hand dyed fabrics and ribbons. 

All images  Copyrighted Natalia Margulis

Vladimir Denshchikov

Vladimir Denshchikov is an artist from Ukraine. He creates these religious icons using linen threads. Millions of knots are made manually by the artist during months of painstaking work. He has been practicing this technique for more than 30 years. It takes from 3 to 9 months to create an icon. Born on July 1, 1952 in Kiev, Vladimir Denshchikov graduated the Kiev Theater University and went on to become and actor. He worked his way up  to director and artistic director of the Simferopol Crimea Maxim Gorky Academic Russian Drama Theater, and since 2007 he has been teaching acting and directing at the Simferopol Institute of Culture. Quite an impressive professional career, but this national artist of the Ukraine is mostly known for his unique hobby – making incredibly detailed religious icons from linen thread, using a technique called “macrame”.

Only the faces and hands of the saints in Denshchikov’s icons are painted on canvas, everything else is made from millions of linen knots. The artist doesn’t use any tools, like needles or crochets to make the knots, all the patterns and details are created directly by hand. The material used for these incredible artworks is created by the artist himself: he takes a piece of pure linen cloth (a fabric associated with Orthodox Faith), soaks it in water and takes it apart one string at a time. He uses linen threads between 0.5 and 2 meters long and works between 3 and 6 months on a single 40×50 cm icon. It might sound like a long time, but let’s not forget one of these things numbers up to nine million tiny knots, each made by hand. (ref:By Spooky )

In 2007, Vladimir Denshchikov suffered a stroke, right before a theatrical premiere, which led to his taking a teaching job at the Simferopol Institute of Culture. While recuperating from this terrible condition, the artist continued working on an icon for the church of Malorechenskoye village, and as he struggled to weave little knots, he felt his partially paralyzed hand moving ever more freely, as if God was guiding it Himself. The artist made a miraculous recovery and continues to create wonderful macrame artworks.

All images rights  reserved © Vladimir Denshchikov

Sarah Swett

Sarah Swett spins, knits, laughs, paints and weaves tapestries in her studio in Moscow, Idaho. Her work travels extensively to shows across the country and, in magazines and books, around the world. Her book Kids Weaving, published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, NY, will be in bookstores in October, 2005.

All images and informations © Sarah Swett