“It seems to me that flowers are probably the most banal thing that can be made from this wonderful material, but I am very inspired by them,” reveals Vera Veselova, who immerses herself in the intricate world of jewelry.
Vera is Lithuanian by origin. Her grandparents were exiled to Siberia under Stalin dictatorship, where Vera also has been living, in the harsh city of Novosibirsk, dreaming that one day she will have the opportunity to move to Sweden.
Never trained in the art of sculpting, Vera is completely self-taught. “For the first time I saw how a girl made beautiful beads for dreadlocks on Facebook back in 2010. I liked it so much that I started looking for information about this material and the next day I bought my first polymer clay blocks. When I first baked my works, I kept them in the oven for about an hour and could not understand why they were still soft. Only then I realized that the clay becomes hard only after cooling. But now it's a little funny to remember. I can say that I learned only from my own experience.”
Vera never makes sketches of her designs. Often she just imagines flower arrangements in her head and just sits down and starts working. It often happens that the result is completely different from what she imagined. Her studio is very modest, it's just a table where she keeps everything she needs. The main rule is to always keep her place very clean.
In her free time Vera loves to draw and walk in the woods. “Fortunately, I live in Siberia and we have a lot of forests here,” she mentions. “By the way, I also draw flowers most often, which is kind of funny. I also like to cook. I love all things that are somehow related to creativity in general.”
How does a typical day in Vera’s life look like? It’s almost always associated with clay. At the beginning of the day she does routine chores and responds to customers' messages or spends her time editing photos of new works. Then she makes a task plan of which jewelry she should create that day. Closer to nighttime is when her imagination wakes up and she just sculpts for fun.
The thing that Vera enjoys the most about her work is that when she creates she can retreat in her own world. “I am an extreme introvert who loves being alone the most,” she mentions. Beyond personal fulfillment, her creative endeavors serve as a source of income, adding an extra layer of satisfaction to her artistic pursuits. “You can say that I am a happy person,” the artist says.
