Ternopil region

Lesya is a doll-maker from Ternopil region. First she saw a motanka-doll in 2008 and she liked it very much. Having mastered the craft of creating dolls Lesya started to make remarkable dolls dedicated to the Princess Olga, Lesya Ukrainka, Taras Shevchenko’s images of women...

In spite of her young age, this master from Ternopil has extensive experience in needlework: she makes embroideries, creates knot-dolls in national costumes from fabrics and reconstructs ancient Ukrainian folk decorations from beads.

Mykhailo is a well-known embroiderer from Ternopil region. He is a master of a great number of embroidery techniques using which he decorates shirts, rushnyks, tea-cloths and runners. Besides, the master has one of the largest collections of folk embroidery patterns of Podillya, Bukovyna, Gutsul and Boykiv regions.

Rostyslav is an artist and a master from Ternopyl. All the time free from his official work Rostyslav devotes to his favorite occupation – making dryapankas (other names: shkryobankas, skryobankas).

One of the participants of the Ternopil creative association called "Berehynya" (the goddes of protection), to which about ten other local maters-embroideresses belong. As for Mariah Maksymiv, she has been occupied in embroidery for more than 60 years. Mariah started to work with needles and threads back in her early childhood.

This master is a real keeper (berehynya) of Ternopil embroidery tradition. Since 2005 she has been the head of a creative association bearing the same name. A lot of well-known local embroideresses belong to it. Together, they take part in different festivals; experiment with embroidery and revive ancient ornamental patterns.

Among the works of this embroideress from Ternopil there are a lot of those in which different embroidery techniques are combined: “pads”, chain stitch, catch stitch, hack weaving, counted satin-stitch, cross-stitch, open work, shtapivka, “nightingale eyes” (combination of four small squares made in counted satin-stitch with a tiny opening in the center), double (Bulgarian) cross-stitch. ...

Due to their masterly needle techniques this Ternopil master’s hands give birth to embroidered rushnyks (national style towels), shirts and chemises, tea-cloths for different holidays, to the Easter in particular...

The artist creates gobelins the same way as paintings are made: usually, an appearing idea is realized in a sketch which is later implemented using real material. The only difference with painting is that the work is made not using paints but threads on a special frame...