Chelyabinsk Artist Crafts Unique Cotton Wool Christmas Decorations
«People make Baba Yagas, but I don»t like them. Mine are healers, wise women, they are good, they come with kindness to people. See, this one has a white dove in a cage,« Emma Zabrulina points to a miniature figure. »They have different elixirs: of youth, perhaps, or longevity. And here is a real wasp, in epoxy resin, I found it when I was cleaning the balcony.«
We are standing in an ordinary city apartment, whose owner creates unusual toys from cotton wool. In the large room, she has set up a small, tidy workspace next to a large sofa, from which her son Bogdan watches his mother work. The boy has a severe disability and requires constant care and supervision, so Emma creates in her spare moments next to him.
«Your life is yours, and his life is his»
Emma did not always craft toys; she is a hereditary oil worker from Bashkiria and by education a technician-mechanic for oil and gas chemical productions. After studying, she worked for some time in her profession, but then life set its own priorities — in 2005, a child with cerebral palsy was born in the family.
Emma admits that for several years, her life consisted of visits to doctors and endless rehabilitation courses.
«The state was minus zero. It was scary, painful, and you don»t understand what«s happening. You are nobody, you are an appendage of your sick child,» she recalls.
Switching from the negative wave was helped by a visit to an astrologer, who turned out to be an excellent psychologist.
«She then said: »Your life is yours, and his life is his, you must go parallel. The more you develop yourself, the easier it will be for him, because the right people and options will come into your life.« I first thought: but I don»t know how to do anything! But at that moment, the idea came to start knitting clothes for decorative dogs,« says Emma.
For two years after that, Emma dressed fluffy fashionistas in authorial overalls not only from Chelyabinsk but also Yekaterinburg. In her life, communication and professional recognition appeared. Then she switched to knitted toys, became a master, started conducting online master classes for hundreds of subscribers, participating in competitions and exhibitions.
And a few years ago, she wanted to decorate a retro-style Christmas tree in the medical center where Bogdan is helped.
«I started thinking, watching master classes on Christmas ornaments from cotton wool, then found a studio with live classes. We dressed the retro Christmas tree. And the cotton wool ornaments so captivated me that I»ve been doing them for four years now,« Emma says with a smile.
Fantasy Figures
We find at Emma«s home a whole squad of Father Frosts for the New Year and many different fairy tale heroes.
«Ideas usually come from life. Do you recognize Tatarushka? I made this for Mavlika (a confectioner who teaches children with special needs),» she shows. «Sometimes you»re on the bus, looking — an interesting face, and the image is born on its own.«
In Emma«s containers — kilograms of cotton wool, special plastic, and on the table — paints and brushes.
«Inside there is a wire frame, then paste, cotton wool, and imagination. Who will it be? For example, such a gnome. I make his face from bakeable plastic, then paint it with acrylic paints. I make hands from plastic, then assemble the image: boots, socks, clothing. You are both a sculptor and a fashion designer, in short, a master of cotton wool affairs,» says Emma. «You come up with some little things, here, for example, a violin. Then you paint it, cover it with varnish.»
For one ornament, the master can spend several days of work.
«Maybe someone can do it very quickly, for me it»s at least three days with drying. Something might not like at the last moment, you take it all apart and do it again,« explains Emma.
Recently, most of the author«s ornaments went to an exhibition in Voronezh, where works by masters from all over the country will be presented.
Emma admits that once creativity became a lifesaver for her and for many years has given her the strength to move forward, live, and rejoice every day.
