Julia Kurakina was born into family with artistic tendencies. Her great-grandmother and great-grandfather were furriers. They had a sewing machine and they sewed clothes and shoes. The sewing machine is still in Julia’s house, it is over 100 years old and the Russian artist refers to it as their family value.
“This was back in tsarist Russia,” she states. “Their goods and services were in demand in our city. My grandmother loved to create with her hands. When I came to her on vacation she taught me to embroider and knit. My grandmother bought me lots of books and magazines for creativity. My mom also knitted.”
Living in a family who encouraged creativity, Julia went to art school. She often took part in school creative competitions, studied magazines and literature. At the same time she tried to extend her skills by mastering new techniques: she worked with leather, weaved various shapes from wire, sewed and sculpted.
Speaking of the beginning of her creative journey involving making toys, Julia said that cats first inspired her to start making animals. In her opinion, these animals possess some kind of bewitching magic.
Julia’s toys - animals, fantastic creatures and other creatures - are made according to a pattern that she draws herself. For their clothes, she uses materials that are ordered from different countries. “Basically, I do miniature works,” she says. “It is a magical feeling when you hold a baby toy in your palm. But sometimes, I want to make a big elf or rabbit.” The faces, ears, arms, legs are individually shaped by hand from polymer clay. Julia doesn't use molds for her sculptures, therefore each character has a unique face and features which are hard to repeat. All work with fabrics is sewn by hand and she confides that she rarely uses a sewing machine.
Julia’s art is inspired by cartoons, films and fairy tales. Elves and mandrakes were inspired by J.K. Rowling. As a child, she often watched and revisited the Harry Potter series. Julia says that she would love the world to have more magic and that these characters are the embodiment of her inner world. “I have no favorites,” she says about her artwork. “I love all my creations. I don't know how to explain this, but I kind of breathe my positive energy into them.”
As many artists, Julia states that she is constantly learning and tries to master different materials and tools. “I am currently learning how to work with an airbrush,” she says. “For a long time I made toys of large sizes, about 25 centimeters, but for the last five years I have been in love with miniatures, toys up to 10 centimeters.”
In order to advertise her artwork, Julia participates in professional international exhibitions: Salon of author's dolls, Art of dolls, and the largest in Russia - Artflection. The exhibitions she attends are mainly in Moscow, less often in St. Petersburg and Kazan. “In other countries, for various reasons, I was not able to participate,” she mentions. “But in the future I really want to go to professional exhibitions in Germany, the Czech Republic and Holland. I love to travel and I would be happy to see my foreign collectors.”
Among future plans, Julia dreams of having the opportunity to exchange experiences with creative people from other countries. “I really love what I do,” she says.”I create all babies with great love and joy. I want my artwork to bring joy and goodness. This is my mission, it seems to me.”
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