My journey with jewellery began in 2008, after a workshop in Kyiv sparked my curiosity about working on a small, intimate scale. What started as experimentation soon grew into a deeper fascination with adornment as both object and cultural expression.
My interest truly ignited while curating a fashion show of traditional Ukrainian clothing. Immersing myself in the richness of these garments led me to closely study traditional Ukrainian multi-row jewellery — its structure, symbolism, rhythm, and presence. These pieces are more than decoration; they carry history, identity, and a strong visual language.
Since then, I have created hundreds of jewellery pieces, each one informed by that tradition while shaped through my own contemporary sensibility. Working at this scale allows for precision, repetition, and variation — a dialogue between heritage and personal expression.
Jewellery, for me, is another way of telling stories through form and material — wearable, tactile, and closely connected to the body.
My newest artwork, What the Red Caps Hide: Lime Bloom, was SOLD at the 50x50 Exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne. This tree portrait is inspired by the extraordinary flowers and seed capsules of Eucalyptus macrandra. The vivid red nut caps seem to guard a surprise beneath them: luminous lime-green blossoms that transform the tree into an explosion of colour. What the Red Caps Hide: Lime Bloom 2026 Acrylic and texture paste on wood 50 × 50 cm 📍 Brunswick Street Gallery Level 1 & 2, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy VIC 3065 🗓 Exhibition: 20 June – 3 July 🥂 Opening Night: Friday 26 June, 6–9 pm 🕙 Open Tue–Sat 10am–5pm | Sun 11am–4pm | Closed Mondays Still time to see the 2026 Fifty Squared Art Prize — Australia’s largest open-call exhibition for wall-based works (50×50cm and under), featuring over 900 artworks. So much incredible work in one space — a true snapshot of contemporary practice.
Every so often, a commission opens the door to an entirely new way of thinking. One such moment came when a client asked for something unexpected — a lightweight, sculptural object in the form of puppets. Creating puppets became an unusual and exciting way for me to explore my creativity. They sit somewhere between sculpture, design, and storytelling. Unlike painting, where the surface holds the narrative, puppets demand attention to volume, balance, texture, and movement. Even at rest, they suggest gesture, character, and presence. Working on these pieces allowed me to think beyond the wall and the frame, translating artistic ideas into tactile, three-dimensional forms. Each puppet became a small character — playful, expressive, and full of personality. This unexpected direction reminded me how important it is to stay open as an artist. New materials, new formats, and new requests can lead to discoveries that expand both practice and imagination — sometimes in the most surprising ways.
