Lyudmila Vysotskaya is a Kaliningrad-based amber artist and designer, expert, chairwoman of the Amber Academy and member of the Creative Union of Artists in Decorative and Applied Arts.
This summer, visitors could admire the art works by Lyudmila Vysotskaya at the AmberForum held in Svetlogorsk and ask her questions about the unique features of amber and the art of cutting and polishing amber stones, as well as about the activities of the Amber Academy.
How can a person become an amber artist and designer? Did your parents have anything to do with art and creativity?
My parents came to Yantarny from Belarus and worked at the Amber Factory all their lives: my mother was an accountant and my father was a cabinet-maker.
I have a whole ‘tree’ here. Our family has a box full of anniversary medals and antique items, my parents were awarded for success and achievements in their work.
I graduated from the children’s art school, the school at the Amber Factory, the Kaliningrad Art and Industrial College and started working at the Amber Factory in the souvenir manufacturing department.
Almost immediately my potential was discovered, I was called a ‘person of natural gifts’ and in 2003, a designer’s studio was set up for me.
My tutor was Ernest Abramovich Lis, whose advice and recommendations helped me a lot: he accepted my art works at artistic expert board meetings and there were heated discussions with controversy and criticism.
Having gained experience, I began to display my works at art exhibitions and joined the Creative Union of Artists of Russia. I worked side by side with such outstanding artists and designers as Faya Krasavtseva and Lyudmila Sakharova who also helped me a lot in honing my skills.
In 2000, I won a grant in a competition for a 2-week internship held by Galina Kovalyova (including my accommodation in St. Petersburg).
I took part in creative competitions held by the Amber Museum and was a prize-winner several times, so I received awards. We started taking part in exhibitions abroad - in Stockholm and Paris. I even had the opportunity to live in France - to get married and work there - but I stayed in my homeland and I don’t regret it. Especially now, in the current situation.
Why not? Many people dream of gaining experience in living and working in another country.
I like Paris, I love France, French artists and designers. I was going to marry a fine art restorer. Mark promised to create all the conditions for my work, to set up an art studio, but I asked him how I would work in that country, what material I could use. He suggested buying amber in Russia and working in France. I could hardly imagine working that way, but I left my job and started making all the necessary documents in Kaliningrad. And suddenly I realized that I couldn’t leave my country: something was wrong, the relations would be broken off, and I didn’t want to switch to another material. I wanted to stay in my country and make progress as a jewelry designer. Anyway, my life is firmly connected with the amber region and the Amber Factory - a unique place with world reserves and a factory - dear to me - that produces amber and supplies it to many parts of the world.
I like working with amber.
The Amber Factory receives a variety of orders to make icons, for example, the Kazan icon of St. Mary, St. George the Victorious, the Crucifixion of Jesus, - as well as Easter Eggs, a whole series of elephants, crocodiles, and rhinoceroses... It was possible to work with unique nuggets weighing 500 grams, 900 grams and even up to 1,200 grams.
Which art works are the most memorable ones?
I made an icon of St. George the Victorious and I got it completed in two days as it was so easy to make it, as if it wasn’t me who made it, but the chisel itself created it with the help of my hands. The bas-relief turned out to be so good that it was taken straight from the warehouse without a frame.
The work on the portrait of Catherine the Great was also memorable. And the portrait of Charlie Chaplin was sold at auction in Lithuania for a high price.
Amber is a very beneficial and unique material.
What makes it unique? What properties of amber inspire you?
Amber is a mystical stone, a living substance.
There are ‘landscape’ amber stones painted by nature as if by a painter.
There may be the moon, the sun, the surface of the sea, houses and trees, even cities... Amber is very beautiful and unusual. Sometimes, you can see blue, green stains in a transparent amber stone, as well as black branches in the hoarfrost.
When I started cutting and polishing amber pieces and creating items from amber, I did not see this beauty - I worked with it as if it was just a raw material. And I feel amber as part of myself now. When I look at an amber stone, it seems to be of mystical allure and carrying me away inside it. It’s like you’re drowning in amber.
Do you think amber is ‘alive’?
Absolutely, it’s alive. Sometimes, an amber stone becomes patinated and darkens. While pearls - they are also alive - fade without an owner, amber is different - it itself is like the owner because people who are used to wearing amber jewelry pieces can no longer do without them. But amber can lay in the ground for 50 million years and nothing will happen to it. People themselves will come to it and do their best to find it.
What is its magic?
This stone has different shades, but also smells differently, it can smell sweetish, bitter, dry, and sour. It can be used to make perfumes. By the smell of an amber stone, I can determine its color, whether it is matte or transparent and, of course, whether it is natural or not.
Amber is soft and at the same time fragile, and has a rugged relief, for example, it can have grooves, lacunae, inclusions of metal and soil, and stripes of different colors. It can be of skin-color; sometimes, you create someone’s portrait and a crack may appear on the face.
What do you think about pressed amber?
It’s good because it’s natural. Amber can be a ‘cruel’ stone because there are many stories of crime or death - people go to sea in the search for amber by boats and they get drowned.
When talking about stones, people usually say that they bring good luck.
Amber can also bring happiness and good luck. It is a warm, sunny stone, and it attracts warm-hearted people.
What’s your opinion about inclusions in amber - bees or bugs?
These are all interesting and beautiful, and from a scientific point of view, they are of great value.
You are the head of the Amber Academy. Please tell us about it.
It was created in 2019 in Kaliningrad as a public organization of artists with the goal of preserving and developing the art of amber working. Its members are jewelry craftsmen, jewelry designers, carvers of stones, mosaic makers who are eager to create something new.
Our Academy is now five years old. There are 30 of us, we are still young and keep on developing. At the AmberForum in June, I was re-elected as the head of the Amber Academy.
We communicate a lot at the Academy - mostly online, using a general chat - and we meet at fairs and exhibitions like the Golden Hands of Russia show held in the Moscow Gostiny Dvor shopping center, at the International jewelry exhibition Junwex held at the All-Russian Exhibition Center, and we are preparing now for the exhibition at Gokhran (State Precious Metals and Gems Repository) to be held in the Manezh halls, Moscow, in September.
I like to combine creative and organizational work. I couldn’t have done it alone, and I always find support from my friends, colleagues, and the government.
We are lucky that we entered the amber cluster, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade helps us now. We take part in some exhibitions through the Ministry of Culture, I am an expert at the AmberForum through the Ministry of Education, and we also get support from the Ministry of Social Development.
Your Amber Academy is involved in charity. It is known that you help blind people - what does your help consist of?
The people of Kaliningrad generally have very warm hearts, and living here - like on an island - also strengthens our unity and the desire to help each other. We started helping fully blind people and thinking about offering some jobs to them and whether they can also make something from amber. And the idea of amber smalt came to us. This is my technique and my own recipe - special glue, paints, amber are mixed, and it’s all cut. Then the smalt is put on clay or glue by adults or children with health limitations to make very beautiful works. For the blind people, we put the cubes by color, explain to them with our hands and say where red cubes are, for example, that the green cubes are on the left and so on, and the blind person understands and remembers where various cubes are. They can make a picture on their own.
Everything is very simple as just kilograms of glue, amber and artists’ oil paint are required. This material is used to create paintings for the I Love Russia competition that is part of the Inclusive Amber Mosaic project.
Our project We See With Our Hands won two grants in the Presidential Grants Foundation competition and was included in the top 100 best projects in Russia.
Later on, people started coming to us to become volunteers in helping people with health limitations. The President awarded me a volunteer medal for saving people during the Covid pandemic. It’s interesting that sometimes, our volunteers also become artists and designers, for example, Tatyana Drobysheva with her magnificent amber jewelry. We also help our volunteers register as self-employed individuals, teach them in amber working techniques and help them take part in exhibitions. Sometimes, we hold competitions and display their art works, award prizes to them, and this is a great incentive.
We have recently held a regional competition I Love Russia on the theme We Build Victory With Family, and 300 children with health limitations took part in it. Our partners were the Government of the Kaliningrad Region, the Ministry of Culture of the Kaliningrad Region, SPAR, Baucenter, Amber Factory, Andrey Gorokhov’s Charitable Foundation and associates, Association of builders.
Sometimes, the children we take care of have a chance to earn extra money by selling jewelry or decorative items for interiors. Now, we are looking for entrepreneurs who could hire them so that the disabled children could have jobs. If we talk about improving the standards of living, we should admit, there is no higher standard of living without helping others.
What are the prospects for amber production and the amber industry?
I hope the prospects are wonderful. Despite the difficult times and hostilities, evolution in design and the development of new technologies in industry are expected. Nowadays, people know the way to make colored natural amber; people love color, and through coloring they can create colored amber stones. There are production leaders, and innovators appear who use outside the box approaches in their work, as well as new trends. Now, there is complete freedom from prohibitions, and people can work as they like and use any combination of colors and materials.
What are you working on now and what are your plans for the future?
Recently, I have sold my Amber Fish at an auction for 100 thousand rubles used to help a girl with SMA who needs injections of expensive medicine. Maybe I’ll be lucky to sell my Amber Bird Of Happiness made from rare variety of amber - it took me over a year to make it.
I would also like to create a collection of my paintings - I would be happy if my dreams come true.
Galina Semyonova for Rough&Polished
