Creations with love

Lyudmila Petrovna, Honorary worker of the general education of Russia, Teacher of teachers, national master of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Alaas Uran Tarbakhtaakhtar project coordinator (Сraftswomen Alaas)

Lyudmila Petrovna well remembers her beloved aunt Aleksandra Alekseevna, elder sister of the father, who remained that person in Lyudmila Petrovna's memory, whom there was always a wish to resemble… Aleksandra Alekseevna had no education as she was born in pre-revolutionary time and she had to help parents in the house, agricultural duties and care of younger children in family. She was very organized and hardworking, could master any work: was a very good grower in the village (grew potatoes, cabbage cucumbers, tomatoes), contained the cattle, worked as the milkmaid in collective farm, in the summer she by herself mowed hay, could prepare firewood, ice (as it was only drinking source) for the winter, did bricks of clay, could put furnaces, lovingly bleaching on holidays, perfectly prepared, cooked any food and it was very tasty. Aunt Alexandra worked in collective farm called Stalin with big devotion and isolation and she was put even on hard work – crops and cleaning of wheat, winter preparation of firewood for a fire chamber on horses, carrying of mail, goods and products on horses to the other far villages. Subsequently for labor merits she was awarded with the medals "For Valorous Work in Days of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.", "30 anniversary of the Victory of the Great Patriotic War", "Veteran of Work".
Except everything stated above, the aunt Aleksandra well sewed, and it went by nature …, because she had no education. She sewed different clothes manually and on the machine: national suits, dresses, vests, and even velvet jackets. She was able to process skins of wild animals and pets from whom sewed caps, mittens, slippers, a torbas, high fur boots and many other things not only for family members, but also to relatives, neighbors and fellow villagers. The aunt Aleksandra Alekseevna for the first time allowed to try to little Lyudmila to embroider with beads on fabric …

At the time of Lyudmila Petrovna's birth the grandmother Paraskovya Aleksandrovna was 82 years old (1875 year of birth), and little Lyudmila was her favourite, slept in a room near the grandmother, liked to sit down on her knees and to listen to her stories, being treated with candies and cookies which the grandmother stored under a pillow in advance.

The grandmother gave birth to Lyudmila Petrovna's father Pyotr Alekseyevich at 54 years old, and as a proverb says, he was called "golden boy". He also really was an activist: always studied well, participated in all actions of the village, school, successfully did gymnastics, did well in different types of sports, conjured at concerts, sang in chorus, was a good story-teller, soul of the company, liked to hunt. Naturally he was very skilled, especially in work with a tree: built houses, various constructions in the yard, owned skills of an art carving, did furniture of varying complexity, such as tables with drawers and bedside tables, a pier glass with a decor in an art carving, dressers, wardrobes etc. And he very much liked to invent, looked for and found interesting solutions, played with children, he always in this game introduced the interesting idea, a new task, focused us on search of ways, decisions, unusual views and so on. To us, children, it was always very interesting. Perhaps, to some extent, some of his skills were also inherited by little Lyudmila, which were predetermined subsequently the natural choice of her familiarizing with folk art.

As Lyudmila Petrovna considers, these two native persons (aunt Alexander and her father) put at her at small age interest in creativity, the desire to make useful things beautiful, to look for creative decisions in everything. They became that kind of people from whom there is a continuity in skill and ability to creativity.

Familiarizing of children with creativity, education of good taste, interest in the Yakut applied art gave it results. Lyudmila Petrovna's students successfully participated in different years in exhibitions of children's applied creativity of city, republican, All-Russian levels, presented the projects in the scientific and practical conferences "Step to the Future" (Yakutsk), "Renaissance" (St. Petersburg", were participants and winners of the All-Russian Olympiad of school students on technology (Yakutsk, Tambov, Bryansk).

As the teacher with a big bag of knowledge Lyudmila Petrovna always understood that problems of studying and understanding of ethnic culture are important for any people as ignorance leads them to loss of the root bases. In the student teaching she teaches artificialism, considering that new technologies only help with creation of next image. But in the message of new quality of sewing or an embroidery, the best results comes only if you work by hand, this tool of "able to see fingers" capable to return to the beginning of the beginnings of the revived traditional craft.

Perhaps therefore, her schoolgirls and the master teacher herself repeatedly were successful exhibitors of the Russian and foreign exhibition projects. For Lyudmila Petrovna her participation in the Interregional exhibition competition "Together We — Russia" in Tomsk (2013) where she became a winner, and the exposition from Yakutia was nominated as "The best exposition".

All these details are important as they explain from where after all this hobby, which developed into deep comprehension of an essence of the real creativity, began. Meanwhile, as Lyudmila Petrovna did not understand in herself the master, this transition at her took place very naturally: just she gave all free time to favorite matter.

And as she considers, till 2007 she had a process of filling by the world of an embroidery, a cross according to the ready scheme drawing in the beginning, then works on own drawings or on copies from art masterpieces. Also, the range of processing methods of an embroidery extends: a beaded, art smooth surface where it is required to transfer skillfully tone, shadows, modulations of paints.
At last, test in creation of the embroidered compositions: Abakayada, Peter I and two more works on actually developed scheme. These embroidered pictures in the cross equipment were executed by Lyudmila Petrovna's student - the schoolgirl of the 9th class Kochenkova Viktoria of school №33 of Yakutsk (2003). With these works a creative tandem of the teacher and schoolgirl took successful part in such actions as "The All-Russian Olympiad of school students on technology" (Bryansk, 2003), the All-Russian festival "The Embroidered Picture" (SPb, 2003), the All-Russian exhibition competition "Volga Mosaic" (Volgograd, 2012), various exhibitions of children's creativity of republican scale.

Lyudmila Petrovna passed a way from simple amateur hobby to original skill in the interest that allows to speak about her, as about the master having self-sufficient identity.

Acquaintance to prominent masters and experts in the field of traditional folk art, and in particular with her first mentor – the eminent skilled worker, the member of the Union of artists of Russia and the Union of journalists of Russia, the honored worker of culture of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Anna Nikolaevna Zvereva became a push in this comprehension. And she got into, as the person who is fond, process of studying of the equipment and receptions of a traditional Yakut embroidery, scrappy sewing, sewing of national clothes.

Her first works in this area strike with a maturity. Also, it is connected with the fact that the love to anonymous creativity national, as a rule, does not suffer personal ambitions.
She laboriously studies the collective experience connecting many generations and decides on original work based on the remained exhibit from a meeting of the Yaroslavsky Yakut state joint museum of history and the culture of peoples of the North.

As a result, in 2008 the meeting of the National Republic of Yakutia art museum is replenished with work of the master Lyudmila Petrovna Zhirkova - ceremonial horse furniture (reconstruction of a shabrack of the end of XVIII - the beginning of the 19th centuries).

Her works products of traditional culture:
- complete ceremonial sets of horse furniture (on four objects) in technicians an embroidery, beadwork and metal plaques, sewing in the scrappy equipment;
- works in a scrappy mosaic are carpets, a panel;
- accessories (handbags-happar, nachelnik-bastynga, elements of hip jewelry)

Modern products:
- a panel, pictures in the scrappy equipment;
- jewelry from beads in national style;
- jewelry from beads and fur in national style

Modern suit: sets of a women's top national clothing with use of traditional elements and modeling of national clothes.

Participation in the International festival of decorative art "The European intersection of patchwork" in Alsace (France), 2015.

In September in France in the small town of San Mario - Min. the Provinces of Alsace the largest and prestigious festival of modern textile creativity in Europe is annually held. Yakutia took part at this festival in 2015 as "Guest of honor". On an exposition "Yakutia: a horse cult", the Friendship of the people organized by the Center of folk art Simekh of the House of A.E. Kulakovsky, were presented: seven sets of ceremonial horse furniture, more than 30 carpets and a panel in the scrappy equipment are exposed, in five show-windows various accessories are placed (handbags-happar fabric, from fish skin, from duck skins and pads, from a bladder, mittens and sets of heaters); on six dummies sets of the Yakut national clothes are presented, on table-tops of fireplaces author's dolls were located.

The delegation of Yakutia from 37 people mostly consisted of the skilled workers having wide experience of production of decorative and design products and high level of skill of national sewing. During the exhibition for visitors master classes were held. A coordinator of this exhibition was Lyudmila Petrovna.

Participation in the International art project "Gagarin's Planet" in Erfurt (Germany), 2016.

The exhibition of masters of scrappy sewing of Russia "Gagarin's Planet" in Erfurt was organized as a result of the joint project of Natalya Borisovna Gagarina, the niece of the first astronaut, and directorate of the Ethnographic museum of Thuringia led by Frau Marina Moritts in honor of anniversary - the 55 anniversary from the date of the first flight in Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin's Space.

The choice of the city of Erfurt for the organization of such exhibition was not accidental. By Walter Ulbricht's invitation, astronauts Yury Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova visited in October, 1963 several cities of the GDR including Erfurt where the population absolutely sincerely met them by boundless admiration, triumph and deep respect. Documentaries about this arrival remained.

In Erfurt in 1986, in the 25th anniversary from the date of the first piloted flight in space and in memory of a visit of the first astronaut to this city in 1963, the city authorities set a monument to Yury Gagarin. The longest city street – Ring Strasse is called in honor of the first astronaut. Before "The ethnographic museum" of Thuringia the bed with bright red dahlias which selectors of Erfurt called "Yury Gagarin" is broken. Residents tremblingly keep the memory of our compatriot, in the city is held many events devoted to space subject.

The Gagarin's Planet exhibition was exposed from October 8 to October 15, 2016. The burgomaster of Erfurt Tamara Tirbakh, the representative of a general consulate of the Russian Federation in Leipzig mister Novikov, the manager of department graphic and arts and crafts of the State Russian House of folk art (Moscow) Yulia Ivanova, representatives of the all-German coordination council of the Russian compatriots of Erfurt "The Russian field" were guests of honor of an exhibition.

Participation in the International KVILTFEST festival in Moscow (Russia), 2018.

The festival is an annual and most anticipated action for needlewomen from around the world.
19 - On April 22, 2018 in Moscow there took place the VI International festival "QUILT Fest-2018" where guests from Germany, Israel, England and Japan took part. The Yakut delegation at this festival was presented by uneven-age group - it is school students, teachers, experts of additional education, pensioners needlewomen.

For an exposition from Yakutia the section with the beautiful name "Olonkho's Earth" where bright vital works of the Yakut skilled workers were presented was allocated (a series of the panel "Olonkho's Earth", "Patterns of the Home Ground", a set of ceremonial horse furniture, the interior products "Blessing by a Pattern", etc.). These colorful works told visitors about vital values, culture and life of the Yakut people. Works of the Yakut skilled workers were allocated from the general concept of an exhibition, from these works blew as ethnic spirit … If, at a festival the majority of works were executed on the sewing machine, then products of the Yakut skilled workers to each stitch were made manually and admired with that all participants of a festival. Except everything, participants from Yakutia took active part in "A national fashion show".

Criteria for evaluation of creativity of Lyudmila Petrovna -the professionalism, perfection, culture, taste leading to pithiness of art expression. But the main criterion is a master L.P. Zhirkova, with what the nature and culture, expression in the works of original national character and style allocated her.