Surprisingly, Olesya Galushcenko is a hydraulics engineer by her specialty. Seven years ago, during maternity leave, she started creating porcelain flowers as a personal challenge. Olesya Galushcenko was self-taught so she spent hours learning the craft herself using free internet tutorials. However, they only taught her how to get started; the rest she had to figure out herself.
At first, Galushcenko worked with polymer clay, but soon, she realized that it wasn’t the right material for her as she wanted her works to look more realistic. So she decided to experiment with cold porcelain, which finally met her needs. Now, to achieve almost perfect flower replicas, she makes molds of every little part of the flowers, from the petals to the stamens and pistils, out of toothpaste. Then she creates the frame of the bouquet from wire covered in tape. Finally, everything is carefully coated in porcelain and assembled in beautiful arrangements.
“I became interested in botanical sculpture in 2012, during maternity leave for my youngest son. I stumbled across Deco polymer clay flowers on the internet. I started to independently study everything about this work on the internet. In the first months, I worked with deco clay, but the flowers were not real enough for me. So I bought another clay on my own and found ways to make this or that flower. Then, day after day, my experience grew and gradually, the flowers became the way you see them today. However, I am always looking for new solutions and I believe that there is no limit to perfection. Now I use Japanese and Thai floristic polymer clays. They are clays that harden when exposed to air. They are popularly called 'cold porcelain,' although they have nothing to do with porcelain. To this day, many women and even men are already dedicated to polymer floriculture. This is a very exciting job that combines: floriculture, sculpture, artistic skills. On the internet, you can find many paid and free classes, master classes,” says the artist to Bored Panda.
