These women are dripping in talent, and overflowing with creativity. They are totally driven by a passion that burns deep inside both of their hearts and souls. The Popovy Sisters, and their intricate, stunning, one of a kind, Ball Joint Dolls. Twin Sisters, Ekaterina and Elena Popovy, also known as Katya and Lena, are professional artists and fashion designers from Perm Russia. They both graduated from Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts in Yekaterinburg Russia. They decided to start making dolls in 2004. It was around this time that a lot of doll collectors started asking themselves, “What if one day these creations could become posable”? In 2012 it finally happened, the sisters introduced the first pictures of their “SISTERS” articulated doll line to the Russian audience. With these dolls they participated in exhibitions in Japan and Germany. The dolls became an instant hit, and sold out immediately! Now there’s a waiting list for those collectors who dream of owning one of these unbelievable creations.
In the beginning they tried to not only make portrait dolls, but also convey the nature of the characters through their gestures and costumes. However, portrait dolls didn’t seem to allow them to express themselves as designers, so they started experimenting with different materials. They finally found the perfect solution, they combined their passion for doll art with their passion for fashion design. Which has now grown into small conceptual collections of 10 – 15 dolls. Here’s a little secret for you, each and every doll has a tiny hand painted butterfly somewhere on it. Here’s a breakdown of their creative process in their own words:
“There’s a huge amount of preparative work that goes on behind every collection.
First, there’s an idea/emotion, that is born.
From there we develop a concept for the project, then we start preparative work, such as:
we learn the history, search for the images, develop the texture, choose technique, and draw sketches.
Figures, gestures, stylization, artistic delivery, and costume design,
all go along with one theme to express the idea to maximum extent!
Every doll is handmade from start to finish, with a TON of love from each of us”.
The sisters make one collection a year, and they exhibit these beautiful dolls all over the world. Exhibitions and fairs bring them tons of positive emotions. Sisters love watching peoples faces when they finally see their work for the first time. Reaction of their audience is very meaningful to the sisters. It’s like that moment in time, when everything they’ve been working so diligently on all year, is born in a sense, and given to the public.
In 2017 Sisters released Fine Art Photography limited edition prints and now getting ready for their first show in Los Angeles.
"Photography and our hobbies have always been inextricably linked. We started taking pictures early.
Our dad was fond of photography. He photographed our family, nature, different subjects.
We gladly participated in this. We constantly took pictures.
Over time, we began taking pictures of our dolls during work, in different stages and environments.
The photos became our second passion; the photos and dolls are inseparable in our creation.
We perceived it as something more than just a photo of an object. Through the photo, the doll as a bud has revealed all its sides.
We pay much attention to the posing of the doll. Sometimes it even seems that a doll is no longer an object, but a drawing.
We have accumulated so many pictures that at one moment we thought about a separate direction in our art,
about creating prints as a separate artwork."
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