Let’s Revisit Polina from KoTriangle

Where are you from and tell us a little about yourself?
My family is from Russia, city Khabarovsk. That’s in the Far East, very close to China, Korea and Japan. My husband Andrej and I work in the theatre and my 18 year old daughter is a student in the University in Vladivostok. She majors in English and Literature. We are a very friendly family and we do everything together. Even though we have a lot of work in the theatre, crafting is a very big part of our lives. Andrej and I felt together and our daughter works as a model for our items and works with customers. But of course we discuss ideas for our creations all together!

Why did you start your Etsy shop?

It all started as a hobby. We loved making unique gifts for our friends – something very special that can make them smile. Soon more and more people were getting to know about our creations. You know how that happens: your friends show these gifts to their friends and so on. That’s how we opened a little shop in our native city in Russia. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find all the supplies we needed in the local shops, so we started searching for them in the Internet. Quite soon we found Etsy and of course fell in love with this site. There are just so many talented authors and cute things here! At first we were just ordering things from here… but then we decideв to join this amazing community. And we are very happy to be here!

How did you come up with your Etsy shop name?
It was not a very hard choice for us. We are a family and there are three of us, so we decided to express it somehow in our shop’s name. That’s why we named it “KoTriangle”.

What is your favorite item in your shop and why?
I think my favorite item in the shop is the felted Rabbit (http://www.etsy.com/listing/29952799/free-shipping-felted-sculpture-rabbit). It was one of our early creations and the first item that got a “heart” in our Etsy shop.

Do any of your pieces have a memorable story behind them?
I think there is a story behind almost any piece of our shop. Felting is a very creative process; every item is unique and one-of-a-kind. Of course we draw sketches but most of the ideas come during the felting process when you start to work with wool. We draw our inspiration from the outside world (our trips to the seaside, beautiful landscapes and so on) and also from the material itself, its color and texture.

Sometimes you think of some particular person while making an item. That’s how the hat “Mexico” (http://www.etsy.com/listing/56387917/free-shipping-hand-felted-hat-mexico) was made. Our Mexican friend Jesica became our inspiration. She is a very beautiful girl with deep-brown eyes and sunny personality. Now imagine how surprised we were when one of our friends exclaimed: “Oh, that’s a Mexican hat!” when she saw it. And she has never been to Mexico and didn’t know about our inspiration!

If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your “creativity”, what would that be, and why?
Well, my main medium to express creativity is, of course, my work in the theatre. Also I love making hand-made greeting cards. If speaking about something completely different, I would love to design interiors.

What aspect of creating your art/craft do you find the most enjoyable?
The final stage! I adore decorating the items!

How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?

We all always loved crafting. We used to make hand-made toys, hand-made greeting cards, but we found a material and technique in which we found everything we love: that was simply perfect. Felting is an amazing technique to work with and it gives a lot of freedom in artistic self-expression, because you can shape this material in almost any form, combine it with other fibers and fabrics, decorate your creations however you like! We use three major techniques of felting: needle felting (for making felted sculptures), wet felting (for making clothes, accessories, slippers) and nuno-felting (also for making clothes, for example, scarves where wool is combined with fabric, which gives it a very unusual texture).

Do you have plans for expansion?
Yes, we want to make felted clothes. But we defiantly should work a lot to make that happen.

Any other sites you can be found on?
About a month ago we started a blog (http://kotriangle.blogspot.com/) and now we are exploring this big friendly community, which is really fun!
Also we have a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/ko_triangle) where I post all the updates of my shop.

Anything else you would like us to know?
We should honestly say that this year with Etsy was really a great one, we are enjoying every day here!
Thank you for giving this opportunity to share our work with others, because the world of felting is very diverse and beautiful!