Mandarin Duck Crafting the most beautiful journals, book covers and Kindle cases.
London-based artist Aniko Kolesnikova, also known as Mandarin Duck.
I’d rather stay honest and explain myself on how I feel about my own work, as I feel the need to say it sometimes for your knowledge, but also for my own understanding. Sometimes we do things that we don’t want to do, sometimes life forces us to bend down and turn ourselves inside out. I am trying to stay as true to myself as much as I can by being honest and by seeing my flaws, seeing my disadvantages and instead of masking them away, I want to work and develop the weak areas of my creative talent. The only way to progress is to accept that you are not perfect, very far from it, but you want to be as perfect version of your own self as you possibly can. I may never reach my own perfection concept or maybe I will.. but then I will surely raise my own bars so I can always look upwards and spread my hands hight into the sky… I don’t like the concept of reaching the top and then bending down and looking down on everybody else. The idea of having no goal or no area to grow actually scares me a lot! I need the sun to be a descent tree that reaches out for the light!
Of course you also have to be realistic and still love yourself even if you know the areas where you are not as good and you may not deserve the love you give to yourself. Love yourself as if you are a child of your own self. Love yourself like a mother would love her naughty child. She would still try her best to educate, develop and raise him as good as possible, but no matter what.. she would still love him. So love yourself with all your flaws and imperfections and after accepting them, work on them, if you feel that you would like to change them for something better. Accepting and loving your flaws and imperfections only counts when you are ready to change what is changeable. What can’t be changed, should be accepted as God’s gift or life’s lesson.
I hope that makes sence..
I have done quite a few dragon journals so far, but this one has a special twist as this is a water dragon and it is presented in a way as if he is swimming in water. I particularly liked how the air bubbles manifested in the progress of my creation. I fantasise as I go and many of you know it already. These little bubbles appeared unexpectedly when I wanted to add some sparkle to the journal and found these matching blue cabs in my supplies.
Mandarin Duck Crafting the most beautiful journals, book covers and Kindle cases
more at www.mandarin-duck.com or follow Aniko on Instagram. To find out how to craft your own polymer clay covers, Aniko has helpfully created her own video tutorials.