Masha, 29, spent some time modeling after winning ‘Miss Krasnoyarsk 2003,’ but she says that was never her thing. Creating goods and art with her hands is, she insists.
Masha lives and works in a Soviet-era power factory in Moscow, where she currently produces leather handbags that run from 3,000 to 8,000 rubles. The creative genes may come from her father, a sculpter who works with metal.
The Siberian native said she studied costume design in Krasnoyarsk but gave up her studies to move to model in Moscow after seeing how outdated the textbooks were.
A few years ago, she spent some time at a friend’s place, who makes shoes. It ended up changing her life.
”I watched him all day. After a week, I made five pairs. I couldn’t stop. Then I thought, I don’t have a hand bag, so I will make one for myself. Then I made a hand bag for my friend.”
Masha, who likes to ride a foot scooter around Moscow, said its much harder to promote herself and sell her bags than it is to make them. ”I am not a seller – I can’t put on a fake smile.”
Masha said she dreams of creating large mosaics for building interiors and visiting the Burning Man celebration in the US.
”It is an event that attracts a lot of creative people, so I think it can inspire me,” she said.
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- Masha won Miss Krasnoyarsk in 2003
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- Masha likes to skateboard.
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- Masha started with making shoes and then moved to bags.
