Olga Kabanova’s earliest memories of crafts inevitably go back to her native Russia.
I was in second grade and my teacher, a lady with whom I had the joy of learning to sew and embroider, left us a homework assignment in greeting to March 8, International Women’s Day, to give our mothers a gift, she says Now this well-known creator from the portal of the Romantic Museum, in Trinidad, where she spends her days between shoelaces, fraying and fabrics.
On a cloth that her mother protected, one could always read, embroidered by her daughter’s hands, “To my dear mother”; and from that moment, never again, Olga has been able to get rid of this demonstration that has served as a support for the whole family and has given her a lot of joy.
Over the years, this blonde woman, with very white skin and who still retains a foreign accent despite living in Cuba for several decades, studied until she became a theater teacher and cook, however, her passion for crafts remained intact.
It was very difficult for me to leave the theater, she told the Cuban News Agency who is a member of the Cuban Association of Artisan Artists and founder of the Trinitarian Urdimbre project; but beyond the problems we have today to acquire the raw material, weaving, embroidering and giving unsuspected shapes to the fabric, I feel totally fulfilled, she said.
And while closely following the movements of the third of her children who plays among the creations of the members of Warp, Kabanova speaks, in turn, of how much she likes the silence of the night to work, NO matter how tired the long daytime shift because he enjoys when people celebrate his works.
At the end of each piece, he shows it at home so that passers-by can appreciate it and despite the fact that on several occasions they have wanted to buy it, he has always refused; It gives me great satisfaction that people are happy observing the details of the crafts, said who, due to the hazards of life, was flattened in the famous town recognized as the Artisan City of the World and Creative City.
What Olga is most passionate about is crocheting, a very difficult technique that she knows how to master perfectly and that has given her more than one physical discomfort; I like the lace too and it’s a little easier, that’s why I had to change, however, crochet is my life, she pointed out.
When you make a mistake, you get very bad, he stressed while showing him the team of reporters his latest materials that already arouse the interest of several countrymen who walk the ancient streets of Trinidad; however, later it is resolved, yes, with high doses of patience and dedication, and tranquility arrives, she pointed out.
After participating in other groups, in 2017, Olga Kabanova and seven other creators of the once third Cuban village decided to found Urdimbre, a group with concerns about a tradition almost as old as the town born in 1514.
In Urdimbre, in full harmony with that passion that gripped her since she was a child, Olga has been able to pass on to the new generations everything she knows about weaving and embroidery and continue to create as freely as she dreamed of ever since, in her homeland, that visionary teacher , invited her to take in her hands the thread, the needle and the fabrics
