THE ARTS
IZABELA SOKOLOVSKA Artisan Game Changer, on a Mission to Shape the Future of Artisan’s Interview by Jasmina Siderovski
“To be happy. When you make someone else happy it makes you happy as well.” – Izabela Sokolovska
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an you please tell our readers about your background and life growing up?
I was born and raised in Skopje Macedonia. Before I start to go to school, my mom thought me how to do knitting and embroidery. I loved it and always have been keen to handcrafting. I grew up in Skopje, where I studied French language and literature and right after that I started to work on a cruise ship and yacht. I have visited a lot of countries and exotic places. I had an opening of my spirit seeing all the different cultures and meeting wonderful people. One of the things I loved most were the products made by the local artisans. For example, in Bali the wood carving and knitted bags were one of my favourites. After I came home, which is ten years ago, in one of the most boring periods of my life, I started doing quilling. It is a craft really contagious and once you start it you cannot stop it. 14 | eYs Magazine, Winter 2021
At that time, there were no tools or materials in Macedonia neither a workshop where I could’ve not learned everything. That is when it all started. I have faced many challenges and struggles. This was ten years ago I started to develop my artisan’s skill and I found myself wanting to make it my way of life, as an artisan. I wanted to turn this work into my livelihood but unfortunately hand-made products here are not that highly rated and it is difficult to survive by making them. You need to work another career and create handmade products as a hobby. But I wanted to turn this work into my profession. I visited many bazars at the time and depending on the time of year the bazars sometimes were already full or were very expensive to take part in. So, I decided to organise one of my own and rented a hall in a big hotel and accepted everyone who wanted to participate and sell their products.
