“ART BECAME OUR PATH TO RECOVERY”

When the war in Ukraine forced Ivan Grodzensky and his wife, Anna Lesnycha, 
to flee their hometown, they didn’t just rebuild their lives, they reinvented them. 
What began as a way to pass time after settling near the Slovakian border soon 
turned into a flourishing business. “I never imagined that fleeing my home would 
lead me to art,” says Ivan, who, with a background in ceramics, quickly mastered the new medium while Anna continued her artistic journey with her gentle, 
whimsical creations. In this conversation, Ivan shares how they formed a unique 
partnership and turned adversity into a creative opportunity.

 

Hello Ivan! You have been showcasing incredible polymer clay sculptures across social media. What was your beginning with this medium?

I first tried to make something from polymer clay in Spring 2022. Before that, my family lived in the Kharkiv region, just seventeen kilometers from the Russian border. I had a workshop with nine people, making and designing furniture. At the time, my wife Anna had been running her Etsy shop with her own polymer clay sculptures.

I had some experience in sculpting during my school years. I often visited a ceramic studio, where I was making sculptures from ordinary clay, and also sculpted with simple plasticine.

 

Those past years have been incredibly difficult for you and your whole country. How did you manage the situation?

Yeah, as you know, at the same time, our town was shelled with artillery fire, and a few days later our town was bombarded randomly from the air. Street battles began in some parts of our town, and the Russian army fired on residential buildings from tank guns… We were forced to leave everything and flee to the West.

We settled in a friend‘s apartment near the Slovakian border. Some time later, we found a way to get our tools and material from our hometown, and my wife began to restore her online shop.

Leaving everything in my workshop behind, I suddenly had a lot of free time, and I tried to make a few sculptures from polymer clay. I put my sculptures up for sale just for fun, without taking it seriously. And I was shocked – they were sold in a week or so. People started writing really good feedback, and since then, we’ve worked together as a family of artists.

 

It’s wonderful how both you and your wife’s styles complement each other. How did you manage to work with this medium so well in such a short time?

My wife gave me some pointers, and I guess it helped that I had experience with ceramics, which is certainly more difficult to work with. Nowadays, Anna has her creatures and I make mine. Our styles are different. If you see cute, albino, anime-looking creatures, that’s her work. Mine are monster-looking, colorful, and creepy.

 

In terms of your business, there are many other activities and parts of the work you have to do. How did you distribute your roles, while working as individuals and as a team?

Anna does photography, runs Instagram, paints our artworks, and makes epoxy eyes and pendants… I handle Etsy, eBay, figuring out SEO, listing, logistics, our Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit… I also make molds and steel armatures for new sculptures.

I think Anna’s work is closer to the artistic side. She’s definitely more artistic than I am. She doesn’t think much about selling the creatures and simply enjoys the process.

 

Has your art become your full-time job?

Yes, since we formed a team, sales have increased sevenfold. We have up to eighty orders per month during the high season, even more now that we have helpers working part-time.

 

That’s amazing! How does the collaboration process work in your case? Do you handle the design of the sculpture while others take care of the casting, or is it a different setup?

We made our own molds for the most popular sculptures. Essentially, molding from polymer clay is different from working with gypsum or epoxy resin. Since polymer clay is not a liquid substance, the sculpture after baking in the mold requires finishing, grinding, sanding, and assembly. For the solid parts, we have assistants. They are two students from the local College of Arts, working from home on their own schedule. For them, it’s an opportunity to learn something new, from anatomy and applied materials to the process of making the sculpture, and even some hints on how to sell art and make a living. For us, on the other hand, it frees up time for creating something new, and it’s a nice opportunity to learn how young artists create and live.

 

Are there any aspects of polymer clay that you feel need improvement to enhance its characteristics?

First – it’s really easy to work with, especially having experience with ordinary clay, wood, or steel. Polymer clay artworks are quick to make and very easy to bake in an ordinary oven! Compare that to needing 20-30 types of electric tools for woodwork or a 1200°C kiln to bake ceramics.

I have experience working with only Cernit and Fimo. I actually tried Cosclay once as well. I really like the semi-translucent effect, which makes our alien creatures look very natural, with a surface similar to skin.

For me, the only problem is that Cernit is too fragile and sometimes too soft. Fimo feels harder, Cosclay even springy, but it doesn’t have that skin-like appearance. At least, I haven’t seen it yet. You know, different brands have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

Your skin-like effects are incredible, giving such depth to your creatures. When it comes to your characters, do you draw inspiration from specific sources, or do they emerge from your imagination?

It’s different every time. My wife is inspired by nature – she loves cute, plump creatures like tapirs, wombats, otters, or rain frogs. Many of her creatures’ forms come from nature. I just imagine what alternative evolution could look like.

In my art project about American cryptids, I make creatures based on urban legends and folklore. I search for information, sketches, photos, police testimony, eyewitness descriptions and create the creatures based on those “facts.”

 

What does a regular workday with your wife Anna look like?

First of all, we make a plan for our workday: “These sculptures need to be painted, we need new photos here, these items need to be shipped today…” We work at home, using two rooms for our processes, so personal life and work are mixed. We don’t have a fixed schedule – it depends more on our mood each day.

My wife prefers working in the morning, while I like working at night. We always have something to do, but having that flexibility means we can make a weekend on any day. If it’s raining on Sunday, we can 
work and then rest on Monday, go outdoors, to a lake or forest.

This is a huge advantage for me. I’m happy to earn less but live more freely. Besides the clay work, we also have a lot to do on the house we live in, which is under reconstruction.

 

Do you have certain goals in terms of your business and art?

I’d like to grow our art business more. I’d like to have a product line from affordable souvenirs to real art. In addition to my American Monsters project, which is far from finished, I’ve seen interest and requests from European and UK folklore lovers to make 
sculptures of mythical and cryptid creatures from their countries.

We’ve also started doing hand-painted ethnic ornaments on some of our sculptures. I’ve made a few levitating models, such as a flying polymer clay frog with an electromagnetic levitation device inside. I’ll keep working on that project too. In fact, there are more plans and goals than we actually have time for.

 

Do you think your life would be different today if it weren’t for polymer clay and your wife’s expertise?

It’s a combination of circumstances: war and relocation, my wife’s experience, and her Etsy shop… And the fact that I was able to make something interesting from polymer clay while many people have tried and gotten zero results.

Now, our life looks completely different from what we had three years ago. If I had known this story was possible, I’d have made the same choices ten years ago. Working with my wife at home, making art, selling internationally – it’s the best thing I could ever imagine.