Cover photo: Dimitra Lefterova for Crochet fantasies
Some time ago our team prepared for you a detailed article with ideas for original Christmas surprises, and today we enrich our list with more interesting places to find beautiful items for your loved ones.
The situation around the coronavirus is quite tense and the big stores in the malls are currently closed, but this is a great opportunity to look at local artists and support small businesses that put a piece of their heart into their beautiful works every time.
Photo:Dimitra Lefterova
Our first offer is for the little ones and it makes their knitted fantasies come true. They present to us the talent of the journalist Veselina Bozhilova, who completely self-taught in an attempt to overcome the daily stress creates amazing dolls and toys from yarn. And as she herself says on her Facebook page: "creating a doll or a toy is an adventure. It doesn’t begin or end with the first and last stitch. It goes through a search for rare yarns, beautiful little pieces found in various stores, a selection of buttons that I have already bought from the entire city network and which "open" the dolls. I make them until they talk to me.”
Through her hobby, she manages to make hundreds of children happy, but also adults who need more joy and support in this pandemic, which has shackled us all in fear.
We continue with another master of knitting to keep us warm during the long winter nights. Rosi Bakalova has been creating and exhibiting her knitting for more than 20 years. You have certainly passed by her colorful studio in the very heart of Kapana - Hristo Dyukmedzhiev Street. In it, besides original models you will also find various reconstructions of museum exhibits of socks, over 100 years old. In fact, this is the only store for hand-knitted socks not only in Bulgaria, so it is definitely worth a visit!
For fans of fine jewelry, we recommend that you stop in Tsvetno on Zlatarska Street. There has been no gold on it for a long time, but there are masters with golden hands. The author of the jewelry Svetla is a master of jewelry from the Plovdiv Chamber of Crafts and uses various natural materials to make the beautiful jewelry - metal, leather, wood, cork, glass, clay, paper pulp. It doesn’t repeat patterns and you can be sure that the chosen gift will be one of a kind.
A little further down in the direction of Halite is the other place where we also advise you to stop. Studio d’arte Portovenere presents paintings, collages, designer jewelry, both of the owner - Diana Papazova, and her colleagues.
There are only two weeks left until Christmas, so take the time to choose something personal and made with love for your loved ones, and we will continue to find more interesting places for you.