About free and paid content
My educational activities during the period of 2018–2022 were limited to fairly rare master classes in different cities in Russia. For the last five years, I’ve visited about 15 different cities in Russia, and in some, I’ve been twice. These master classes and the reactions of participants gave me a certain insight that I am able to inspire people to create and dive into creative fields.
It is important for me to create and accumulate professional skills, but I’m also willing to share my knowledge. For the last several years, I’ve received many offers to educate in private art schools, as well as offers to produce and create my own online video courses, but I politely declined since I was more focused on personal growth. It is worth mentioning a few schools asked for permission to use my materials and online articles to educate children. But as time went on, some people were questioning the reasons and production costs of my free materials and content, so much so that there were even theories that I was secretly receiving government funding, which is not true. I just redirected funds from my commissions for the sake of the quality of my free educational materials.
However, as my professionalism grew, so did my natural desire to raise the stakes, create better educational materials and sell my original art. In 2019 I started selling my prints. Then in 2020, I created my first calligraphy worksheets called “Freeforms.” Selling paid materials became an opportunity to get closer to my audience. My readers had the opportunity to thank me for my efforts and the inspiration that I publicly share. I have also faced a personal dilemma several times. Are my efforts and public materials being devalued if they’re free, which obviously may mislead potential viewers?
So over time, there was a desire to structure my material not in the format of internet articles but in the form of .pdf guides. The written articles about Slavic Vyaz remain free, and in addition, I’ve translated them from Russian to the English language.
For example, the series of articles about my Slavic Vyaz is expanded with material that contains Latin letters and numbers, and there will be more examples of work with the creative processes. I don’t want to speak out loud with some classic phrases like “I’ll share secrets of Slavic Vyaz with you” or “I’ll teach you to write in 60 minutes” since this contradicts my professional position. It should be evident that without reasonable effort and diligence,x nothing is achieved, and my guides are only slightly helping in the development of your creativity.
