Cotton tote bags made by RugLife exhibiting artist Oksana Levchenya.

Oksana Levchenya-Konstantinovska was born in 1975 in Bershad, the Vinnitsa region, Ukraine. She practiced as a surgeon for 4 years, before transferring her skills to becoming a multidisciplinary artist and founder of OLK Manufactory, a Kyiv-based company that produces traditional and modern hand-woven rugs and tapestries. OLK was born out of her determination to save the age-old weaving skills of this Ukrainian craft.

In her workshop, she combines folk ornament and traditional crafting techniques of this 16th-century craft but gives it a contemporary reading and a funky twist. She undertakes each stage of producing her kilim rugs – design, yarn-dyeing, intertwining by hand and steaming of the ready-made kilim. No machines are used in the kilim production process. The base of the rug is hemp thread, the carpet is made of the dyed natural wool of Carpathian sheep or vegetable yarn from nettles. Hundreds of warp threads are stretched on a vertical loom and yarn is intertwined with warp thread by hands, creating a real treasure that can entice the most demanding connoisseurs and serves for many years, passed on from generation to generation.

She also explores other art forms and has exhibited them internationally, at Artpalmbeach-2012, Miami, Fondamenta degli Incurabili, Venice and the Revelations Fair, Paris.

16” H x 15” W with a 15” handle drop.