Creating to cope:
Local Ukrainian potters use their works to help their homeland, cope with the war
Five years of cups and plates filled Vasfie Abdurafeeva's husband’s office and overflowed into the garage.
She and her sister-in-law Anna Andriets began taking ceramic classes for fun when they moved to the U.S. almost a decade ago. But once Russia invaded Ukraine, the fun was gone.
“I have this feeling like I am guilty because I am not in Ukraine,” Anna said. “I live here in this safe place, but a lot of Ukrainians now not in the safe place, and it's hard to understand. I just didn't understand how all this could happen.”
For nearly two months, air raid sirens have blasted warnings in Ukraine as Russian missiles fall from the sky. Major cities have been reduced to rubble, and tales of atrocities are beginning to emerge.
The women do not know when they will see their extended families in-person again. They watched from Flower Mound as major cities crumpled into ruins and millions of Ukrainians became refugees.
They didn’t just want to stand by. So they began selling their ceramics — cups, plates and tea sets —to raise money for Ukraine.
Many of the festivals are in Fort Worth. The women leave home around 7 a.m. to make the 40 minute drive. It takes them two hours to set up the tent and shelves where they display their wares. They don’t get home until 6 p.m.
“We got everything to enjoy our life and then suddenly there's something happening and you just cannot believe," Vasfie said. "It doesn’t fit in my brain. I cannot believe."
Vasfie and Anna are from Crimea. The peninsula in Eastern Europe, situated along the northern coast of the Black Sea, became a part of Ukraine in 1991. But Russia claimed it in 2014.
Anna left in 2014 with her husband and two daughters. Vasfie and her husband and son followed a year later.
Vasfie's extended family —parents, siblings, nieces and nephews — remain in Russian-controlled Crimea. Anna's parents are there too.
War-torn
But, it’s hard to stay in touch. Russia has blocked Facebook, Instagram and other social media.
“It is really difficult just because you wake up and you don’t know what's going to happen today or tomorrow,” Vasfie said.
They talk on Skype and social media through a VPN, or a virtual private network, that shields their activities.
“I really want to see my nieces and nephews,” Vasfie said. “They’re cute. They're growing. The biggest fear maybe because Russia is getting isolated right now, so I don't know how it's going to be there, you know?”
Anna had a plane ticket to visit her mom this summer. But Crimea won’t accept her Ukrainian or U.S. passport.
Photo credit: A view of a building damaged by shelling in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Many of their friends live in Ukraine.
Vasfie said one friend fled to Poland. What should have been an eight-hour trip took 24 hours.
“It’s quiet, it’s peaceful here,” Vasfie said her friend told her. “I can hear birds and it's just weird silent.”
“I feel relieved because I was worried about her,” Vasfie said.
But there are others she hasn’t heard from.
“I feel for all of these people because we are all family,” Vasfie said.
Anna's relatives live in central Ukraine in Vinnytsia. They are OK, but their city was bombed several times. Some of her friends have fled to Poland and Germany from Kharkiv and Kyiv.
“I really adore our people in Ukraine now because they are strong and they are rocks,” Anna said. “I have feelings inside of me that I'm proud of them.”
Vasfie and Anna couldn’t stand to watch the news each day and do nothing about what they were seeing.
“When we see how strong people in Ukraine, we want to be the same here,” Vasfie said. “We just want to help in the way we can.”
Photo 1: People fleeing from Ukraine queue to board on a bus at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, March 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Photo 2: Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, where Anna Andriets's family lives. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Photo 3: A firefighter works to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack destroyed the building of a Culinary School in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Photo 4: A Ukrainian serviceman walks amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, April 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
Make art, not war
They searched online to find festivals to sign up for to sell the ceramics.
Their calendar is full.
“I saw all the craft shows coming up, and then I asked Anna if she wants to do that, and we just decided we need to start doing something,” Vasfie said. “Otherwise it’s just so hard reading and thinking all the time about what’s happening there and not being able to help.”
For the first two weeks after the invasion, Anna said she was “like a zombie.” She was constantly reading the news and trying to control the situation, but she couldn’t.
“And then I told her you need to start just making stuff and get yourself busy because it's not good for you,” Vasfie said. “All these festivals really helps, because when you go and you speak up, we talk to people and they support — actually that means a lot.”
Vasfie said one of the customers wanted to buy a $15 cup. They asked if $15 was enough to help.
“I just looked and said ‘yeah,’ because even if you get $15 and send it to them (people in Ukraine) it will help. Just little things might save one life.”
Focusing on creating art for the festivals interrupts Anna from thinking about the war. She works in the studio and on a wheel in her backyard. She has stopped reading the news as often.
To prepare for the festivals, they focus on making popular items like cups. But their days in the studio have always been long. Most days, Vasfie arrives before 8 a.m. and doesn’t leave until 6 p.m.
“I kind of live here,” Vasfie said. “The other day, I made 20 cups.”
Sharing Ukrainian culture
Selling their pieces also helps show Americans their culture.
“It's something I really enjoy, and when you enjoy it and make others happy that's just the main goal of what I'm doing,” Vasfie said. “And introducing of course my culture.”
Vasfie carves traditional Crimean Tatar symbols called Örnek into her work. The symbols are arranged to create a narrative composition. Vasfie is studying the meaning of the different symbols and how to arrange them. But this is a challenge.
Örnek originated by Crimean Tatar communities. Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group and nation who are an indigenous people of Crimea. In 1944, during World War II, Crimean Tatars were deported to Central Asia by the Soviet government.
They lost a lot of their cultural history, including the meanings behind Örnek symbols.
Anna decorates her pieces with Örnek too, but she also enjoys creating designs from her imagination.
She carves and glazes sunflowers because they remind her of the sunflower fields in the Ukraine countryside.
The black walnuts on some of her pieces are an ode to her grandmother who had a black walnut tree in her backyard when Anna was growing up.
"I think art makes us better," Anna said. "If you create something, you can give your good energy and spread your good energy to people."
Crimean artists are trying to restore the meanings of Örnek, and Vasfie is determined to learn.
Tulips symbolize the male. The almond flower represents kids. Bigger almond flowers represent the female. Pomegranates symbolize abundance. Triangles symbolize stability.
“All of them are new for me, and I'm learning how to combine symbols,” Vasfie said. She added, “I'm trying to learn more and improve my work, make it more meaningful."
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