The various efforts of USAID LINC aimed at developing local handicrafts and souvenir production in Crimea gradually lead, among other effects, to a change in attitude of artisans toward what they do and how they sell. A result is that the craft, while remaining an art, becomes a profitable business rather than a hobby.

Whereas a purse is commonly viewed as a temporary haven of one’s money on its way form earning to spending, those who make purses, especially by hand, treat them as both a piece of art and a source of income. The latter, however, depends on whether or not the artisan in question is lucky enough to find buyers for the purses he or she has made.

Maria Korniyenko, a 32-year-old craftswoman from Crimea’s Feodosia, is a person of multiple skills. She was trained as a tailor, cutter, and apprentice training master; and she’s been employed as a guide for four years – a seasonal job, like many other jobs in Crimea. In her childhood, she also attended an art school. “I’ve always been drawing and painting,” she says.

After vocational school, when Maria was 19, she took a job at a small shop sewing items of leather. It was then that she also became an artisan engaged in the leather art. Maria makes various objets d’art of small colored pieces of leather, such as purses, wallets, and handbags, as well as wall hangings. An important thing about her artwork is that these items are genuine hand-made utilitarian souvenirs to take home just from Crimea, as they bear actual Crimean seascapes.

Maria says she has learned a lot as a leather artist since then, and significantly improved the product quality. However, there was a problem of promotion and sale: “It’s quite often that one can do beautiful things but cannot praise, advertise oneself. And anyway, it’s impossible to create and sell at the same time.”

Thus the “sales division” was the trouble of Maria’s mother in law, who offered the purses along with other products to tourists from a makeshift counter on Feodosia’s seaside promenade – the only sales outlet for Maria. The sales equaled up to 120 to 150 pieces during a season, which is the three summer months, provided the season was good, with no demand off-season at all.

”It was no more than a little hobby,” says Maria. “One year I even thought of giving up the leather art altogether – so prospectless it seemed to me. It seemed that there was nothing special in my artwork.”

Thanks to the USAID Local Investment and National Competitiveness project (USAID LINC), she thinks so no more.

The project sponsored Maria’s, as well as many other Crimean artisans’, participation in exhibitions and fairs – either in person or by showcasing her products – and also provided useful tips on how to price, present, and sell the artwork. The result was not only quite a ponderable addition to Maria’s household budget but also important business contacts and, even more important, self-reassessment.

In her thank you letter to USAID LINC after participating in the International Fair “Crimea-Resorts-Tourism” in Yalta, Crimea, Maria reports, beside successful sales, on “interesting offers” from souvenir stores in Hurzuf, Livadia, Sevastopol, and Simferopol. “The results of the trip to Yalta surpassed all my hopes. I’m sure that this was partly due to the way my products were ‘submitted’ for viewing by exhibition visitors,” the letter reads.

”Over the year of collaborating with LINC, I have changed radically my attitude toward the products I create… Now I understand how interesting, and in many respects unique, the things I make are… that my work with leather can be a source of income, and I can afford not to take job for the sake of a salary but earn by engaging in work I love,” Maria also wrote.

”If not for the LINC support, my purses would continue selling only in the summertime and only on the Feodosia promenade,” the letter pointed out. Moreover, Maria reported that she had heard “only kind words addressed to LINC” when communicating with other artisans.

According to an analysis made by USAID LINC in 2010, the Crimean sector of handicrafts and souvenir production was plagued by problems: artisans’ lack of a legal status and lack of an organization that would unite them, weak cooperation with sellers of their products, a short selling season, limited areas for souvenir retail outlets, and competition with cheap foreign goods – just to mention a few. Some of the problems were exogenous and could not be solved by artisans themselves. Others, however, stemmed from their lacking or insufficient knowledge and understanding of many things – from how your products should to be priced to how they should be showcased. In other words, Crimean artisans, as well as souvenir sellers for that matter, were not market ready in terms of Western standards.

USAID LINC addressed the multiple problems with a variety of actions, including workshops and seminars, legal and expert counseling, sponsoring artisans for participation in exhibitions and fairs, and establishment – in conjunction with Slow Food – of the Crafts Chamber of Crimea. As of early April 2011, these actions have reached a total of over 300 participants including not only artisans but also people involved in regulation of the handicraft industry and sale of artwork. The core of the efforts was to transfer knowledge, integrate general tourism development on the peninsula with development of handicrafts, and help artisans and souvenir makers promote their products and establish links with sellers.