|
Nina Krinitsina, a pensioner from the Russian village
of Makarye, around 850 kilometers east of Moscow, has been decorating
her modest house with colorful bottle cap mosaics for the last seven
years.
The amateur artist, who currently has over thirty plastic mosaics nailed
to the walls of her house – some numbering over 1,000 bottle caps – was
originally encouraged by her nephew. He would provide her with grid
designs downloaded from the internet, and she would piece them together.
She used peas at first, but quickly switched to a more suitable material
– plastic bottle caps. She obviously needed quite a stock of caps of
various colors to create all the designs, and she didn’t shy away from
visiting the local landfill in search of them.
|
 |
|
“I don’t hide it, I go to the landfill in search of caps,” the
artistically-inclined grandmother told Russian reporters. “Sometimes I
find 100, 200 of them, other times, no more than 10. There are those who
say that the village drunkard lives here, but as you can see, not a
single wine cork or vodka bottle cap has been used.”
|
 |
|
Krinitsina’s mosaics first went viral online in 2014, when pictures were
shared on social media by Russian bloggers who spotted it when passing
through Makarye, but she’s been at it ever since and now her portfolio
numbers dozens of colorful mosaics. Most of the artworks are depictions
of characters from Soviet cartoons and Russian folktales.
|
|
|
|
“It calms me down. Settles my nerves,” the artist said, adding that her
home has become a local tourist attraction, with many families from the
region bringing their children to marvel at her creations. Locals have
even started donating plastic caps, but she still sources them herself
as well.
|
|
|
|
“If I walk and see a bottle lying around and it is with a cap on it,
then I unscrew the cap,” Nina Krinitsina said.
|