Member Monday with Vladyslava Hrytsiuk

This Monday, we’re featuring Member Vladyslava Hrytsiuk, founder of VONA, who uses bead embroidery and slow textile-making as a reflective practice. In her work, Hrytsiuk explores themes of repetition, emotional awareness, and the coexistence of contrast while drawing inspiration from Ukrainian ornamental traditions. She views textiles as more than decorative objects, instead presenting them as meaningful processes that foster presence, connection, and well-being through both her artwork and community workshops. Looking ahead, Hrytsiuk is creating wearable textile pieces that emphasize movement and embodied experience while expanding workshops that encourage participants to engage with beadwork as a practice of mindfulness and self-expression.

(Textile Society of America) Please tell us a bit about your work process, and/or inspiration. 

(Vladyslava Hrytsiuk) My work is centered around bead embroidery and textile-making as a way of thinking, feeling, and processing through making.I am especially drawn to repetition. Slow, repetitive handwork creates a sense of grounding and presence, and allows me to stay with a feeling or idea for longer. The process often begins intuitively, without a fixed plan, and gradually becomes more structured over time.

In my recent work, including a black embroidered corset, I explore contrast not as opposition, but as coexistence. Dark and light elements develop together, forming a relationship rather than competing with each other. This reflects my interest in complexity and the layered nature of personal experience.

I am also influenced by Ukrainian ornamental thinking—particularly repetition, rhythm, and symmetry—not as direct references, but as an internal structure that shapes the work.

VONA is my creative practice that combines textile art, beadwork, and creative well-being workshops. Through VONA, I explore how slow, hands-on making can support grounding, self-expression, and emotional awareness through both artistic work and shared creative experiences. Through VONA, I explore how textile practices can move beyond objects and become experiences that support grounding, self-expression, and emotional awareness.

(TSA) Does your work tend to reflect a communal process or more of an individual practice (or both?)

(VH) My work exists somewhere between an individual and a shared practice.The making process itself is very personal to me. It often begins as a quiet, internal space as a way to process emotions and stay present through repetitive handwork. This part of the work is slow, focused, and mostly solitary.

At the same time, I don’t see the work as only personal. Through VONA and my workshops, I am interested in how these processes can be experienced by others. Textile-making can create a sense of connection both inward and outward.

For me, it’s about movement between the inward and outward connections . Something that starts as an individual experience can open into a shared one, where others recognize similar feelings of grounding, reflection, or emotional presence.

(TSA) Do you encounter any misconceptions about your work / textiles and how do you address these?

(VH) People often see beadwork and textiles as primarily decorative or craft-based, rather than conceptual or reflective practices.This misconception can often lead to the depth of the process being overlooked. The time, repetition, and attention involved are not only technical choices, but also part of a larger intention of working with focus, presence, and emotional awareness.

I don’t try to directly argue against these assumptions. Instead, I address them through the work itself. The structure, the use of contrast, and the way materials are developed over time all carry meaning. When people spend more time with the work, they often begin to see it differently.

I am also interested in expanding how textiles are perceived more broadly, as not only  objects, but as processes that can hold experience, memory, and emotional states.

(TSA) How do you imagine that humanity might engage with textiles in the future? 

(VH) I think textiles are already starting to move beyond being seen only as objects, and more into being understood as processes and experiences.

In the past, textile practices were closely connected to everyday life in that they held time, care, knowledge, and rhythm. Making was not separate from living. I think there is something important in that way of relating to materials that we are beginning to return to.

Today, in a faster and more digital world, textile practices can offer a slower pace, a physical connection, and a way to stay present. Even simple, repetitive actions can create a sense of grounding and attention that is often missing in daily life.

In the future, I see textiles becoming more connected to well-being and emotional experience not only as finished works, but as practices people engage with directly through making, touching, and repetition.

(TSA) What projects are you currently working on / looking forward to?

(VH) Currently, I am developing a series of wearable textile pieces that explore repetition, movement, and embodied experience.

One direction I am focusing on is working with long beaded structures and cascading forms. I am interested in how length, weight, and movement can be physically felt on the body, creating a connection between material and sensation. These pieces are not only visual, but also experiential.

Alongside my making process, I am also developing workshops where participants can engage with beadwork as a slow, process-based activity. These workshops focus on attention, repetition, and creating space for reflection through making.

Through both the objects and the workshops, I am interested in expanding how textile practices are experienced as not only finished works, but as processes that support presence, self-expression, and emotional awareness.

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Vladyslava Hrytsiuk is a textile artist and the founder of VONA — Handmade & Well-Being.

Her work centers on bead embroidery and textile-making as both an artistic and reflective practice, rather than a purely decorative one. She explores how repetition and slow handwork can create space for grounding, emotional awareness, and presence.

Her recent work includes conceptual textile pieces, such as an embroidered corset that explores contrast as coexistence, where light and shadow are not treated as opposites but as elements that exist together within one structure.

Her approach is influenced by Ukrainian ornamental thinking — especially repetition, rhythm, and symmetry — which she translates into a contemporary artistic practice.

Alongside her artistic work, she develops workshops focused on creative well-being, where participants engage with making as a way to relax, reconnect, and express themselves. Hrytsiuk has been a member of TSA since 2025.

Website :
https://www.vonabyvh.com 

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/vona_by_vh