Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dovile Mikalauskaite . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dovile, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I brought a very nice macrame bracelet at the music festival that i really liked, but lost it the same evening. And I just heard my own voice in my head saying that i should try to make my own. Festival ended, I came back home and i still remembered that voice. So i decided to try, “how hard can it be” I thought to myslef. My first attempt was not very successful but i really enjoyed the process and decided to keep learning.

I don’t think there was a way to speed up the process as at that moment I had a regular job. And everyone is learning at their own phase.

The most essential skills were flexy, fast fingers. Being able to create and understand and analyse the design you want to create in your head. And the most important was patience, and a lot of it.

My biggest first obstacle was creating my own unique designs as all those threads seemed confusing. Another obstacle was to let myself freely experiment. And the biggest one was admitting my own worth and trusting myself and the process.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I create unique macrame wearable art, also most of my creations are visionary, psychedelic and fluorescent (UV-active). All of my creations are one of a kind, that means that even if there can be very similar items they are still all different and there are no 2 exactly the same.
I started doing macrame by following my voice. When I just started I already knew what I’m gonna do, and how it’s gonna be different from any other macrame creations. I combined my passion for minerals with my passion for UV art to make unique jewelry and other creations. My ideas comes mostly from visions and feelings, other’s are intuitive.

I also make custom pieces for my clients. I’m open to any unique ideas that one might have and materialize it. Or personalize already existing design with clients choices. So everyone can always find something they love.

What mostly sets me apart from other macrame artists is my style and psychedelic macrame jewelry. It’s my unique idea that I have from the very start, I knew what I’m gonna bring to the world that would reflect me. And I wanted to bring something different and never seen before.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The most in important lessons to unlearn was that you need to be compared to orthers to know your worth.

This is how It works at the start for most creators I guess. You look at other’s and think you are not good enough. It also happened to me too. When I just started sharing my work online I couldn’t not notice other creators and their amazing work, and it made me feel small and insignificant, like I’m not good enough and I can never be where they are. And the more you look at others the more you compare yourself to them, even though we are all walking different paths.

To truly unlearn this and acknowledge my worth, Allyson’s Grey words about what it means to be an artist really helped me. I was almost telling those words to myself as a mantra to realise that we make ourselves artists and no one else. We are all different and unique, and we don’t need to compare ourselves with anyone. We should look only into ourselves and dive deep into creativity. When I truly understood that it gave me so much confidence in myself and trust in what I’m doind.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think society should understand how waistful and soulless mass production and fast fashion is. Mass production is cheep, I get it, but the problem is the view on it. The view that we need every new item, that we need to just buy and buy and buy just because it’s available to us. And that we measure our happiness and well being in how many stuff we have and how new it is. Society should start value quality over quantity.
And another terrible thing for environment and for creators too is fast fashion. The idea that you need to buy and throw out your clothes every season sounds just ridiculous to me. I myself buy only things that I really like and feel connected to and wear them till they are not wearable anymore.
Realising that items created with love and care, also amazing ideas and great quality will serve you for a long time. And those are items that you chose yourself because you like it, not because fast moving fashion told you so. This way you also support your small businesses and artists, and create a more friendly environment for each other.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_swamp_art_
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SwampArtMacrame

Image Credits
I want to give a credit to my amazing boyfriend Romans Volosatovs for always helping me when I need to take pictures.