Virginija Tulevičiūtė, creator of unique gifts: “It all started with the Christmas tree brought to Lazdiju”

More and more young people discover the vein of a creator in themselves and, in addition to their main work, take up creative activities that bring them pleasure, give them the fullness of life and the opportunity to realize their dreams.

Virginija Tulevičiūtė, a communication specialist who comes from Prienai, worked in Lazdijai for some time, and now moved her life to Marijampolė, has been devoting all her free time to artistic creation for several years. Having established the Ananas Dekor brand, she creates exclusive gifts from natural materials found in nature. The young woman is happy that her creative work brings her refreshment and pleasure, and her customers are happy to buy her unique works.

We talk to V. Tulevičiūta, the founder of Ananas Dekor, about what pushed her to create, why she creates works from natural materials, who are the buyers of her works, about work in Lazdijai, Suvalkies and Dzūki.

– How did you get the idea to take up artistic activity?

– In 2016, I created trees for Christmas, the idea arose not only to create them for myself, but also to try to sell them. Back then, the social network Facebook was a great niche to showcase and sell your creations. There was interest, at that time I even took my Christmas tree from my native Priene to Lazdij. The production and work process was sweet and heartwarming. After a few years, the memories came back, I realized that I really liked this activity. So, in the fall of 2021, I came back with Christmas trees, only slightly different and I wanted all the works to be in one place, on one Facebook page, with the prospect that later I will develop my activities not only with Christmas decorations. Well, the current result of the activity – gifts for various occasions – was helped by my completed studies in floristry and my friend’s wedding, where my first handmade gift from natural materials went.

– Why did you decide to work with natural materials, what inspired that activity, have you seen any attractive examples?

– I have always been fascinated by naturalness and nature. The very first impetus was when we were studying floristry, when we planted live plants in frames, and the created compositions were exhibited vertically – like paintings. This unusual decor model seemed to me very interesting and not yet very popular niche in Lithuania. It’s like a tiny piece of nature, transferred to our everyday space. I started offering this type of paintings to clients, but in the long run I saw that clients were reluctant to adopt such compositions. They are very eye-catching, but impractical and require more maintenance, which can be too difficult in our busy lives. So I started looking for something that could be natural, no-maintenance to maintain colors and textures for a long time. And so I discovered dried and dormant plants. And another important priority for me is that those plants are from our Lithuanian meadows. Of course, not everything lasts, but it is especially fun to create from those plants that I collected myself in the fields of our region.

– What are your works for? What could be the portrait of your client?

– I think that nature should be important to every person, and we, living at a wild pace, forget it more and more, do not pay attention, do not devote enough time to nature or to ourselves to be there. In this way, we do not allow ourselves, if you can call it, to naturally balance, calm down and be with nature and with our thoughts. This is my goal when creating, so that everyone who looks at the work remembers and remembers our fields or forests. To remember all the beautiful things that nature gives us, and to feel a little peace, the breath of nature, flowers, plants that can be found there.

A portrait of my client – of course, looking for something different, new, natural. As you can already understand, a person who loves nature, but does not have enough time to spend time in it.

– Where do you get, how do you prepare the materials for your works? Where do you get ideas for your works?

– As I mentioned before, I collect a lot of material – plants myself from our fields. The rest I buy from farmers or florists. I usually find inspiration in such a synthesis – the photo and the need of what the customers need. I feel like my product both frames and frees me. I have a very limited selection of frames, because I want the frame to be deep, so that the “live” natural life can grow inside it. So I’m always looking for ways to arrange plants in a different way, how to reveal them in a different way and make a mini meadow field, a forest, how to put everything together beautifully. So I always try to think of different new forms. Of course, I look at examples of other creators, sometimes a fragment gets stuck, then I try to move it and beautify it and apply it in my own work. Also, it is very important what kind of plants I have, because sometimes you can imagine one way, and the reality is sometimes different. I try to look at all the more interesting, untested dried and stabilized plants. It happens that I buy it, use it, but the length or the structure of the plant is not suitable, or it does not look good. Everything is done on a trial basis. In my works, I would like to reveal even more natural color of nature, because there is not much brightness in our Lithuanian nature. However, people tend to prefer brighter colors. Apparently, they are more festive. And perhaps the point is the presentation – the photo from which people choose.

– Why did you choose such an exotic name for your company? Do you like pineapples?

– I like pineapples very much. However, the name, which raises questions for many, appeared very simply and even by accident. When I worked at the Society and Business Development Institute, there were various trainings for businesses and young people. So, during one of the trainings, the lecturer and I talked about the fact that I have an artistic interest and that I want to create a page, but I can’t think of a name. The lecturer advised me to choose a name without much thought, something like this: “Bananas Dekor”, “Ananas Dekor.” I remembered “Ananas Dekor” the most, I thought that it was a very good idea. Some time has passed since the initial choice, so I would like to make this name a bit Lithuanian, to change it. But in principle, it is very nice that pineapple is associated not only with me, but also with my works.

– You are a public relations specialist. Is this creative work a counterweight to your main job?

– This creative work is my form of self-expression. I am very happy that I can apply my working knowledge in this activity. What’s more, I can boldly experiment, try, make mistakes, observe and grow the experience of a wide range of competences.

– You worked in Lazdijai for two years. What are your memories from this period?

– Memories from work in Lazdijai are only the best. In hindsight, I now consider myself very lucky to have started my career in the job I did. It’s just a little sad that I had to stay there for such a short time. Although almost five years have passed, I still miss my colleagues. Two very short years have given me an incredible amount of experience, many sweet acquaintances and special memories. It was an amazing time of growth for me.

– Now you live and work in Suvalkija. Suvalki people are said to be stingy with impractical things. Is it true?

– If fate allowed me to live in our regions, I can definitely say that all the sayings about the Dzuks or Suvalki people are really not out of the ordinary. One can certainly see many interesting and different features that are common in our expressions. But that’s what’s fascinating, that’s the beauty and uniqueness of our people and regions. And whether Suvalki people are stingy for impractical things depends a lot on the situation.

– What are your expectations for the future in terms of creative activity?

– I often discuss with myself what I would like more in the future: whether to sell more or to create more of something. But I think one of the most important things in this whole process is to motivate yourself not to stop, to never forget how it all started and how far you’ve come. In fact, I would like to continue to develop my activities in such a way that I am interested in creating and that people like my creations.