On July 6-7, the traditional city holiday "Petrovskaya Yarmarka" took place in Chernivtsi. It arose in the days of Austria-Hungary before the day of Saints Peter and Paul and was a real trade center not only of Bukovina, but of the entire South-East of Europe. Its program: exhibitions and sales of consumer goods, presentations of products of local and domestic producers, construction industries, furniture, services, products of folk craftsmen, entertainment and cultural and artistic events.
For our company, participation in this event has already become a tradition - for several years in a row we have been taking part in the fair. We presented to the visitors a wide range of nets ("Chain-link", welded, canned, armored belt), samples of sectional fences and many design solutions for the use of gabions, in particular: a table, benches and flower beds, made by our employee himself. And our specialists gave answers to all questions about the products and consulted all interested visitors.
Here is what the head of the Chernivtsi branch and the creator of designer gabion structures Nikolai Strelnikov told about the fair:
-Nikolay, tell us how you prepared for the fair?
Petrovskaya Fair is an extraordinary event not only for Chernivtsi, but for our company too. Every year we are very fruitfully preparing for this event and trying to present some new items, and this year we decided to present products from gabions: flower beds, a bench, a table.
For the first time I got to the Petrovskaya Fair in 2012, when I came to work at Grid West. As I remember this day, it was a “river” of people that just walked down the street and everyone wanted to see, touch, “taste it” the product and poured a lot of questions to which I had to answer. And I am an "actor of one spectator", I was always afraid of the audience, of the stage, and with more than 3 people I get lost, therefore it was very difficult to overcome myself, but I was able to.
But this year the emotions were completely different - I was not scared, but pleasant to consult all people, tell them about the products, because I put my soul and strength into them and I wanted to hear the impression of the visitors. I was worried about how they would react to gabions. Of course, I hoped for positive reviews, but this is one thing, and when you hear the words of admiration and praise live, you understand that you did everything for a reason. This is inspiring.
What inspired the production of these items?
If you come to my house, you will see a lot of my products in the yard: cars made of wooden logs, trains in which I plant flowers and flowerpots. Many people say “we didn’t know you were such a creative person” and, to be honest, I didn’t know myself. I thought that this is how it should be and everyone does something similar at home.
So far, such works from gabions are popular mainly abroad. And in general - gabions have existed for more than 200 years, while their service life is 100 years. Why? - because this is a structure, when installed, water, clay gets there, it is overgrown with moss, grass and "is fixed" even more, this has already been proven by time and there are a lot of clear examples in Italy, because gabions are most represented there. In general, they were used even during the Turkish-Russian war, as retaining walls. Therefore, mankind has been using gabions for a long time, but they began to be used in decor only a few years ago in Europe, and this trend is approaching us too.
How was the fair?
There were a lot of visitors, and even more so gabions - flower beds became a hit of the season and attracted even more attention to our stand. They were extremely impressed by the products and tried to take pictures with them. There were also such visitors who said “we are now adjusting the cars and immediately remove them, pack them” and, by the way, all the products were sold on the second day of the fair, we had to make another one for the branch showcase.
I think that gabions cannot but please, because this is nature, this is a combination of natural ingredients and fillers: Matalla and stones (or wood).
People are not interested in looking at the product itself, because they all already know it. They are interested in seeing an example of how this product can be applied in practice. No person pays for a product, people pay for an idea. Real life example: I live in the small town of Zastavna, where there is a manufacturer who produces baked goods from natural products. Although these baked goods are 3-4 times more expensive than ordinary ones, everyone buys them because they are natural ingredients, because of the idea.
How do you plan to surprise buyers further?
- Gabions are not only flower beds, you can make everything from them that you have enough imagination for.
Now I plan to make gabions of irregular geometric shapes: circles, semicircles, half-cubes, of which I already have some work. I always say that you don't need to invent anything, everything has been invented before us, so you just need to take an idea and interpret it for yourself, with your own vision, add your own “zest”.
Usually, I work on Sunday as it is 1 day a week when I have free time. Many of our people say that Sunday is a religious day, you can't work. But I always give an example that they still want to live like in Europe and celebrate like in Ukraine. In order to achieve something, you have to work hard.
So far, I plan to direct my efforts to various types of flower beds, their combination with benches, recreation areas and retaining walls. As I always say: gabions are something for which there is enough imagination.
Our company has always provided services and goods from the net. My goal is to provide the client with a full range of services, help with everything I can - with examples of application, purchase of related products (for example, stones for filling the gabion), installation.
