abastan creative recycling

Our Team

Aleksandra Korolyova
Artist, Teacher
Founder of the Luv Toprak project
material development, design of soft plastic products, education and outreach, exhibition curator

Andrey Strizhkov
Engineer, Designer
Founder of the Plastic Bakery workshop
development and creation of equipment, creation of hard materials, design and creation of products

Aleksandra, an artist working across various materials, began to experiment with fusing used plastic bags to create a new, durable material. The early projects of her newly launched workshop, Luv Toprak, included artist sketchbook covers and other functional objects such as wallets, bags, and pencil cases. In 2023, Andrei joined the initiative, expanding its scope by developing a press, oven, molds, and a manual extruder for working with HDPE and LDPE plastics. This marked the official start of Plastic Bakery. Together, Aleksandra and Andrei began refining their recycling techniques, experimenting with melting plastic bags in an oven and using a press to create solid sheets suitable for crafting a variety of objects. Recognizing that while Armenia recycles some hard plastics, plastic bags largely remain unaddressed, they focused their efforts on repurposing this particularly problematic material.

Plastic Bakery operates with a combination of modified and self-built equipment, including an electric furnace, a hydraulic press, and a custom hand extruder designed and built by Andrei. This extruder allows individual plastic components to be fused without glue or metal fasteners, making the resulting objects fully recyclable. Additionally, the workshop features a small CNC milling machine for precise fabrication.

Together Luv Toprak and Plastic Bakery draw attention to pollution and overconsumption through art and design, demonstrating that recyclable materials are not waste but valuable resources. The contrast between the natural beauty of Tumanyan’s landscape and the environmental impact of modern waste serves as a poignant backdrop to their work. They also demonstrate that initiatives such as theirs can operate on a small scale, locally, without all the amenities of big-city life.
As they continue to refine their recycling techniques, share their knowledge with the community, and host open workshops in Tumanyan, Luv Toprak and Plastic Bakery need support. Here are some ways to help: