About us
Origins
Since childhood in the Cossack village of Old Kamyanka, Valeriy has collected pieces of ancient ceramics and antique coins. Over his green years, he cultivated strong love for his native land and its sights. Childish fun gradually grew into a conscious interest in material and human culture, especially the Ukrainian one. In 2005, Valeriy applied to university to do history and, upon graduation, got a degree in archaeology. Throughout the university years and after graduation, he took part in numerous digging with local archaeological society - the activity that has greatly influenced his worldview and shaped his goals in life.
In co-operation with his father, Valeriy set up a jewelry business in 2011. The novice jeweler noticed that among the antique-styled jewelry and talismans on sale, there were a lot of things that did not match their authentic originals. His objective was to give jewelry items more authentic look so that make them closer to prototypes and artifacts.
In 2017, Valeriy and his relatives, Valeriy and Natalia, started off a new project VikingGoodsStore. Other members, particularly Eugen, Iryna, Pavlo, Serhii, Andrii, Oleg, Olena, Anastasia and others were engaged in the project and formed a team. Since recently, the team have worked together on a regular basis.
Who we are
After being rebranded in 2020, we thoroughly revised the system of our values and renamed our project. Now we are called OIUM and are involved in producing household items, ritual items and jewelry replicas from the Antiquity and Middle Ages. The project is based on the culture of ancient Germans, Slavs and nomads of Southern Ukraine.
The name Oium ("river area, the country of waters") originates from the mythical, legendary and sacral area where gods were born, according to ancient Germans and Scandinavians.
As the 6th-century Jordan' Getika tells us, Oium was a part of Scythia where king Filimer, tempted with "big prosperity of those lands", led the Goths to. In scientific literature, the tribe is associated with a so-called Wielbark culture. Having moved on to the territories of modern-day Ukraine, they set up a state jointly with local tribes (Chernyakhiv culture).
What we do
We are involved in making distinctive and eco-friendly hand crafts so that you can enjoy using them. Hand-made items are a sort of a manual labour islet in the world of factory-manufactured consumer goods in the upcoming robotic and high-tech era. So our goods are designed for those who value own history and prefer availing of unique and high-quality hand-made goods.
Our goods
We have an exceptional interest in the Middle Ages and the Viking era. Our passion is medieval re-enactment and reconstruction of the material culture of Vikings, Slavs and nomads. Most of the items we make are relied on medieval artifacts and ancient finds. So we make replicas as well as apply decorative motifs and styles of medieval craft. The items we make are as follows:
pottery (plates, pots, oil lamps, etc);
jewelry (rings, amulets, pendants, etc);
wood (statues, plates, pipes, etc);
leather (bags and purses, etc);
forged goods (knives, spoons).
In the description of each item, there is information about the origin together with a cultural and historical reference to it. We believe we do our best to come as close to its original meaning as we can. Our goods are almost entirely hand-made and we use modern technology on a limited basis. The priority is to maximize the use of traditional techniques and methods of processing similar to those that were practised over the medieval times.
We sometimes deliberately leave scratches and traces of tools to enhence the authenticity and create an aging effect. Stitches on leather goods are often made by hand, and there may be irregularities giving a product authentic look and re-creating a specific medieval atmosphere. Meanwhile, some of our crafts have been stylized and changed.