Russian immigrant siblings start framing business in Costa Mesa

Olya Bagby arranged the pictures in the shadow box. The photos are dark, except for the spotlight on her.

The mementos depict her last ballet performance before she left Russia on a path that led to owning a framing business in Costa Mesa.

In 2004, Bagby gave up her career as a professional dancer and journeyed to Florida. She had known since she was 5 that someday she would leave the subzero temperatures in Siberia for a much warmer clime.

Her brother, Ivan Masaev, an architecture student, immigrated in 2005 to join Bagby.

“When we were living in the USSR and the weather in Siberia was minus 30 to 50 Celsius [about minus 20 to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit], we would always dream of living and working in the U.S., preferably somewhere near the ocean,” said Bagby, 35, who recently became a U.S. citizen.

After years of teaching dance in Florida, Bagby moved to Las Vegas to audition for shows one last time. But her thoughts started to move toward another dream.

“Owning a business was always at the back of my mind. I knew it was time, so I went back to school to start studying business in Las Vegas,” Bagby said.

When Bagby and Masaev, 28, moved to Newport Beach last year, they acquired a custom framing store, FastFrame.

“Once my dancing career ended, I wanted to find a job in a business I could love, and I love working with art, photography and design,” Bagby said. “People here may not realize the amount of great art in beautiful handmade frames in Russia.”

The two had fond memories of touring the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, which helped spark their interest in art. Masaev considers it the cultural capital of Russia.

As an architecture student, Masaev combined his studies and his love of art by building technical expertise in framing.

This year, the duo moved the FastFrame business to 222 E. 17th St. in Costa Mesa and brought in new equipment.

“This is the Ferrari of framing equipment,” Masaev said. “Moving to this location helped us maintain the quality we want for customers.”

The new location provides a private workshop for Masaev to build his products, plus an area where customers can see all the frame samples.

“Every piece of art is unique, so you can’t just put in an order online and have that be it,” Bagby said. “I feel this business should have personal customer service.”

That includes acid-free paper and museum glass to help protect framed artwork.

Dance remains in Bagby’s heart. She attends nearly every ballet show she can find in Orange County. But she looks back on her journey with no regrets.

“To be a professional dancer, you have to realize it’s not forever. I had my experience. I love where I am now,” she said.

Her dancing photos, kept at her store in the shadow box, are arranged to leave space for her ballet shoes from that last performance.

In May, she will start studying interior design with plans to add more decorative services to the business.