Sergei Mayorov, a virtuoso balalaika player of the legendary state dance ensemble of Siberia, whose solo numbers were admired by half the world, was one of the first in the Siberian region to start making Russian folk instruments at the beginning of the 2000s. His kitchen in a two-room Khruschev- era apartment has turned into a workshop in which he and his wife have been huddled for more than ten years.