About me
As a child, I was always with a pen in hand, and my schoolbooks and notebooks were filled with drawings. I even had a policy that no sheet of paper with sizeable (drawable) blank space could go into the trash without first being drawn onto.
Now, as an adult, after two masters and a PhD in engineering and geography, I am reconnecting with my old creative and artistic side through my passion for the traditional art of wycinanki (pronounced ve-tchee-nan-kee), the ancestral and intricate Polish paper cutting artform.
Here you will find some of my creations, all cut by hand, and which often merge traditional patterns with more contemporary designs.
I will keep posting new creations, so stay tuned!
About Polish papercuttings
Wycinanki (pron: vich-in-anki) came into the Polish folk art from Jewish culture, which saw its people decorate their windows with paper cutouts for the Shavuot festival. With time, the papercutting art was adopted by the Polish people themselves and developed into this now traditional intricate and colorful Polish artform.
Symmetrical shapes were cut by hand using sheep-shearing scissors and used to decorate the walls, windows, and ceilings of cottages. Beyond their decorative purposes, wycinanki were also believed to protect against the evil eye.
Wycinanki vary in style across regions. The two distinct best knows styles are the wycinanki from Kurpie, which are cut out of a single sheet of paper, and the colourful ones of Lowicz, made by layering smaller cut outs of various colours. There are recurrent themes in wycinanki, most of them reminiscent of the rural lifestyle with symbols of spring (such as the rooster), new beginnings (the leluja, or tree of life) and harvest.
The art of wycinanki was passed down from generation to generation and today it is considered an integral part of Polish folk culture.