Summer! We're going to Jaworzno to meet Magda. We're bringing boxes full of scraps left over from sewing Oh!Zuza's spring collection. Why? You'll find out soon :)
How did it all start?
It all started when I met my husband, who took me to the picturesque Pieniny Mountains. It turned out that his grandmother was from there and still lives there. I adopted her wholeheartedly from the first time I saw her, and now I call her "my grandmother." It was she who introduced me to the loom and instilled in me a passion for crafts. My grandmother has always made rugs on her loom, and she also embroiders on the vests of the rafters. I was so inspired that I decided to try it myself – I started with knitting, and much later I was brave enough to weave anything. Today I have my own loom! When I bought it, I remembered Zuza (our Zuza from Oh!Zuza) and thought she would have tons of scraps, so maybe I could try making something with them. We always took clothes to Grandma's that had holes or stains that wouldn't wash out. Grandma would cut them into pieces of fabric and make rugs from them.
Magda laughs and says that at the beginning of their acquaintance, her husband did not want to invite her to his house.
He was afraid of what she'd think when she saw that he had his grandmother's creations everywhere. Indeed, he recalls, they were ubiquitous: on the sofa, on the bathroom floor, in the kitchen. Indeed, at first I thought, "Oh yes, motley. We're so industrial these days," he says, still laughing.
It ended up that I met my grandmother, saw how much love she had for those rugs, and I was hooked. We got married, and now we have rugs everywhere in our shared home. We painted the interior white and gray; they match perfectly.
And what about now? How is it that the piping and offcuts from Oh!Zuza's sewn collections are transformed into small, heartfelt works of art?
I recently received an order for a pink rug. I called Zuza to ask if she had anything in that color, and since the spring sleepwear collection was mostly pink, I was in luck. And that's how it goes. Zuza sends me photos, and I usually take... everything," Magda says, laughing again. "If I don't use something for the rug I ordered, I use the piping for practice. Now I'm learning the shapes. I'm also constantly perfecting my technique, because working with any fabric on a loom requires learning. The fabrics from Oh!Zuza are soft and very flexible; they behave differently than, for example, the fabric from a regular T-shirt; cotton doesn't stretch, while viscose does.
What happens to the rugs you make as part of your exercises?
Oh, I have people interested in them too! These successful exercises are going to my mom, my grandma, and friends as gifts. They're thrilled, and so am I, because I love useful gifts. I know these rugs are super cozy and soft. Plus, they'll last for years. My mother-in-law got some from her grandma that are over fifty years old and still look great, even though they're still in use. They're machine washable. I recommend the delicates cycle. My husband tested a 90-degree wash, and unfortunately, the rug didn't survive that. And you know, after such experiments, a damaged rug can even be thrown in the compost bin. It takes a few years, but the ones made from your materials will decompose. You can also simply burn them.
How long does it take you to get one rug stuck?
Well, in mother-of-two-little-kid mode, Magda, smiling charmingly again, says, it's around two weeks.
Why do you like weaving?
Wow, for everything! You know how relaxing it is. I sit at the loom; it's like meditation. You get into the rhythm, and it relaxes you. And for the satisfaction. When you make something with your own hands, it's such a joy. Besides, it's also very creative. Even if something doesn't turn out right, I have such fondness for it that I don't throw it away; I find a place for it that's not very visible. I recently had a "crooked" situation, and now this rug is in my bathroom.
Do you use the offcuts for anything other than rugs?
Yes, I started making bookmarks and bags, although because of, or rather thanks to, my grandmother, I have the biggest heart for rugs.
I also run weaving workshops, the last one I had at preschool. The kids love crafts. My six-year-old daughter can weave on her tiny loom, and my four-year-old son can spin. The little ones also come up with amazing uses for cut fabrics: from creating spiderwebs all over the house to tying themselves, and most of all, they love unraveling :) I also get immense satisfaction because my children know what fabric is, they know the meaning of words like loom, weaving, weft, and warp. Maintaining tradition in an age where everything is available, but a power outage would be a disaster, is very important. Besides, weaving and spinning have always brought people together. With a large loom, you have to work together.
Women once walked on the distaff side – hence the expression "on the distaff side," as a distaff is a bundle of fibers, ready for spinning. Women, with the distaff at their belts, would go to spin for their friends, hence the expression signifying kinship through the female line.
Spoken by: Magda Wolak
We recommend that you go to the following address:
https://www.instagram.com/woolak_handmade/
They wrote down and took photos:
Marta and Mateusz
The materials for weaving were and will be provided by Oh!Zuza
Place:
Grater Jaworzno
