Karina Zaborowska creates multi-shaft and double-warp fabrics as well as kraykas.

Although the idea to take up weaving came to her a few years earlier, Karina made her first foray into the craft in 2021 when she came across Edyta Wiśniewska‘s workshops. Before her discovery, she was utterly fascinated by the local double-warp weaving methods and was searching for a place willing to teach her how to weave. That’s how she’s found krayka-making classes. Krayka is a woven belt, typical of the Sokółka County, nowadays mainly used for sheafing wheat on the 15th of August or used as a belt. She has learned how to weave using both the help of a rigid heddle and without. Then, in 2022, she attended double-warp weaving classes led by Karolina Radulska, which helped her gain an honorary award in a Double-warp Weaving Contest in Janów.

Karina herself says, “Weaving with a double-warp method requires appropriate yarn – strong, yet thin woollen yarn, which is unfortunately hard to come by. In our region, it was a spinner’s job to prepare the yarn, take my grandma for example. She had her own sheep, so she could spin, dye and sell her own yarn to weavers. That’s also why I tried my hand at preparing yarn from start to finish. That includes scouring, carding, combing and spinning the yarn, mainly for personal use.

Because I wanted to recreate many other types of fabrics (e.g., throws, towels, linens, rugs), I decided to expand my skill set. I learned many weaving techniques, such as sejpak, which I’ve learned from Sabina Knoch, a hand-selected weave called perebory from Eugeniusz Markiewicz, and multi-harness weave from Eugeniusz Markiewicz and Marta Barbara Bajko. I constantly try to broaden my horizons, so I often participate in a variety of weaving workshops and meetings.

I only weave on traditional looms using natural yarn, which people could’ve used in the past, like wool, linen, or cotton. All the looms, one wide and two narrow ones, I bought locally from retired weavers. In 2024, when I visited my grandma’s house, I found a still-functioning narrow loom. You could say that I’m kind of keeping the family tradition alive.”

Karina Zaborowska is a member of a local weaving guild, “Tkanie na kresach”. In October of 2024, she received an award at the 21st National Exhibition of Unique Artisan Textiles in Toruń for her multi-harness weave “pawuki – pająki”.

Contact e-mail: karina@tkarina.pl