Mrs Karolina Radulska creates double-layered woven textiles.
She is the granddaughter of Mrs Aurelia Majewska, a renowned and award-winning weaver who collaborated, among others, with Professor Eleonora Plutyńska and Barbara Hulanicka.
“My earliest memories connected with weaving go back to my childhood. I grew up in a house where the loom was part of everyday life. When my grandmother, Aurelia Majewska, took a short break from weaving, I would crawl under the loom, which in my childhood imagination became my own little house. I would place my toys on the treadles (foot pedals) and play there. This is one of my first memories connected with my grandmother and her work at the loom.
It was not yet learning, but rather a natural growing up surrounded by weaving. I watched my grandmother’s work, and over time this tradition became something close to me and an obvious part of my life. Only years later did I realise that those childhood moments were the beginning of my own path into weaving.
Today, I especially see how important the presence of children is in the space of craftsmanship. During fairs and workshops, children approach the loom with great curiosity, ask questions, touch the textiles and want to try this work themselves. I am happy to show them the weaving process, believing that such a direct experience can become their first contact with traditional handicraft.”
Mrs Karolina developed her artistic path thanks to her mother-in-law, Mrs Danuta Radulska – another renowned folk artist – who taught her the double-layer weaving technique in 2013.
Double-layered textiles are made from natural wool yarn using a unique technique on wooden hand looms, with two warps and two wefts. These are decorative rugs and wall hangings known as Janów textiles. This distinctive design combines tradition with contemporary elements. Ethnographers date the beginnings of Janów double-layer weaving to the mid-19th century.
Since 2013, Mrs Karolina has taken part in double-layer textile competitions, where she has received numerous awards. Her works are part of many private and museum collections in Białystok, Łódź and Janów, and they have also gained recognition on international markets:
“For years, I have collaborated with Dorota Rychlik, the owner of a gallery, thanks to whom my rugs are presented in the Shetland Islands (United Kingdom), as well as with Izumi Fujita, a promoter of Polish folk art who organises exhibitions of double-layer textiles in Japan, where my works are also presented.”
She has also collaborated, among others, with Polish designer Tomasz Koszewnik as part of the “Force Field” exhibition at Giudecca in Venice (an event accompanying the Venice Biennale in 2019), as well as with Dr Eliza Proszczuk from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw – the textile created as part of this collaboration was presented at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, as well as at exhibitions in Warsaw at Fundación Bacalarte and Galeria Arsenał.
Mrs Karolina has received scholarships several times, including from the Institute of Culture and Rural Heritage and the Marshal of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. She conducts workshops at the Folk Handicraft Centre in Niemczyn, the Double-Layer Weaving Chamber in Janów and many other places. She currently works as a specialist in folk creativity at the Podlaskie Institute of Culture.
Mrs Karolina Radulska has been a member of the Stowarzyszenie Twórców Ludowych since 2014 – she is also a member of the board of the Białystok branch.
Photo: Bartek Żurawski
