Iwona Barecka specializes in ritual and decorative art.

She inherited the tradition of decorating Easter eggs from her mother. While Iwona’s great-grandmother used to make „pająki” (traditional straw mobiles), she didn’t receive the knowledge and skills for this craft through family transmission. Instead, she acquired the experience on her own. Today, she creates „pająki” together with her daughter, Joanna Barecka.

Ms. Barecka recalls the following:
„At home – looking back to my mother and grandmother – we made many things. We mostly did embroidery, sewing, knitting, and crochet. Before the holidays, my family decorated eggs using real beeswax – since my great-grandfather kept an apiary. Though by the time I was a child, we mostly used melted candle wax.

An interesting fact I discovered recently is that the drop-pull technique for decorating eggs, which my mother taught me, was not actually the method used in her own childhood home. Back then, they used a metal pen nib, but she didn’t particularly care for it; she learned to decorate using a pin instead and passed that second technique on to me.

Unfortunately, I did not learn how to make „pająki” at home. However, alongside egg decorating, I learned to make Christmas tree ornaments – mostly out of tissue paper. These included baubles, paper stars, and other decorations“.

Today, when creating „pająki”, Iwona Barecka uses straw from her family’s crops; for her Easter eggs, she uses eggs from her own hens; and she obtains beeswax from a neighbor who is a beekeeper.

Ms. Barecka is a member of the Association of Folk Artists and the Folk Artists’ Club in Puławy. She is a three-time winner of the International Competition for Ritual Art in Rudniki.

Art of making pająki from straw, paper and tissue paper in the Lublin region inscribed on Poland’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024.

Contact
www: ludowerekodzielo.pl
e-mail: ibarecka@wp.pl
phone: +48 604125797