KT Made It: My First Wycinanki

Wycinanki (pronounced Vee-chee-non-key) are beautiful Polish folk art paper cutouts that became popular in the mid-1800s but continue to be made in rural Poland. They are made with multiple layers of colored paper that are folded, cut, and often embossed (nalepianki) in stylized patterns distinctive to the region in which they are made. For example, wycinanki made in the Kurpie region are typically one color, whereas those made in the Łowicz region are multicolored. Common themes include floral patterns, peacocks, roosters, circular or star-shaped medallians (gwiadzy), as well as annual Easter and Christmas motifs. Here are some examples:

 

My mother's parents, who immigrated from Poland after WWII often gave us wycinanki cards and had many decorative pieces in their home. I also saw them being made when I visited Gdansk while on a trip two-week trip to Poland after I graduated high school. Hence, the fascination for wycinanki and love for Polish folk art is well ingrained in me, and so it is only appropriate that I honor my heritage in my quest for arts-and-craftiness!

What you need:

• Colored paper - I chose 8 colors for the flowers/rooster and 3 shades of green for the leaves that I repeated in different variations to give the piece a unifying spectrum of colors
• Scissors
• Craft or paper glue
• Template for the flowers, birds, etc. I drew mine by hand, but you can find them on the internet as well. 
• A picture frame or other piece to hang your design on, or you can make it into a card!
• Inspiration and a lot of patience! 

 My wycinanki was inspired by the piece pictured in the center of the examples that I gave above, e.g. flowers and roosters! I began by drawing a flower as the central piece of my design. To ensure symmetry (which is a vital part of the craft), I drew half of the design along the folded line of a piece of green colored paper. I chose green simply because the part of the paper that might rip was most likely the stem and leaves, and that way I would get out of having to cut that piece again.

 Then I set out on making the flower. I used the original flower from the design I made as the larger bottom layer. I traced the outline of that flower, then drew by hand a smaller oval within that shape for the next layer, and repeated the same process for each layer of petals. Also, I made the petals of each layer a little bit different from the one before it.















And this is centerpiece of my design!

Next I set out on creating 3 flowers for each side of the design. I followed the same process as described for the first flower. First, I drew the larger bottom layer by hand on a folded piece of colored paper, so that when I cut it out there would be two identical flowers.


Then I took that cut out design, traced the outline, and drew the next flower to be a little smaller and also changed the petals. I also drew this on a piece of folded paper, which I cut out to have two identical flowers.

 

I repeated this process for a total of 5-6 layers for each of the three flowers that I made.

After I finished the flowers, I set out on making my roosters. I began by drawing a template of a rooster along the folded line of a black piece of paper.After cutting out the rooster shape, I began adding the feathers, beginning with the tail, then the head, and finally the wings. I ended up cutting the roosters into two separate pieces.

After finishing the flowers and roosters, I began arranging the pieces around the center flower. It took a couple of tries, but I finally arranged the pieces in an aesthetically appealing way. Then I made some stems and leaves to connect the flowers to the centerpiece. Finally, with the encouragement of my incredibly supportive hubby, we framed my first (of many future) wycinanki!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Please leave comments, questions, and suggestions for future posts :)

Przjemnego dnia! Have a great day!