United States has been my home since 1992 when my parents made the decision to move the entire family here form Poland. The process was challenging for me being a 13 years old girl not speaking English to adapt to my new home. Memories and traditions are a huge part of my life now.
Growing up my mom and her two older sisters, Krystyna and Zofia made decorative textiles and wall hanging. The middle sister, Krystyna would provide designs for each sister to create. One specific project stands out for me for its unique process. The materials include: flannel, yarn (elastic yarn) metal pen and candle. The flannel is the base for the textile. Yarn is being threaded thru the pen and applied to the flannel to attach it you melt the yarn with lit candle and cut the yarn to desired length. This process creates decorative textiles called gobelin.
It’s been few weeks now since I started creating gobelin. I have asked my mom to be part of the process. She called her sisters in Poland and asked them to send some yarn that was traditionally used to create the textiles. Neither one was able to find a single store that carries this specific thread. It has been discontinues, no one works with this process any longer. Both of them turned their houses upside down, hoping to find the leftover yarn form years ago. Nothing.
It’s been challenging to find yarn that I could use to create gobelin. I have bought and returned numerous kinds and colors back to the store. None of them would melt under fire to fuse to the flannel. I was getting frustrated and though I would have to change my entire project do to lack of supplies. How could I create something when supplies I need no longer exist? I took few days to regroup and went yarn searching again, finally yarn that works.
My mom, Halina and I started the process. Just how she uses to make this textile with her sisters, now she is creating one with me. We took the design of the one that use to hang in our apartment in Poland to create the design. We have been working together on separate section of the textile; sometimes we discuss the events of the day. Sometimes we reminiscent about old time, and other we just talk about all and nothing at the same time. Often there is silence when we work. It feels good to have something in common with her.
The process of creating gobelin is time consuming. We are using two kinds of yarn. One is made of recyclable materials. After a while of working with it you feel the smoke in your thought, it hurts. The room becomes full of smoke; we continue working on it for a little longer before we end for the day.
I started recording our conversations to include sound for the exhibit as of suggestion of Wonder Women meetings.
