A yarn of colorful thread...The amazing world of color in folk tradition

The exhibition Yarn of Colorful Thread… presents a peculiar relationship, the dependence of man and nature and its skillful use in folk tradition. It shows not only the richness of the natural world, but also its influence on the formation of the world of culture. The exhibition presents the process of threads and colors of natural origin and their use in Polish traditional folk culture, especially in the Lasowiak region.
The premise of the exhibition is to present the once widely known process of obtaining fiber, thread, fabric from plants grown by rural people, and to recreate the ways of dyeing thread from natural raw materials forgotten in the Lasowiak countryside and to popularize Lasowiak embroidery. At the same time, the exhibition brings closer the importance of colors in various aspects of life of the former Lasowiak villagers, especially in the context of thread and fabric coloring. Their color and its role in the symbolic sphere also found expression in rich rituals and folk medicine.
To illustrate the issue, the exhibition features dozens of ethnographic artifacts, including old tools used to obtain thread and linen, as well as folk costumes exhibiting unique examples of folk embroidery once found in the Lasowiak region, dating mainly from the turn of the 19th/20th centuries.

The nature section includes raw materials of plant origin specially prepared for the exhibition: natural dyes and fiber plants. This natural world can also be observed and studied with the help of microscopes, while the laboratory-technical stand provides an opportunity to learn the secrets of dyeing, encourages independent experiments and fun in dyeing threads and fabrics.
The archival material consisted of photographs and film projections documenting fading handicraft traditions: folk embroidery making and flax processing presented by well-known and respected folk artists cultivating old traditions. In addition to multimedia presentations, two animations Embroidering on the Screen and Color Code were presented on interactive touch screens, prepared with the youngest audience in mind. Using modern visual language, adapted to children’s perception, they carry substantive content and bring closer the method of making folk embroideries, as well as knowledge about natural dyes and the symbolism of colors in rich rituals and folk beliefs. The youngest are also invited to play a game – a riddle in the museum space.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication published in Polish and English, a kind of dyeing guide, containing, among other things, dyeing recipes and a description of the most important dyeing plants.
Ethnographic and archival exhibits presented at the exhibition come from the S. Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Cracow, the F. Kotula Ethnographic Museum of the Branch of the District Museum in Rzeszow, the Folk Culture Museum in Kolbuszowa, the Lublin Village Museum in Lublin, the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola and private collections, while natural material was obtained through cooperation with the Institute of Natural Fibers and Herbaceous Plants in Poznan and the Department of Entomology at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin.
The exhibition was created as part of the project “The World of Colors in the Folk Tradition” subsidized by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

The exhibition is open: Mon. 8-15, Tues. 8-18, Wed., Thurs., pt. 8-15, Sun. 4-7pm, Sat. closed

FREE ENTRY