Ludgarda Sieńko – a weaver continuing the local traditions of double-warping. She has worked out her own style. Her cloths are characterised by intriguing colour arrangements, non-symmetrical composition and ornamentation. She carefully designs rural life scenes and translates them into the language of weaving.

Janów, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Podlasie

Ludgarda Sieńko belongs to the oldest generation of Janów-based double-warp weavers. She studied double-warping with her neighbour, the brilliant artist Regina Krupowicz.

Sieńko’s works are unequalled when it comes to the exceptional technique employed by the artist. Through the years, she developed a unique and recognisable style that attests to her rich imagination allowing her to create ‘improvised’ compositions rich in multiple motifs. They draw both on the local Janów traditions and on the old-school, nineteenth-century models.

The artist’s carpets, multiple award-winners at folk art contests, have been acquired by ethnographic museums scattered throughout the country as well private collectors from Poland and abroad (e.g. Japan, the United States, Germany, England and Belgium).

Ludgarda Sieńko is actively involved in the promotion of the double-warp technique. The tourists have been able to view her artistic creations in her workshop since 1994, when she joined the scheme called Szlak Rękodzieła Ludowego Podlasia (Podlasie’s Folk Handicraft Trail). She teaches at workshops held at the Janowska Izba Tkacka (Janów Chamber of Weaving), the Museum of Ethnography in Zielona Góra-Ochla and at the Centre for Creative Work “Na Wigrach”.

Thanks to her collaboration with Izumi Fujita, a promoter of the Polish double warps in Japan, her cloths, both decorative and utilitarian, have been exhibited in Asia, to rapturous acclaim. In 2012 and 2018, she showcased her works at exhibitions in Tokyo and Kyoto.

The artist’s adventure with double-warping, begun fifty years ago, has been her lifelong passion and way of life. Whenever she has time, she is sure to be found working at her looms. She happily claims that her clients have never complained about the quality of her carpets.