Wycinanka
Wycinanka is the Polish folk art of paper cutting, practised above all by village women from the nineteenth century, who folded and snipped dyed paper with heavy sheep shears to make flat wall decorations. Regional schools differ sharply: the celebrated cutouts of Łowicz build up layers of brightly coloured paper into leafy bouquets, rosettes and birds, while Kurpie makers favour single-colour, symmetrical designs such as the jedynak, cut from one folded sheet in black, red or gold. The cutouts were pasted on the whitewashed beams and walls of rural cottages, hung around holy pictures and give