Craft Tour Roots of Poland – visit Cieszyn in the south of Poland and spend 3+ days with Serfenta in the heart of Polish nature and craftsmanship.
The Craft Tour is a true adventure. Do you like to experience the foreign country in a unusual way? This is the idea – visit us and let us guide you to the Polish culture, tradition, craft and our exceptional region.
We offer 3 + days of Craft Tour with Serfenta. The first day we spend in our headquarters with a manual craft experience, the second day in our lovely town, Cieszyn, and the third day in the village in the heart of the mountains nearby. This is not only about the crafts but also about people, cuisine, wild nature and life in Poland. Let Serfenta guide you to our world.
Day 1. Craft experience with Serfenta.
Our headquarters in Cieszyn 
Our main theme of Craft Tour Poland is RELAX and no hurry - when the hands are working, the head is resting. In our studio in the headquarters of Serfenta, we are going to introduce you to our work with a presentation of our way - how Serfenta came a journey from research to business.
We are going to present you natural, plant materials from Polish nature used for basketmaking from the centuries. How do we know so much about the tradition? We create a team of cultural anthropologists, educators and craft instructors. We have been travelling for many years leading research in Poland and abroad to meet and work with many traditional basketmakers and oustanding masters of the craftsmanship. Our need of mapping traditional basketry took us to the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany, Norway and Iceland! We wanted to document all what we could gain about basketmaking crafts. Look here to find our book and discoveries from the research time. The book has English summaries after each chapter and thousands of greatest photos of people, tools and materials from our meetings.
When lead workshops, we combine traditional wisdom with our own experience of presenting knowledge in attractive and modern way. Our approach comes from own intuition, a team work, but also from many exchanges and travels. One of the most important projects which still infunces us is Viva Basket!, which we led together with Norwegian friends, especially Søre Skogen. In our work, we put focus on the skills and we reach a lot from the idea of Grundtvig's folk university. When you visit us in the south of Poland you will experience all of it!
We will invite you to basic workshop - learning by doing is the best idea! Mainly - we are going to weave with straw, cattail (PL - rogożyna, Typha latifolia) or willow or rattan. You choose the material to work with. We will touch, smell, try, make experiments, but also we have a space for mistakes - you don't have to be afraid of the crafts when you are with us. We have many years of experience in teaching.
We've got here a unique collection of baskets from Poland and from all over the world. Not only ready products - also tools, materials, moulds. We also have many items from our travels that are no longer woven. But basketry craft which we present is alive - in our work, in our book, workshops and tales, also in our skills. Discover with us this incredible world of basketry! Together we are going to find answers for important questions. How to keep craft alive, how to show it to the modern world? We are going to present you our Crafts Revitalisation Model, which works well for the crafts in Poland and gets huge interest also abroad. We're sharing openly with our Partners from the world, maybe you will join us too?
We are going to tell you also about our cooperations and adventures with Japan, South Korea, Norway, Ukraine, Sweden, Germany and many other places. We will tell you what is special in our Polish crafts and why people from other countries loves it so much. From the experience we know that the most essential thing is - to try, to touch, to smell, to know how and why. This is the true value of craft! Join the world of Serfenta.
You can choose the material and techniques of work with:
- cattail (Typha latifolia)
- rye straw (two basketry techniques available)
- willow / wicker (simple form or even a basket)
Willow basket 
Do it by yourself - with Serfenta 
After cleaning - cattail ready to weave 
Straw workshop in Serfenta headquarters 
Cat and willow - the best connection
Day 2. Discovering Cieszyn, the slow, pretty town full of crafters.
Day two is about exploring and meeting with our local craftsmen. Our sweet, small town Cieszyn is very special - we are located exactly on the border with the Czech Republic. It means there is one town which lies in 2 different countries, having Polish and Czech side divided by the Olza river. It is a perfect place for a Craft Tour Roots of Poland. The Serfenta is located on the premises of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, one of the oldest Museums in Central Europe. We are going to show you the town, castle hill with its monuments, our local cafeterias and the crafts workshops of our friends too. We are going to visit the Czech part of the town and try local dishes from Polish and Czech cuisine.
This is an adventure with a touch of local culture. Let us show you a true craftsman place, where you can meet our masters of crafts. We are going to take you for a walk to the unique places in Cieszyn, like: the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, the riffle maker's place - with the only one master in the world, Jerzy Wałga, who makes riffles by hand! To the workplace of famous ceramic artists Beata & Bogdan Kosak and - if you wish - our tradiotnal brewerry! We are going to spend the whole day on walking, eating, talking with people and enjoying Cieszyn. It's a town with a river Olza and the Beskidy mountain's view from the Castle Hill. We are happy to live here, surrounded by the nature of mountains, tradition and good people. We have many stories to tell you about this place, Serfenta and our ideas for the future of the crafts.
Riffle Maker Jerzy Wałga 
Town on the border - Cieszyn 
Museum in Cieszyn
Day 3. Crafts in the heart of Beskidy Mountains
We are going to take you to the heart of the Beskidy Mountains for a craft tour. Our closest mountains have a lot to share, especially that here is the meeting point of 3 countries: Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia! We will visit Jaworzynka, the small village on the top of Grapa mountain, which we know well from its unique basketry tradition: weaving with the spruce roots. We are going to show you a beautiful area, visit the local museum with many craft samples and with a beautiful story about our mountain culture. If you like to play, there is a possibility to try mountaineer local costume and really feel our Polish culture! Look here! On the spot, we will eat together traditional meal based on local healthy cuisine.
The end of the Craft Tour South Poland takes place in Serfenta, Cieszyn.
What is included:
3 days of activities (there is a possibility to extand it to even more - up to 5), basketry workshop - craft experience and presentation in Serfenta, discovering Cieszyn and local craftsmen and our Museum, local meals during the day breakes, snacks and drinks during the workshops, Craft Tour: expedition to Jaworzynka village (also transport), visiting local museum, cosplay and regional traditional cuisine. We'll leave the choice and organization of the accommodation to you. But we can guide you with it.
Important questions and a price:
Price: please contact us. It depends on what you choose:
how many people will join (we prefer max 4 people in a group),
how many days do you want to spend with us? The main offer includes 3 days, but you can also choose more days with craft experience workshops in Serfenta.
We are able to help with: accommodation in Poland/ Cieszyn, but this is not included in the basic price.
Do not hesitate to contact us!
biuro@serfenta.pl
