Wigilia Tapestries

Description: Wigilia supper, written up as a specification sheet. Dishes required: twelve. Meat on the table: none. Plates set: N + 1. Seats filled: N. Acceptable excuses: zero. The extra plate is the line that carries the whole thing. In Polish homes one place is laid for whoever turns up - a traveller, someone who is gone, someone who could not come. Nobody sits there. It is set anyway, every year, and nobody in the family has ever needed it explained. Deadpan typography, no clip art, no snowflakes. This one prints in the color for dark garments. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99366326-twelve-dishes-wigilia-supper-spec-light-shirts

Description: A Wigilia table drawn the way an engineer would draw it. Plan view, dimensioned: the cloth, the hay underneath it, seven covers with one place set for whoever turns up, and twelve dishes balloon-numbered like parts on a drawing sheet. The list runs barszcz z uszkami to piernik, each one named in Polish with what it actually is written underneath. No meat on this table — the carp and the herring are the rule, not the exception. And nobody sits down until a star shows. Plate 05 in a series of technical drawings of Polish things. This one prints in the color for dark garments. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/98918645-anatomy-of-a-wigilia-table-light-shirts

Description: A Wigilia table drawn the way an engineer would draw it. Plan view, dimensioned: the cloth, the hay underneath it, seven covers with one place set for whoever turns up, and twelve dishes balloon-numbered like parts on a drawing sheet. The list runs barszcz z uszkami to piernik, each one named in Polish with what it actually is written underneath. No meat on this table — the carp and the herring are the rule, not the exception. And nobody sits down until a star shows. Plate 05 in a series of technical drawings of Polish things. This one prints in the color for light garments. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/98918892-anatomy-of-a-wigilia-table

Description: Wigilia supper, written up as a specification sheet. Dishes required: twelve. Meat on the table: none. Plates set: N + 1. Seats filled: N. Acceptable excuses: zero. The extra plate is the line that carries the whole thing. In Polish homes one place is laid for whoever turns up - a traveller, someone who is gone, someone who could not come. Nobody sits there. It is set anyway, every year, and nobody in the family has ever needed it explained. Deadpan typography, no clip art, no snowflakes. This one prints in the color for light garments. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99366317-twelve-dishes-wigilia-supper-spec

Description: On Wigilia, Polish Christmas Eve, you keep one scale from the Christmas carp in your wallet, and the money will not run out all year. My grandmother's financial plan, drawn as a folk kiss-lock coin purse with an embroidered carp and the scale tucked inside. My own drawing, part of my Literal Polish series. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/100066087-the-polish-financial-plan-christmas-carp-scale-sup

Description: On Wigilia, Polish Christmas Eve, you keep one scale from the Christmas carp in your wallet, and the money will not run out all year. My grandmother's financial plan, drawn as a folk kiss-lock coin purse with an embroidered carp and the scale tucked inside. My own drawing, part of my Literal Polish series. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/100066091-the-polish-financial-plan-christmas-carp-scale-sup

Description: Every December Krakow builds its szopki: nativity scenes shaped like the city itself, with towers, golden domes and a star over the manger, cut and glued from foil and cardboard. The tradition has been on the UNESCO intangible heritage list since 2018. My own drawing, flat in five colors. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99347574-szopka-krakowska-the-krakow-nativity-light-shirts

Description: Every December Krakow builds its szopki: nativity scenes shaped like the city itself, with towers, golden domes and a star over the manger, cut and glued from foil and cardboard. The tradition has been on the UNESCO intangible heritage list since 2018. My own drawing, flat in five colors. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99347571-szopka-krakowska-the-krakow-nativity

Description: The Christmas wafer drawn the way an engineer would draw it: a 100 x 70 mm sheet half a millimetre thick, a 7 mm pressed border and a scene stamped in between hot iron plates - no ink anywhere on the object. The top right corner is missing, and that is the point. The oplatek is not a thing you look at, it is a thing you break: everyone at the table takes a piece from everyone else's wafer before a single dish is served. Section A-A shows the relief going right through the sheet. Plate 07 in my series of technical drawings of Polish things. This one prints in the color for dark garments. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99366162-anatomy-of-an-oplatek-light-shirts

Description: The Christmas wafer drawn the way an engineer would draw it: a 100 x 70 mm sheet half a millimetre thick, a 7 mm pressed border and a scene stamped in between hot iron plates - no ink anywhere on the object. The top right corner is missing, and that is the point. The oplatek is not a thing you look at, it is a thing you break: everyone at the table takes a piece from everyone else's wafer before a single dish is served. Section A-A shows the relief going right through the sheet. Plate 07 in my series of technical drawings of Polish things. This one prints in the color for light garments. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99366130-anatomy-of-an-oplatek

Description: In many Polish homes the Christmas Eve carp spent a few days in the bathtub, and everyone else showered at Babcia's. A clawfoot tub, a very calm carp and a tag that says 12/24. Part of my Polish family series, next to the Wigilia table plate. The version for dark garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99347568-temporary-resident-christmas-carp-in-the-bathtub

Description: In many Polish homes the Christmas Eve carp spent a few days in the bathtub, and everyone else showered at Babcia's. A clawfoot tub, a very calm carp and a tag that says 12/24. Part of my Polish family series, next to the Wigilia table plate. The version for light garments is here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/99347570-temporary-resident-christmas-carp-in-the-bathtub-l

Description: be like Poland