200 Towels, 20 Carpets and Around 120 Meters of Linen

A tall, stylish and modern young man. Will you believe he is fond of weaving? Yet, not just ‘fond of,’ but a professional weaver!

Jauhien Markievich tells us about his passion:

I started to weave when in 9th grade, when I was 15. I climbed up to the attic and found an old loom. I asked my granny to show mw how to weave, but she did not remember the process.

I had no idea how these threads intertwine!

So how did you manage to learn?

I asked all my senior relatives, and finally my grandmother told me how to make threads. It took me 3 months to learn how to make a linen thread equally thick!

Some of them were made by me, some bought in a shop…

Then I started using the loom. Firstly, I borrowed several books form a library, but they were so complicated. I had nothing left to do than to visit all my neighbours and ask them how to operate the loom. I did this for two weeks during my spring holidays, then I managed to do the base for my first towel, then I ran the loom… and the towel was finished in two days. My grandmother was amazed at this!

What do your relatives and friends say about your hobby?

My grandmother told me out of this, she said it was too hard. My parents were worried as they thought weaving would damage my education. And friends said nothing as I never told them.

You’re a young and modern man. Don’t you think weaving is a bit ‘outdated?’

I have never thought so. There are only few people who weave on the loom left. And they are about 80. I am very sorry that this trade is dying. But there is nothing to do about this. The society is developing and weaving can’t stay the same.

However, weaving is considered to be ‘a female work,’ isn’t it?

I have never thought so. It is vice versa. Weaving on the loom requires physical strength. Your back aches awfully after a few hours at the loom. My eyesight worsened and my feet hurt as some parts of the loom hit them.

How many things have you made? And where are they?

Well… it is hard to say… I’ve weaved around 200 towels, 20 carpets, 50 meters of linen and weaved around 70 meters more for national costumes. I have worked with 8 stiles of Hrodna region.

Some of my works were sold, some I have presented. I have sent a towel to the Pope… The rest is at my place.

Modern people, having found something new, forget that this is old but forgotten. You proved it yourself. If we want more people like you, so what should be done?

We need to have people who preserve our traditions to preserve the very Belarusian culture. Everything is very simple: you just need to love what you do and everything is going to be all right.

I have a student, she is five years older than me and she has been studying for a year. I believe she will be a good weaver soon.

One should be interested in its ancestors’ life. My grand-grand-father and mother, my grandparents — they all weaved…

In spite of many duties Jauhien always finds the time for his hobby and is fully devoted to it.

May it be the secret to happiness we constantly lack?

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