Krośko Ten Tkacz is the studio of Jakub Fikowicz-Krośko, a weaver from Kashubia. On a hand loom he weaves shawls, scarves, cushion covers and wall hangings, mostly in merino wool and in deflected double weave. Every piece is woven to his own design. His shawls are at Locus Artis in Gdańsk.
He lives and works among the hills, lakes, fields and forests of Kashubia. Most of his inspiration comes from this landscape and from his training as a biologist. He counts as his real start in weaving the three pieces he made for the 22nd National Review of Amateur Unique Textiles in 2026. Two of them won distinctions and were shown at the District Museum in Bydgoszcz – after a year of intensive learning and searching for his own language in cloth.
His favourite technique is deflected double weave. Two layers of cloth change places and interpenetrate at points he chooses, until they form one three-dimensional whole. Every piece is woven separately, thread by thread.
The material matters to him as much as the pattern. He works mainly with merino wool from an Irish spinning mill that has been running for over 50 years. Along the way he has a small mission: to break the spell on wool. Merino is something completely different from the scratchy wool many people remember from communist-era Poland.
What he brought to Locus Artis.
To start with, three shawls came to Locus Artis: “Maple Leaf: Finale”, “Quiet Lake: Fireweed” and “Sunset: Impression No. 3”. For himself he would pick “Maple Leaf: Finale”, because it gathers all the colours of the autumn leaves on the trees around his home.
Each shawl is woven separately to his own design, so no two are alike.