This is a repeat from previous years. Obviously this year we’re not still in Poland, but we were until just a few days ago.

I do like showing you the Polish Christmas ornaments that are available here.

We have a factory where they make these things locally in our town.

As you know, I do try to appreciate hand made things - and I certainly do appreciate these gorgeous ornaments! So pretty!

Check it out! I originally wrote this blog post years ago. However, it doesn’t really change much, so I’m leaving most of it as is.

Tradition!

There is a long tradition of hand made Polish glass ornaments. There are many such small factories spread around Poland. People set up shop and sell these ornaments in various malls and of course, on line. Many are exported to the USA where they are sold for 3-5x the price we pay for them.

My kids and I ended up going to the mall the other day and I stopped and took a few pictures of some of the ornaments that were set up to sell.

Enjoy!

When you see numbers, these are Polish zlotys, not Euro - since Poland, while it is a member of the European Union, does not use the Euro, but still uses its own currency, the Polish zloty.

The ratio is about 3.5 zlotys to one USD. You can check at www.xe.com at any time to find the "real exchange rate" for that day.

Export

Some of the factories make ornaments for places like Macy's or other expensive stores in the USA.  You can probably also find Polish glass ornaments on auction sites such as ebay if you are interested buying some.  Shipping would scare me, though, as these are glass, and as such, quite breakable!

Live and in Person

Last year at this same mall, there was a man actually decorating some of these ornaments. Here are some shots from a previous year.

Closer.......

These ornaments are really all just beautiful. I have a friend who worked at one of these factories. The people who do this painting are real artists - really, very good! They don't make that much - well, they make it based on how much they do, but it isn't very much considering the talent that they have to have! She hardly made anything at all because she was slow at this work. Some of the detail is so intricate and each one of the ornaments will be slightly different, depending on the artist who is painting it.

And now you know a little bit more than you used to know about Polish hand painted ornaments. 

And don't forget - you can buy fabric for your special projects from my sister, Rachael, over at the store!  She's ready and able to serve you with some great fabrics at fantastic prices!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!