STRAW GARDENS

In our shop you can also buy straw gardens created by folk artist Vilhelmina Raubaitė-Mikelionienė.
She says that we bring traditions from our ancestors, but it is important that the tradition lives on today. Nowadays, we are also creating traditions that will be taken up and continued by future generations. That is why every garden created is unique. It consists of the traditional pyramid motif, which is a constant, and the ornaments and symbols, which vary from garden to garden. The atheist, a specialist in Catholic education and training, says that when she ties the garden she prays for the people in whose homes it will be hung. It is as if she is adding a blessing. The symbols of her gardens have a distinctive artistic idea and a Christian meaning: the bird is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the cross of St. Brigitta is a symbol of transformation, the stars in the gardens are associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The flowers in the gardens are linked to the twelve-pointed star wreath of the Virgin Mary, symbolising the Assumption. The straw garden is associated with the Garden of Eden - harmony, nature, the family of the first people.
She often decorates her gardens with dried flowers, flax, wheat or rye ears, and dried blackcurrant berries. She tries to create patterns by combining the natural shades of straw - lilac, greenish, brownish. Vilhelmina said that during her studies, when friends were preparing for their wedding and she liked handicrafts, she had the idea to make a straw garden for the couple. There was no lack of confidence as her mother told her about the straw Christmas tree decorations she had made and her dad about the woven hats
Vilhelmina Raubaitė-Mikelionienė (b. 1968) artist, member of the Union of Folk Artists, master of traditional crafts. She has been exhibiting straw gardens since 2020. Personal exhibitions. Participated in group exhibitions "Garden Sacraments", "Golden Crown", "Sacredness Connections", project "Oh what gardens do sodeliai" (2021, 2022). Many of the gardens have already gone abroad: to Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Latvia, USA. She also runs training and workshops for students and adults in the hope that the hearts of the learners will be stirred and that more straw gardeners will emerge.