Pajaki

[chris64]

Hi everyone,

My grandmother told be about Polish `pajaki' (Finnish `himmeli'), traditional Christmas ornaments made from straw that form a 3D shape. The basic form seems to be two pyramids that share the same base (the 3 webpages below give instructions for these basic pajaki/himmeli) but my grandmother recalls when she was little that they were joined to form a larger one. I've shown her the results from a Google Image search of various mobiles constructed from pajaki but they don't resemble the large ones that she saw.

Has anyone come across (preferably traditional) instructions for large pajaki?

Best regards,
Chris

www.curbly.com/users/chrisjob/posts/14486-how-to-make-diy-colorful-geometric-ornaments

vintagerevivals.com/2013/12/how-to-make-a-basic-geometric-himmeli-ornament

heartheartseason.blogspot.com.au/p/making-himmeli.html

[Jaga]

do the pajaki look like here below:

[chris64]

Hi Jaga, thank you for your reply, those are nice looking pajaki but not the design my grandmother mentioned. The ones she described start by making several (maybe around 12) "basic pajaki", like the ones in the webpages I found, and they are joined to make a three dimensional star-like shape.

[Jaga]

Chris,

I am glad that you reminded me about pajaki "spiders". I almost forgot that this was an original name of these spider-like ornaments.
Any other memories from your grandma?