byAgape
studio
handmade ornaments with a Ukrainian character
By Agape is a handmade jewellery label drawn from Ukrainian culture, its traditions, and the beauty that lives in small details.
about us
We rethink traditional Ukrainian beadwork, joining it to a modern eye for colour, form and design. Sylianky hold a special place in our work – ornaments with deep cultural roots that today become part of a personal style.
Every byAgape piece is attention to form, colour, rhythm and the smallest of details. It is craft, inspiration and respect for tradition held together. We do not make accessories but ornaments with a character and a meaning, which bring out who you are and keep you in touch with where you come from.
We believe a Ukrainian tradition should not stay a page in a history book or a case in a museum. It can live beside us – in everyday life, in the clothes we wear, in our own stories and in the things we choose.
This is why we turn to Ukrainian ornament, symbol and technique, and open them up again through our own design. The old motifs sound modern without losing what they are.
For us byAgape is about loving the work, respecting the Ukrainian heritage, and the joy of making with your own hands.
About the traditions that inspire. About a beauty that needs no extra words. About ornaments that carry a story, and the making that gives that story its next chapter.
open the traditions
and make them
with your own hands
Old crafts take on a new life in your hands.
Here you can learn to make beaded ornaments, to recreate the traditional symbols of Christmas, and to build with your own hands things that carry Ukrainian culture, natural beauty and a meaning of their own.
Waiting for you are our own workshops, step-by-step instructions and PDF charts, made so that the work is clear, absorbing and within reach.
It does not matter whether you are only starting out or already have experience. Choose what speaks to you, open up new techniques and make things of your own.
by Agape – with love for Ukrainian traditions and for those who carry them on.
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Sylianka
From the first beads to a finished piece: the chart, the colours, the rhythm of the weave.
- format
- live session
- level
- from zero
-
Gerdan
Geometry, symmetry and colour, from the chart to a finished band.
- format
- three sessions
- duration
- 3 h each
-
Didukh
A Christmas charm of grain: from the first small sheaf to a finished shape.
- format
- one session
- duration
- 3 h
-
Didukh-Rai
The Podillia sheaf from a museum collection. For those who have bound a didukh before.
- format
- one session
- duration
- 3 h
-
Christmas spider
Straw modules that come together into a geometry hung from the ceiling.
- format
- one session
- duration
- up to 4 h
-
Spider for a family
Children and grown-ups weave one spider together. Time given to each other.
- format
- your family only
- duration
- up to 4 h
-
Winter wreath
Fir, cones and dried flowers: a wreath in a style of your own.
- format
- one session
- duration
- up to 3 h
sylianky
A bead is more than a material. It is colour, rhythm, ornament and no end of possibilities.
Each piece is woven in one continuous pass. Nothing is glued and nothing is sewn onto fabric: the structure is the thread itself.
didukh
A didukh is one of the oldest symbols of a Ukrainian Christmas: in it the memory of the ancestors, respect for bread and earth, thanks for the harvest and a wish of plenty for the family come together.
Bound by hand onto a straw core: no wire, no glue, nothing that has to be picked out later. Made to order, from autumn into December.
luba
I am from the south of Ukraine. The history pulled at me long before I could make anything of it – I came to the craft as an adult, and learned it properly only in emigration.
Since then the learning has turned into putting things back: sylianky, didukhy and several festivals of a Ukrainian Christmas.
