How we work with sources

Where our facts come from

We assign every source to one of three levels of reliability.

• Level A: museums and their catalogues, academic publications, state institutions, UNESCO and Ukraine's National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
• Level B: Suspilne and regional media, when a named specialist speaks in the piece: a museum curator, an ethnographer, a researcher or a craftswoman.
• Level C: media without a named specialist, blogs and vyshyvanka shops. We take no new facts from them and only use them to cross-check what we have already found.

What the Sources section shows

Below each region text or article there is a Sources section. On region pages it lists only level A sources: the title of the work, the author or institution and the year. Blog articles may also list level B pieces with a named specialist. Otherwise level B sources help us check facts and add detail, and the text names who said it and where.

Sources are given as text, without links. Blog articles may link to authoritative resources such as Wikipedia, museums and state institutions. We do not link to social networks or commercial sites.

Fact, interpretation and folk account

The symbolism of an ornament is mostly a matter of interpretation, and researchers explain the same sign in different ways. So we always say whose interpretation it is: "according to the museum", "in the researcher's view". Legends and beliefs are marked as folk accounts and never presented as established fact.

When sources disagree, for example on a date, we either mention the disagreement or follow the more reliable source. Anything we could not confirm stays out of the text.

Colours on the region pages

A region's main colours are the palette used to build the ornament of the day. The "Also found" block shows colours that sources mention for the region but that are not the main ones. Neither list is complete: real embroidery uses more shades than a few swatches can capture.

Pattern of the Day

The ornament of the day is created by an algorithm. It builds a pattern from motifs described for the region and colours it in the region's palette. It is a stylisation based on those motifs, not a copy of a particular museum shirt. The same date always gives the same result.

Images

• Our own diagrams and illustrations are marked as such in the caption.
• Photos from Wikimedia Commons are credited with the author and licence.
• Photos from museums and craftswomen are published only with permission and a credit.
• We do not generate photorealistic images of "antique" vyshyvankas or museum objects.

Checks before publication

Every text is proofread by hand before publication: names, dates, villages and museums are checked against the source. The English version relies on the same sources as the Ukrainian one. Source titles are kept in the original language.

If you find a mistake

Write to us via the contact page. We will check and correct the text, and the page will show a new "Updated" date. A link to your source is very welcome.