High on the Carpathian slopes, sheep graze freely through the summer. Their wool comes down to Kosiv, a small town known for its craftspeople, where it is steamed, dyed, spun and woven on antique looms. The result is GUSHKA: rugs, lizhnyky and blankets that look bold enough for a design gallery, yet are made exactly the way the founders' grandparents made them.
A neighbour at the loom
The brand began in 2016, when Oleh Lukaniuk and Daryna Furmaniuk asked their neighbour, Liubov Rybenchuk, to join them. She was a third-generation weaver. Today the artisans behind GUSHKA come from families of vatagy, the shepherd leaders who took flocks high into the mountains, and of master weavers who once made lizhnyky for their own homes on the very same looms.
Wild prints, old craft
What surprises people is how modern it all feels. The ZVIR-YA collection turns the lizhnyk, a fluffy Hutsul blanket, into leopard, tiger and zebra prints. GUK shapes rugs like river stones in brown and cream. LIS brings the moss and ferns of the Carpathian forest indoors, and Blooming Kosytsi fills pink and cream wool with big, happy flowers.
Every thread in our workshop has a story to tell.
Pure wool, honest work
Every piece is 100 percent natural wool from Ukrainian sheep. There are no shortcuts: the yarn is spun by hand and each rug takes days on the loom. Beyond rugs, GUSHKA makes cushions, meditation poufs, calming Lullaby pieces for the bedroom and traditional clothing, including tiny fluffy gunias for children.
A piece of mountain life
GUSHKA says it does not sell myths. It offers a piece of real mountain life, as vivid and textured as its wool. Bring one of these rugs home and you bring a little of Kosiv with it: the sheep on the slopes, the neighbour at the loom, and a craft that has refused to disappear.
