The artist uses fabric in a number of different ways. Amongst other things, she produces illustrations that are screen-printed onto fabric and quilted on the contours to give them spatiality. At other times, the illustrator’s textile designs take on a truly three-dimensional form when patterned applications are piled on top of embroidered compositions or when they take on a fully three-dimensional form, such as the dogs used to illustrate one of the calendars for Toyota’s children’s clubs, sewn from bits of old fabric and fur, with beads or modelling clay serving as eyes or teeth – inspired by communist-era bottle decorations, sometimes fanciful, like a pink greyhound trimmed with lace, at other times simple, consisting of scraps of old fabric and beads. Mój Pierwszy Alfabet [My First Alphabet], awarded by the Polish section of the IBBY, or Moja Pierwsza Księga Pojazdów [My First Book of Vehicles], on the other hand, contain illustrations sewn from pieces of fleece and felt, combining the simplicity of motifs with eye-catching textures and subtle colour combinations.
Fabrics in Wasiuczyńska’s works are also combined in collage-like, spatial compositions with paper-cut and folded elements, as in the illustrations for Chichotnik, Czyli Księga Śmiechu i Uśmiechu [Chichotnik: The Book of Laughter and Smile], a collection of classic and contemporary Polish poems for children compiled by Barbara Gawryluk. The illustrations for Beata Ostrowicka’s Kolorowe Serca [Colourful Hearts] are based on paper-cut elements.
Wasiuczyńska's painted illustrations, on the other hand, are characterised by a saturated, vivid, luminous colour palette and a combination of illustrative simplicity with the ability to impressively capture details. Synthesis and stylisation straight out of the work of classics of the Polish school of illustration, such as Danuta Konwicka or Olga Siemaszko, meets realism of light and atmospheric effects – from reflections in the surface of a lake, through the play of light and shadows in forest undergrowth, to raindrops settling on a window pane.
The artist’s imagination is complemented by her sense of observation, and the world of her illustrations is often permeated by elements taken from her everyday surroundings, as in the case of scenes from the life of Mr Kuleczka (‘Mr Ball’). As the artist said in an interview with Monika Nawrocka-Leśnik: ‘Kuleczka’s world and my own world [...] intermingle. I smuggle various urban scenes and holiday memories into the books. Sometimes I borrow the blue colour of the walls from the characters, sometimes they use my ironing board and sugar bowl, read [...] books from my bookcase. Complete symbiosis.’
Mr Kuleczka is probably the best known character in Wasiuczyńska’s illustrator oeuvre, created over two decades ago and still returning in new editions. It was the illustrations to the adventures of the character created by Wojciech Widłak that brought Wasiuczyńska recognition at the beginning of her illustrator career, shortly after her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Mr Kuleczka and his inseparable companions, Katastrofa Duck and Pypeć Dog, appear in Wasiuczyńska’s illustrations not only in Wojciech Widłak’s books about their adventures, but also on the pages of annual calendars published by Media Rodzina.