Questions about time and tradition are not only relegated to her works, but to her teaching experience at the School of Form, where she has lectured since her graduation. In 2014, alongside a group of lecturers and students from the School of Form, Milczyńska began a collaboration with the Pottery Centre in Medynia Głogowska, in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The purpose of the collaboration was to exchange experiences and knowledge between the students and those interested in traditional pottery from around Medynia Głogowska – and in a wider context, it was an attempt to bolster up the dying art of traditional pottery making, learn its secrets, and its possibilities when combined with contemporary design.
During the project in Medynia Głogowska, Milczyńska began a closer collaboration with one of her students, the photographer and ceramicist Irina Grishina, who originally hails from the Kamchatka Peninsula. In 2016, they created the August Design Studio (the name comes from the month of its creation, but also from August Sander, a 19th and 20th-century photographer, whose works both artists admire). Their combined creation, inspired by their time in Medynia Głogowska, is a set of ceramic plates fired in a traditional, wood-burning kiln. In 2016, the plates received the ‘Must Have’ award at Łódź Design Festival. The designers have also created other ceramic dishes and items together, including cups – you can see their individual styles in the works, from their cups to air humidifiers, whose shape echoes the characteristic mountain rangers in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The August Design Studio creates more than plates and cups, however; they also make shelves and lamps.
Olga Milczyńska’s individual projects, as well as the ones created under the ‘August’ brand, were presented at many exhibitions and fairs. Her collection, Birds, made up of two differently sized cups, egg holders and two bowls, designed by the August and Tabanda Design Studios, won the ‘Must Have’ Award at the 2017 Łódź Design Festival.