Richard H. Eisenhart photo album of the M. Herbert Eisenhart Memorial tapestry

Artist-craftsman Donald G. Bujnowski was commissioned to create a tapestry late in 1975 after he and five other artists had submitted proposals for the auditorium wall at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Funds for the work were made available through a memorial fund contributed to by family and friends of M. Herbert Eisenhart.

Bujnowski, the grandson of Polish immigrants, is an alumnus and faculty member of Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Craftsmen. He began his work on the tapestry by drawing a full-scale cartoon of the tapestry and color coded areas of the design. To accommodate the gigantic project, he was forced to transform the interior of a livestock barn on his property in Lima, NY into a weaving studio. A special loom was constructed by the artist of telephone poles and steel uprights to manage the tapestry which when completed weighed over 600 pounds. All of the wool was hand dyed by the artist into 182 different shades.

Bujnowski used four classic weaving techniques--rya, loop, flat, and soumack--to produce an enchanting textured surface. Helped in the weaving by his wife Patricia and four apprentices, Bujnowski said he drew his initial inspiration for the work from observations of trees outside the many windows in his farmhouse.

The tapestry's name, Lesna Fantasja, is Polish for forest fantasy and was given to the work by the artist after the tapestry was completed.