The collections held by the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków are an intriguing medley, including everyday items, tools, toys, works of art, objects of worship and magic, photographs, manuscripts, drawings, and sounds. We recognise in them evidence of life, proof of ingenuity and craftsmanship, the wealth of materials: wood, metals, paper, plastic, fabrics, minerals, glass, parts of plants, animals… An ethnographic collection allows us, in different ways, to discover what our world is built from and how we negotiate it.