One could detect Irén Kisné Portik’s dedication to ethnographic research already in her early childhood. Her personal account guides us through her process of discovering, learning and recording folk culture, as an unconscious, instinctive pursuit at first. Later, it became a conscious process, aiming not only to capture all the knowledge, but to pass it on as well. Home textiles, costumes, folk architecture, folklore, spiritual values and folk traditions were all part of her interest and activity in Gyergyó. The most important achievement of her devoted work is that these material and spiritual values have not only been recorded, but have become a living knowledge through the work of the Folk Art House, the craft camps in Gyergyószárhegy, the Pomegranate Association and the Harghita County Artistic School.