Bearers of the tradition of folks crafts 2010
2010 Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts
Photogallery of Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts here.
Alfred Stawaritsch (*1942) - as the nominating organisation, the Association of Art Blacksmiths, Locksmiths and Farriers of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia has noted itself - is at present the only one of the few blacksmiths who are familiar with the traditional technologies of the blacksmiths‘ craft. He acquainted himself with it already in childhood, in the workshop of his uncle, Bohumír Kratochvíl, where the craft was inherited between generations. Thanks to this he learned the numerous traditional procedures needed for repairs of farm implements and wagons. He used most of this knowledge as the professional training master at the Apprentice School of Sigma Lutín enterprise, where he trained several hundred future blacksmiths. Initially Alfréd Stawaritsch ran his own workshop concurrently with his employment, but later made it his main job and worked there with his two sons. Nowadays it manufactures fittings for construction and interiors, and in cooperation with a wheelwright’s workshop, they fit metal parts to spoked wheels and construction elements of carts and wagons.
Traditional blacksmiths‘ processing of metal had experienced a decline in the past 100 years, at the end of which there were only several dozen masters left, who worked mostly for Monument Care institutions. Although the trade has seen a boom again in the last decades, it has been mainly in the so-called art blackmith’s craft, whose products are construction and interior elements designed as art products, without the ambition to observe blacksmith’s technologies. The situation is even worse in the production procedures of traditional agricultural implements - such as hoes, forks, axes and others that only a few masters know how to manufacture, and for this reason the craftsmen deserve permanent protection and care.
Augustin Krystyník (*1952) was born into a family where wood processing has a long-time tradition. His father, Pavel Krystyník, was trained as a wheelwright in Hovězí and in his native house in Nový Hrozenkov he established step by step a modern workshop with many machines which serve up to the present time. Two of his sons, also trained wheelwrights, continued in the family tradition, but a drop in orders slowly led them to cabinet making and furniture production. A change came in the 1990s, with the revived interest in the operation of historic carriages and barouches which needed to have the wheels repaired. In cooperation with the workshop of Mr Václav Obr at Čechy pod Kosířem, which is focused on carriage repairs, he has again started to restore old wheels and especially to produce new ones. They are now used to carry not only historic equipages and sports barouches, but also veteran cars.
The wheelwrights’ trade, as well as the blacksmiths’ profession, were traditional crafts in rural areas, linked mainly by farming. However, during the second half of last century, the trade gradually lost its importance as a result of modernisation in agriculture, and by now has completely disappeared from the countryside. Thus, Mr Krystyník is one of the last masters in this craft. He carries on the family tradition and maintains production procedures tested by generations. He works solely with hardwood from deciduous trees the use of which in this trade is irreplaceable. He presents the wheelwright’s trade in the public and thus tries to acquaint people with this kind of folk craft manufacture.
Milan Strmiska (*1952) has taken up in his work the tradition of button making workshops which manufactured mother-of-pearl goods in Žirovnice until the second half of the 20th century. He learned the manufacture from his wife’s sister, a trained button maker who worked in Žirovnice and later in Pelhřimov. Step by step he became acquainted with the secrets of traditional production, and was helped in this by the equipment of the button making workshop at Předín and eventually Žirovnice, where manufacturing ceased completely in the 1990s. Together with his wife Eva Strmisková, an artist who designs mother-of-pearl jewellery, they added many new patterns in their manufacture. Thanks to this, customers have a permanent interest in mother-of-pearl goods and there is hope that the manufacture is not going to stop any time soon.
The production of pearl goods in Bohemia has been concentrated in several centres, the largest of which was in Žirovnice and its neighbourhood. The manufacturing itself was mostly the job of men, while children and women helped with the packaging and distribution. A hollow drill fixed to a treadle lathe was used to bore small regular cylinders out of large shells. Then they were chopped by a cleaver into layers, ground, and the holes were bored. Eventually the future buttons were put into a revolving drum with pumice and acid, which gave them the necessary lustre. Some manufacturers also made mother-of-pearl clothing accessories, such as brooches, clips, pendants, and also “kotule“, the ornamental fasteners used to clasp folk costume shirts in Moravian Wallachia.
In Strážnice on 18th June 2010 Mgr. Martin Šimša
Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2009
- Božena Habartová (*1964)
- Karel Hanák (*1960)
- Ladislav Chládek (*1944)
- Vít Kašpařík (*1970)
- František Mikyška (*1949)
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Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2008
- František Pavlica (*1971)
- Pavel Číp (*1944)
- Marie Skrežinová (*1944)
- Eva Minksová (*1940)
- Ludmila Dominová (*1948)
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Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2007
- Rozálie Blažková (*1941) Nesvady, weaving from maize husks
- Hana Buchtelová (*1961) Malá Vrbka, Linen weaving
- Iveta Dandová (*1963) Mnichovo Hradiště, processing of reed mace
- Blanka Mikolajková (*1960), Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, framework knitting
- František Tureček (*1928), Tvrdonice, The shoemaking
Details
Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2006
- Josef Hruška ( *1941), Valašské Meziříčí - blacksmith technologies
- Jaroslav Sucháček st. (*1936), Lhota u Vsetína, manufacture of sharpening stones
- Ludmila Kočišová (*1931), Vnorovy - processing of maize husks
- Dana Ptáčková (*1950), Morkovice - basket makers
- Miloslava Zatloukalová (*1959), Brodek u Konice - straw plaiting
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Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2005
- Josef Janulík, Josefov, for the manufacture of folk footwear
- Drahomír Smejkal, Jihlava, for manual manufacture of files and rasps
- Jiří Ondřej, Zubří, for the manufacture of birch brooms.
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Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2004
- František Joch from Strážnice - blue print on fabrics
- Štefan Kanaloš from Ostrava – wood chiselling
- Jiří Myška from Hlinsko – hatchet work
- Jarmila Oharková from Tišnov – hand weaving
Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2003
- Josef Kopčan from Valašská Bystřice - woodworkin by adze and axe
- Zdeněk Kubák - traditional weaving of fabrics
- Oldřich Kvapil from Hořice - carver of gingerbread cutters
- Milan Macho from Suchdol nad Lužnicí - basket-splint weaving
- Petr Stoklasa from Velké Karlovice - wooden doves manufacture
Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2002
- Zdeněk Bukáček, Krouna - wood-turned toys
- Jiří Danzinger, Olešnice na Moravě - traditional blue and white printing
- Jana Juřicová, Vigantice - white embroidery
- Ivo Nimrichter, Kyjov - black pottery
- Miloslav Trefanec, Klatovy - Čínov - traditional blacksmith´s craft
Bearers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts in 2001
- Antonín Moštěk, Vlčnov - the ceramic workshop, the historical Faience
- Stanislav Štěpánek, Morkovice - basket making
- Ladislav Rejent, Proseč u Skutče - wood carving and turning
- Rudolf Volf, Koloveč - the pottery manufacture
- Jiří Drhovský, Zvěřkovice - wood-carved toys