Young people in Pomurje learned traditional pottery skills
July 2018, Rakican/Slovenia
In the middle of the summer a potter workshop for young people was carried out in Pomurje region (Rakičan) in Slovenia. The young people at the workshop gained knowledge about how to prepare pottery products in a traditional manner, i.e. products that once represented necessities in everyday life, but nowadays their use and production are disappearing.
Young participants gained the following knowledge from two mentors: the selection and proper processing of materials, the way of processing pottery products, traditional shapes and patterns, and the traditional and modern methods of baking pottery products. Young people have learned about the location of clay deposits in the local environment, the role of pottery crafts in everyday life, the various pottery products and their use, and the appropriate treatment of clay. The participants of the workshop then, through the individual work with the support of mentors, learned how to use pottery wheel and to produce specific pottery products.
It was especially interesting to learn the traditional pottery skills of the older mentor Svetlana Divjak with the newer approaches of the young mentor Nastja Novak. By carrying out the workshop, we wanted to bring young people closer to this old craft and encourage them to perserve this traditional craft in the long run for coming generations. Because of the big interest we decided to repeat the workshop in early autumn.
