Jozef Lenhart
Folk art typically was made spontaneously, from available raw materials and home-made produced materials. Metal was the only exception. It was a material which could only be obtained by the purchase or exchange of goods. In order to produce and process it, special production equipment was required, the smelting technology needed to be mastered and specific decorating tools were needed. For this reason, brass, bronze or alloys reminiscent of alloy had the value of precious metals in the rural environment. In folk art, they were used exclusively for making decorative objects. Brass became “gold” and modern-day alpaca the poor man’s “silver”. At the turn of the 20th century, alpaca even found its way into folk jewellery-making and partially took over from brass.