Nora Čechmánková
Janka Menkynová (1946, Brezno) studied at the School of Industrial Art in Bratislava between 1961 and 1965. She started to work as a visual artist in the production cooperative Vzor in the town of Zvolen two years after the graduation. She worked as a visual artist in the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava from 1967, as the chief visual artist between 1993 and 2009. She was awarded the Minister of Culture Prize for 2009 „for taking care of folk art production in Slovakia during her 42-year work in the Centre for Folk Art Production and for exceptionally creative contribution to design of many products from natural materials which, with their cultural value, have influenced the development of the folk art production in Slovakia“.
Right from the beginnings of her work for the ÚĽUV, she managed the productions from natural weaving materials (wicker, straw, straw-wicker, roots, bulrush, reed, cleft timber – circuit side and cornhusk), from leather, fur and metal (forged and tinker techniques, folk jewellery and knives production), wool knitwear, clothes, special-style dolls, folk customs-related objects (Easter eggs, clippings, spring and Christmas decorations, season’s greetings). Later on, along with the position of chief visual artist, she got involved with textile techniques (embroidery, lace, weaving, blueprint, tie-dyeing) and ceramics. She produced mostly utility designs over four decades of her work.