Tomáš Mikolaj
Milan Stieranka who comes from Hnúšťa has had admiration for dippers for as long as he could remember. As a child, when his father used to send him to sheepfarm to buy whey („žinčica“), he decided he will make a nice dipper for himself one day. During his work as a miner in Handlová he met an older miner who had suffered an injury – Ján Proncer who introduced him to the woodcraft. He started by carving in relief pictures, he continued with making sheephooks for children´s folklore dance groups. After his meeting with cratfsmen from ÚĽUV he started to dedicate his work to dippers only. At first, it was a type of a dipper made of one piece with an inserted bottom. Today he makes all three basic types: the Northern Slovakia type, Central Slovakia and Eastern Slovakia type according to characteristics defined by Václav Kautmann – a craftsman from The Centre for Folk Art Production (ÚĽUV) who introduced this typization in the 50´s. Milan Stieranka was awarded the title of a Master of Folk Art Production for his long time activity in the field of woodcraft.