New Craftsmen: Following the footsteps of predecessors

New Craftsmen: Following the footsteps of predecessors

Tomáš Mikolaj

Once a mecca of guba (a traditional woven sheep wool coat) making in Klenovec, it is today remembered only as a desolated former wool laundry by a local dam. Ján Fotta is one of the last active guba maker in Slovakia who grew up in this area. Across the street from his family house used to live another guba maker Jozef Pap. Ján watched him when he was a child when he hung up his new gubas to dry out on the yard. When he grew up he asked him if he could learn the craft from him. When in 1979 the ÚĽUV folk art comittee approved of his products there was nothing to stop him from dedicating himself fully to the production of guba. He has been making them to this day. Last year he was awarded the title of a Master of Folk Art Production.

ÚĽUV