Already in childhood, she had a stronger connection to dolls than other children her age. Her mother sewed clothes for the dolls inspired by fairytale themes, they dressed them together and played with them. Perhaps that is why, as an adult, when she came across a traditional doll crafted by ÚĽUV with an offer to try making similar ones, she...
Already in childhood, she had a stronger connection to dolls than other children her age. Her mother sewed clothes for the dolls inspired by fairytale themes, they dressed them together and played with them. Perhaps that is why, as an adult, when she came across a traditional doll crafted by ÚĽUV with an offer to try making similar ones, she didn’t hesitate. Over time, doll-making became her livelihood.
The traditional dolls in question were the original design of the ÚĽUV artist Eva Kováčová. Upon entering into collaboration, Juliana Boboňková received sketches of traditional figures from various regions of Slovakia. As she recalls, in the beginning, she had no technological instructions or tools. She thought and experimented for perhaps a week before creating her first doll, with which not only she was satisfied, but also the consultants from ÚĽUV. This way, she smoothly entered into production, continuously improving work processes and technological solutions.
“At times, I couldn’t even sleep because of those dolls, I worked into the night, it amused me. And many times, when I went to bed, I just thought about what else could be done. And when something came to mind, I immediately drew it on paper,” she recalls the beginnings of her active creativity.
Soon, she became a factor among the craftswomen of Košice who made traditional dolls and trained another thirteen women in production. She often created prototypes of dolls, initially following Eva Kováčová’s drawn designs, later also by herself, drawing inspiration from pictures in newspapers and books. She had to study regional types of folk costumes to make the dolls as true to reality as possible and at the same time capture the essential characteristics in an artistic manner. Later, as a skilled craftswoman, she also designed Christmas and Easter figures in the same style.
The figures were always made in pairs, a man and a woman. Proportionally, all body parts were derived from a set height of 6.5 – 7 cm. The production technology was based on gluing individual parts onto a basic corpus. This also determined the choice of material, which had to be natural; synthetic fabrics would not hold with the glue.
In the early days of her creations, Juliana Boboňková developed a paper pattern for each costume. Later, she had wooden and plastic forms made for shaping the basic cone-shaped corpora. The corpora, made from starched cutting canvas, were then covered, after drying, with cut clothing parts made from felt and cotton. She also starched these, for the necessary hardness and to prevent fraying after cutting.
To create the faces, she used prefabricated polystyrene balls, which she firmly covered with a felt ring smaller than the ball’s surface. The doll’s expression was complemented by tiny mouths and eyes made from starched cotton canvas cut with dies. She prepared all the small parts, whether for the dolls’ clothes or faces, in larger quantities in advance. She produced the dolls’ wrapping steps in series and then let the stuck parts dry thoroughly on the base.
After many decades, Juliana Boboňková stopped producing the glued traditional dolls in 2015 at the age of 87. However, during that time, she made many people’s homes cozy with her dolls, both at home and abroad, and the “golden era” of this product will forever be associated with the name Juliana Boboňková.
In 2013, she was awarded the title of Master of Folk Art Production for her creative approach in innovating miniature traditional dolls.
Source: Mikolaj, Tomáš: Masters of the New Millennium [online]. Bratislava: Centre of Folk Art Production, 2020 [accessed 2024-05-29]. Available at: https://uluv.sk/kniznica/digitalna-kniznica/