Gabriela Kravcová
Together with her sister, she has been dedicated to sewing, crocheting, and knitting since a young age. At the age of twenty, she learned about bobbin lace and was so intrigued by this textile technique technologically and tool-wise that she signed up for a course at ÚĽUV.
After mastering the basics of bobbin lace, she continues to develop them through her own original creations and by copying old patterns of regional lace. She was particularly drawn to the multi-pair miner’s lace, close to her birthplace in Banská Štiavnica. With the guidance of the ÚĽUV lecturer Jarmila Rybánska and old lace from Hodruša-Hámre and photo documentation from the Banská Štiavnica Museum, she gained access to the old patterns of miner’s lace, which she redraws and then lace makes on sample strips. Her inclination towards miner’s lace is primarily driven by her desire to preserve the disappearing local tradition. In Banská Štiavnica, she led a course on miner’s lace for a while and even taught a few women how to make lace.
In her own lace creations, she focuses more on single-pair lace and her own patterns. The range of her lace products consists primarily of necklaces and, upon request, pictures. She also uses lace accessories in sewing textile animals and dolls, which she devotes herself to the most in her current work. She combines lace with other natural materials (canvas, fur, indigo print, crocheted and knitted components), adding the necessary variety to the final shape of her products. In the past, she used sheep’s wool for filling the animals and dolls; currently, she has switched to hollow fiber, which has hypoallergenic properties demanded by today’s consumers.