He grew up in Liptov, where as a boy he came into contact with the craft processing of wood. His grandfather and uncle made utility items out of this material for their own use (carts, chests, kitchen tools). He was close to the shepherd’s life, shepherd products, so he also turned wooden sticks, and even made a crossbow at one point.

This may be where the roots of his decision to study the carpentry-furniture-making trade can be found, which he completed at the vocational school in Prievidza. It wasn’t far from there to the Prievidza master woodturner Juraj Leporis, who, according to his own words, guided his hands in the right direction. After school, he produced furniture in a furniture company and also worked in a timber-frame house company. And in his spare time, he made turned wooden bowls at home.

He focused more intensively on making utility items in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he also began cooperating with ÚĽUV, although the first bowls he brought for assessment were considered by the ÚĽUV art directors to have an oriental shape and leaned towards ceramics in terms of shape. After consultations, both the production process and the shape of the bowls were adjusted to suit the assortment desired by ÚĽUV. Over time, he even took over the assortment from the now inactive master woodturner Michal Hupka.

In addition to bowls, he currently also makes so-called club plates under plates with food, boxes of various sizes and shapes, complementing the assortment with carved spoons. Unique are his salt and pepper shakers combining wood and beef bone. He can also work with metal, so he customizes all his tools himself.

He mainly uses wood from fruit trees for production. He ensures the material himself. He only uses top-quality material. According to him, if a product is to look good, one must know nature, trees, and technologies. He has a special relationship with them, which can also be characterized as humility. He works systematically – he draws, cuts, carves wood in larger batches, and that’s why in his workshop you can see products at different stages of development. After precise processing, he polishes the products and treats them with natural substances, such as olive oil.

He speaks eagerly and passionately about his work, with love for the craft and the material. As he says, he values most that he is healthy and can work. Today, his workshop is located according to his long-held dreams, where after moving to a family house in Nitra, he can enter in slippers when he wants and stay there to create for as long as he wishes.

The craft may be preserved in his family, as his daughter’s wife Jarmila Bakova is inclined towards it, who is involved in the production of textile animals and also collaborates with ÚĽUV.

(Source: Mikolaj, Tomáš: Masters of the New Millennium [online]. Bratislava: Ústredie ľudovej umeleckej výroby, 2020 [accessed 2024-05-29]. Available at https://uluv.sk/kniznica/digitalna-kniznica/.)

In 2016, Jaroslav Švihra was awarded the title of Master of Folk Artistic Production for highly professional production in the field of woodturning.