As a child, she devoted a lot of time to handicrafts. Through her grandmother, who was skilled in many crafts, she learned crochet, embroidery, knitting - and above all, patience, which according to her words is perhaps the most necessary in these works. She saw her grandmother decorate Easter eggs for the first time - she colored them with black...
As a child, she devoted a lot of time to handicrafts. Through her grandmother, who was skilled in many crafts, she learned crochet, embroidery, knitting – and above all, patience, which according to her words is perhaps the most necessary in these works. She saw her grandmother decorate Easter eggs for the first time – she colored them with black ink and scratched floral motifs on them with a razor blade.
Her father was also an example to her. He was a grinder in glassworks in Lednické Rovne and wanted his daughter to continue in this craft. He even gave her a grinder, but she did not like the sound that was produced when the tool touched the glass, nor the coldness of the material.
During her maternity leave, she felt a renewed desire for handicrafts and somehow naturally decided on scratched Easter eggs – she had a working tool from her father and a deeply rooted childhood memory from her grandmother. She started actively producing from the year 2001 onwards.
After initial attempts, when she decorated ink-colored blown glass with glass motifs and ornaments taught to her by her father, she decided to submit her work for evaluation at the Centre for Folk Art Production. She was accepted by the artist Janka Menkynová, who appreciated her creativity and inventiveness and suggested collaboration. Júlia Vlčková received valuable information from the artist about the color scheme and technology of egg coloring, about ornament creation and symmetry principles, and she left the Centre with a sample book of scratched eggs by other artisans and a recommendation to try plant ornamentation.
“Mastery of plant patterns was a challenging lesson for me and also correctly placing them on the egg,” she recalls now as a pivotal period in her creation.
Thanks to her determination and perseverance, which still characterize her today, she quickly rose to a masterful level and gradually delved into other themes. Initially zoomorphic (primarily birds), later figurative (women and men in folk costumes from various regions) and architectural (traditional buildings), where the function of Easter eggs sometimes changes from Easter-themed to souvenir. She sought further inspiration and still does in traditional embroidery and patterned fabrics, but she is also drawn to patterns from bobbin lace, which she combines with other motifs.
Her mastery is also evident in the scratching technique – she uses grinders of various thicknesses and works with different grinding intensity. She excels on a blue, green, and brown background, but also uses shades of yellow and adds red for variety.
She enjoys sharing her art in public. She visits schools and kindergartens in her neighborhood, where she teaches children traditional egg decorating techniques, along with her husband, who teaches basket weaving.
Her motivation for creation is inventing new patterns and ornaments, of course, with respect for traditional foundations that she helps preserve through her work.
In 2011, she was awarded the title of master of folk art production in the field of Easter egg decoration.
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/