His mother was a tailor and he inherited from her the skill and passion for handwork. During his vocational training at school, he enjoyed embroidering and in his free time, he created patterns to make embroidered pictures, doilies, and tablecloths. He trained as a locksmith and worked his whole life at the Wireworks in nearby Hlohovec. There he met his wife Helena, with whom he forms an inseparable artisan duo today, and he also discovered wire as a material for artistic expression.

So when in 1994 the doyen of Slovak wire craft, Ladislav Jurovatý Sr., presented his concept of producing artistic and utilitarian objects from wire to the management of the Hlohovec Wireworks, he didn’t hesitate to join the emerging workshop. As he himself says, Master Jurovatý took them under his wing, and within half a year they were skilled wireworkers. Jozef Zoller enjoyed the work very much, he had a connection to it, felt confident in it, as he could materialize every motif in a drawing and then in the actual product.

The idyll lasted until 2000 when conditions at the company changed and the employees of the wire workshop were left without work. For two years, he tried to focus on wire craft together with his sister, who also worked at the Wireworks and was left unemployed, but they didn’t succeed and ended their effort in 2002. However, even then Jozef Zoller was already contemplating the concept of what it would take for independent entrepreneurship.

The fact that he is still devoted to wire craft today is mainly thanks to his wife Helena, who has been his right hand in business from the beginning and supports him in everything. It is paramount that wire craft is a passion for both of them, and if they didn’t pursue it, they wouldn’t be happy. They travel to fairs and festivals, spend time together in the workshop working on products, ensure their surface treatment in the nearby Stara Tura, and distribute them throughout the country.

Last but not least, invaluable support in the early stages of independent entrepreneurship was provided by the artist of the Slovak Crafts Organization, Janka Menkynová, who dedicated her entire professional life to wire craft and in 2004 created original products for the Leopoldov Master utilizing the technique of dense weaving. Plates, baskets, coasters, hanging decorations, and Christmas trees made using this technique from the hands of the master are considered artistic highlights of this craft in our country. Jozef Zoller also enjoys practicing the traditional technique of wire wrapping ceramic products, reinforcing pans and pitchers, which he also supplied to the no longer existing Majolica in Modra. He is willing to make anything as per the customer’s wishes. For him, work is now a source of enjoyment.

The story of the Zoller couple is inspiring and worthy of wire craft history – in conditions of material scarcity, they have managed to stay on the market for almost twenty years solely through their determination and dedication. However, without love for the craft and the modesty that both possess, it would certainly not have been possible.

He trained his father in wire craft, who was once the director of the Wireworks in Hlohovec, and countless students for whom he performed production demonstrations in schools in the surrounding area. He documents all events he attends and every visit he receives, textually and photographically, in extensive chronicles, which had already produced four books by 2019.

[Source: Mikołaj, Tomáš: Masters of the New Millennium [online]. Bratislava: Center of Folk Art Production, 2020 [accessed May 29, 2024]. Available at: https://uluv.sk/kniznica/digitalna-kniznica/]

In 2016, he was awarded the title of Master of Folk Art Production in the field of wire craft for his long-standing merits.