Ljubljana, 12 – 15 September 2013
Slovenian Emigrants’ Association, or more precisely Mrs. Vesna Vukšnič Zmajić, invited us for cooperation in a workshop to learn how to make ceramic and pottery objects.
We were happy to take part. There were six members from our Association who applied to participate. As regards other Slovenian associations of former Yugoslavia, only one member applied - Majda Sušnik from Association of Slovenians »Sava« Belgrade.
The workshop was intended for all Slovenians abroad, especially in order for traditional Slovenian objects to find their way over the borders of Slovenia. Individual Slovenian artists and creators, who chose to live abroad instead of Slovenia, can transfer the knowledge in the cities where they live and represent them as Slovenian unique objects, thus promoting Slovenia as a rich heritage of useful ideas which carry their own stories.
Reception, organisation throughout our three-day stay in Ljubljana and patience of our mentor, artist Eva Petrson Lenassi deserves the entire prize. Mentor Eva Peterson Lenassi is very experienced in shaping ceramic objects. During our stay, together with our mentor we visited Slovenian Ethnographic Museum. We learned a lot there, especially about Slovenian ethnographic heritage and also got our inspiration for further creation.
Some were amateurs but they did their best while others who already got acquainted with this kind of art had the opportunity during this workshop to advance and make more creations. Introduction and approach to making objects of clay was shown to us with special love and patience by Eva, which was something not only new but probably also underestimated however, it was also a challenge that made us work regardless of time framework of the workshop or possible fatigue of our mentor Eva. We were driven by strong egoism to make everything we wanted and do so in a very short time.
We owe special gratitude to Eva and Vesna, who allowed us to get introduced to the forgotten art of pottery and the then playing with clay.
Nataša Kajmaković
