Our Traditional Craft Businesses Meresti, August 10 - 20, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION CRAFTS Wood Carving Marketing Suggestions for Wood Carving Cow Milking and Cheese Making Marketing Suggestions for Cheese Making Wool Planking Media and Marketing Suggestions for Wool Planking Product Advices Furniture Painting Marketing Suggestions for Furniture Painting Product Advices Basket weaving Marketing Suggestions for Basketry Product Advices Baking Bread Processing Pork Meat Visiting blacksmith and making horseshoe Baranta
MEETINGS The mayor of Meresti and the president of the Rika MicroRegion Cooperative Fair Trade Presentation by Miguel Pinto.
CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
Together We Stand, Divided We Fall Bran Castle: Mission impossible – finding Dracula Brasov – welcome to Hollywood? Visit to Orban Balazs Cave Reflection on Crafts
CONTACTS
INTRODUCTION Between August 10 and 20, 2013 the Youth Association from Transylvania organized a 1.1 exchange in Romania, in the Transylvanian hillside village of Meresti. The exchange called Traditional Crafts = Modern Businesses had 8 partners, with 5-5 participants each, coming from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The exchange was directed at youth who are interested in the traditional crafts of other countries, who want to experience the area of access to rural people’s daily lives, habits and crafts and who come from rural areas. The aim is to prepare the youth in starting businesses in the field of rural development traditional sustainability and local planning.
The 40 participants were active for 10 days in and around Meresti, gaining insight into various crafts and learning a lot of them, including handicrafts such as basket work, weaving, braiding, horseshoe making and planking.
They learned about the famous local traditional furniture painting, wood carving, took part in a traditional pork meat preparation where they helped in processing the meat. They learned traditional bread and cookie baking. In addition they also tended and milked cows, and they visited a local cheese maker and learned how to do milk processing and cheese making. We also had a picnic and lime mining cave exploration at the Balázs Orbán cave where we went with a tractor.
During each day, for 7 days we worked on one or two craft and for 2-3 hours we had reflection and business planning activities and we saw presentations of each country and their traditional crafts. Besides this days, on day 5 the whole group had the possibility to visit the Medieval Castle at Bran, the famous castle of Dracul. Each night was dedicated to learning the language and the culture of one country and to other cultural and leisure time activities. Days 1 and 10 had introduction and finalization activities. Some of the other working methods included debates on entrepreneurship, developing rural areas, forum theater. One of the activities of the end of the exchange was the creation of this magazine with the title “Our Traditional Craft Businesses.” It sums up both the results of our experiences regarding the crafts and also other activities done during the project.
Wood Carving
CRAFTS
Since millions of years the human being have being used that natural resources from our environment to create and improve the habitat. In this case, the wood was at the beginning used by the human being as a fuel or as a material to create simple tools. Thereby, the forest were used as a raw material for the construction and furniture. This technique was evolution till become an artistic process.
Wood is one of the main resource in Meresti, and therefore wood carving has an important role in the traditional crafts in the area. To discover and learn more about this technique, the participants were visiting BĂŠla Albert in Craciunel. BĂŠla Albert opened his half atelier half house to show and explain in details about the symbolism of the traditional designs on wood.Moreover, the participants had the opportunity to explore the technique, discover the tools and learn about carving process. BĂŠla Albert started working on this traditional craft just as an entertainment to later become and occupation. The most popular wood carving pieces are the headstones and the carvings on the wooden front doors of the houses, that are something that still alive nowadays inside the Meresti Culture.
Marketing Suggestions for Wood Carving
- Make workshops in places of interest: schools, tourist areas, tourism offices, museums, etc. - Attend camps for people who are interested (join up with other craftsmen). - Go to traditional markets. - Find people who can help financially at these events. - Put/Sell the products on the walls of hotels, pensions and tourism agencies. - Join other crafts and organize a small traveling festival for 2-3 weeks.
- Create cooperation with NGOs and institutions. - Make use of social media, blogs, websites and so on, for impact and visibility. - Create links between countries and universities, to teach the craft. - Make a protected label and trade mark for the carved products. - Finding grants, alone or together with NGOs and municipalities. - Make a summer school. - Make a cooperative with other wood carvers and base product providers (wood industry) in order to increase and stabilize production. - Develop the product in quality, create assurance and quality standards.
Cow Milking and Cheese Making We had the chance to visit a cow farm near Meresti village. The timing was great, because it was milking time. The farmer showed us the process of milking with milking machine. After it they also showed us manually milking process. Finally we had the opportunity to milk the cows. We also had a visit to Sรกndor Huba a man who prepares cheese in Meresti, for selling. The owner presented us his equipment and showed us the whole process and we also tasted different kinds of cheese.
Process 1: Heat the milk and stir. 2: Curd the milk with rennet bag and wait 30 min. 3: After this time the mixed is prepared. 4: Put the mixed in the cheese container and let it dry.
Marketing Suggestions for Che ese Making - Cooperate with wineries for wine tasting activities. - Do workshops which work on the know-how and show-how methods. - Participate in exhibitions of dairy products. - Advertise in social media, culinary magazines, radio, TV, etc. - Use old style wrapping paper for design. - Create a brand, a label. - Make contracts and agreements with bigger markets. - Offer free tasting in the market. - Make different kinds of cheese. - Buy more cows and sheep, if it is possible to have more prime products and buy new technologies to have a more versatile opportunity with types of products. - Have signs that lead possible buyers to the shop. - Make home deliveries, catering. - Combine with other local products.
Wool Planking
While one team was exploring pork meat processing in the traditional way, another one was doing a wool planking workshop with Miklos Zsuzsanna. She usually does this kind of workshops as school or camp activity with children and youths.
Planking is one the most popular traditional crafts in Romania, which is useable not only for an adults but also it is good free time for youngsters and children. It is a very good relaxation, because you have to be soft if you want to finish your job. Firstly, if you want to do something you have to choose the shape and colors of wool. From this material you can do jewelry, accessories, clothes, shoes or other practical things. Actually it is very interesting to do it just for fun and make warm pictures. All what you need is just water, soap and some pieces of wool. Then you have to use your imagination and create your own picture. After that you have to put some wool on the picture; it will be like a frame. The funniest part is when you put soap and water mixture carefully on the wool. It is relaxing process, but it takes a lot of time, so it is funnier when you listen to the music during the process. When it is wet you should put your palms on the wool carefully and try to make it press, by doing circles and lines with your hands. After half an hour you must squeeze your picture and wash with cold water, which is the hardest part, because you need to be strong. Wool planking isn‘t just good for free time, but it is also could be your business, because people really need warm and beautiful stuff.
Media and Marketing Suggestions for Wool Planking - Create a Facebook fan-page, a Youtube channel and a Website. - Put a Logo on the products. - Create tutorials on how to make planked materials. - Put wool planking advertisements in local shops. - Organize workshops for different age groups. - Spread flyers and similar promotion materials.
Product Advices - Make clothing and clothing accessories, shirts, bags, hats, shoes. - Create gadgets, jewelry, house accessories. - Do workshops – new approach, maybe eco. - Develop new product – dolls, toys, cover for laptops, bottles, etc. - Combine with patchwork. - Make Eco-products, use for isolation. - Design Challenge – add value.
Furniture Painting At the 9th day of youth exchange we had furniture painting activity. All process took place in Meresti cultural centre, where we were working most of the time. First of all we had a chance to see some of renovating museum‘s expositions which at the moment are set in the cultural centre. The keeper of cultural centre introduced us with some of the furniture and other related things to history, also she told us some stories about furniture painting, colors they are usually using for it and meaning of the ornaments. After that we had a chance to try it by ourselves. We were separated in two groups, everyone got a round piece of the wood (oak) and three types of different acrylic colors- red, white and green. These colors are traditionally used in Hungarian furniture painting. All the process started with wood preparation, we had to color the basic color of the wood, after that we had to paint a picture we would like to have on the wood. Most of the people were painting flowers and other ornaments, some of them were using templates. All of the furniture painting process took about three hours and all painting were finished with varnishing at the next day. Everyone was really happy, we had great time and good painting therapy.
Marketing Suggestions for Furniture Painting - Use Social networks. - Be part of street festivals and exhibitions. - Working in front of the public, during workshops. - Mixing symbols from different cultures. - Collaboration with art schools and sell their products at a lower price. - Renovating furniture. - Painting wooden toys. - Cooperate with furniture shops and hotels. - Do furniture recycling activities. - Make use of the media, radio, TV and tourism magazines to promote. - Create flyers and posters and distribute them in hotels and tourism agencies.
Product Advices
- Combine traditional symbols and modern ones. - Make use of eco products like wood and paint. - Adapt to Romanian culture also. - Attend a training and create a startup business. - Join the restoration activities. - Use painting on products which offer different use, such as wall decorations, beer trolleys, dog houses, picture/painting frames and gadgets.
Basket weaving Romania offers a rich diversity of crafts in its lands. Taking advantage of natural resources, the basketry is nowadays also a popular craft here, as well as in other countries all over the world. The participants of this youth exchange had the chance to try this traditional procedure of making household objects from whips, presented by Mr Vรกradi Remus. Mr Vรกradi is running a family business of creating basket in a small village, called Ruganesti. Patiently and passionate, they showed the participants the complicity of baskets making procedure: - Making the base with whips. - Weaving the bottom. - Cutting unnecessary parts.
Once all the steps were clear, everybody had this unique chance to create their own baskets. Mr Vรกradi was surprised about the quality of results. Afterwards, the enthusiastic participants discussed about the entrepreneurial potentials of the craft. Besides their interesting suggestions, the participants were provided of new and useful knowledge about the craft.
Marketing Suggestions for Basketry - Use Media - Create a special label - Give interview in Radio - Offer advertisement in newspaper - Mace a documentary movie - Organize workshops - Participate in exhibitions - Organize a basket festival - Cooperate with schools to present the craft to children, especially young - Be part of camp
Product Advices - Make an ECO Basket, which is a collaboration of many crafts. The basket-maker creates baskets, other craftsmen put products in them (milk, meat, bread, cheese, wood, wool, flower decoration) and these are distributed for a fee, to the community. - Make new products, such as accessories and furniture, toys, lamps,jewelry, hats, gadgets, souvenirs, decorative frames, for pictures. - Use the traditional symbols of the community where craftsman lives.
Baking Bread We created two groups and visited two families where the elderly women were preparing the bread in the traditional process. This specific bread is characterized by using peaces of potatoes in the container. One of the women invited the participants to taste a traditional plumb cake while in the other group they ate and eggplant paste with fresh bread.
Process 1: Prepare and mix flour, yeast and water in a small wooden bath-tub. 2: All the participants were kneading till it got a homogeny mass. 3: Let the yeast work 1’30 hour. 4: Put the bread inside the oven during 1 hour. 5: Take out the bread from the oven and beat the fist burnt layer of thebread until everything is removed and let it cool off.
Processing Pork Meat The participant were separated in two different groups. The first group went to traditional pork meat processing. The butcher didn’t use any modern tools, for example he burnt off the pig’s hair using straw. We saw the process, from burning the hair, to cleaning the skin, to separating different body parts, sorting meat and making sausages from the meat. Anybody who wanted to had a chance to help the butcher. It was a great experience to eat at dinner that meat, what we prepared in the morning.
Visiting blacksmith and making horseshoe The last project activity related to the topic of traditional crafts was visiting one blacksmith’s workshop. The basic tools of the blacksmith are the hammers, the anvil, the oven and the piers. Mainly the blacksmith makes horseshoes. Horseshoes are metal objects which keep the nails of horses. This kind of crafts is one of the most difficult because of the high temperatures and the need of strong hitting with hammer above the anvil. At the beginning the blacksmith showed to us how the horseshoe is heated and after that twisted by a hammer. Because so much effort is needed, a second man’s help is needed. After the horseshoe was shaped the blacksmith put it to the legs of the horse. Then with its new shoes our horse was ready to carry heavy loads and to run faster. We hoped to be transported by it to Bucuresti but the organizers have arranged a bus for us.
Baranta On Thursday we had a chance to participate in a battle performance. Baranta is known as the traditional Hungarian fighting style, however it only exists for 20 years. Basically it come to life trough the collection of different weapon techniques from the Hungarian history. Some elements of Baranta are closely related to traditional crafts like shepherding.
Although this is a very typical method, the main difference opposed to Eastern martial arts is that in Baranta there are no masters, the master is the people. Baranta includes foot and horseback styles but we only saw the performance of the foot styles. The most basic weapon is the stick perfected by shepherds. They were so dangerous with this weapon that they were not allowed to enter marketplaces with them. An experienced wood stick fighter was unbeatable. While the stick was a close-quarter weapon, whips could reach to four to five metres very accurately in the right hands. Even in the 19th century they were used with iron balls at the end and could be used to attack in every directions smashing bones. They also melted some elements from the usual weapons of the early military life. The saber is a light weapon for quick attacks, while the bow is the general long range weapon of the Baranta arsenal. The reflex bow was only matched by the Mongolians. After the presentation we could try the weapons mentioned before, with protective equipment. We had great fun. Baranta keeps traditions alive and is still used in the Hungarian army.
MEETINGS The mayor of Meresti and the president of the Rika Micro-Region Cooperative. The mayor, Rigó Mihály presented us the brief history of the village and some interesting facts about the villagers’ everyday life. Furthermore he told us a few things about the economy, culture, tourism of the village. In the end of the presentation he also answered some questions related to the village.
Sandor Kalman is the president of Rika Region Cooperative. He presented us briefly their association and their activities. Thanks to the natural endowments there are possibilities to develop the animal husbandry and tourism; this latter is one of the most important, not enough utilized possibilities of the Rika Micro-regional Cooperative, almost the only competitive factor of the region. The possibilities of the Rika Micro-regional Cooperative are hidden first of all in rural tourism. This tourism sector is in changing all around the world, to the direction of wellness - body maintenance and natural therapeutic possibilities. The region of Rika today is unfortunately one of the most disadvantageous parts of Seklerland. We can say also that it is situated in the “shadow” of traffic and economy, far from the good transport ways, the most important streamlines of the market economy, fighting to find contacts with the world. After he explained this, mr Kalman talked about the strategies they try to implement to solve this situation and then he answered our questions.
Fair Trade Presentation by Miguel Pinto On the ninth day Miguel Pinto, who has Fair Trade shops in Portugal and who was a group leader from the Portuguese team had an interesting presentation about Fair Trade. Here is the essence of this presentation:
“Fair Trade (FT) is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. FT organizations have a clear commitment to FT as the principal core of their mission. They, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade. FT is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first.� (World Fair Trade Organization definition). The main FT pillars are: - The fair payment to producers, taking into consideration the cost of production and a development margin, putting always people before profit;
- The pre-payment of at least 50% to the producers in order to give them conditions to work without compromising their future with loams and high interests; - Long term relationship providing stability to producers and the possibility to plan their future; - Respect for the environment maximizing the use of raw materials from sustainably managed sources, buying locally when possible. FT agricultural commodity producers minimize their environmental impacts, by using organic or low pesticide use production methods wherever possible. But beyond all numbers and definitions, the most important fact to underline is that FT doesn’t sell a product but an all story behind it. Whenever you meet FT you are immediately conquered by the beauty of the colors, the variety of shapes, the richness of craft.
Consumers realize that a statue, a wallet, a coffee or tea pack carries a story: who and where was made, which raw-materials, etc.. FT is one of the most significant attempts to answer to the challenges of global capitalism, by creating alternative spaces for production and consumption. And just the fact that FT opened an alternative window to the domain of international capital, shows the potential, in this global village, to all social organizations that believe in the legacy of human, social and cultural dignity.
The FT presentation was, for us, a ringing bell that opened our conscience to our lack of consciousness. Knowing that exist alternative products could be, and are, better and fair to the producers, we are now able to make the difference, and the difference starts with little things like buying FT clothes in order to stop child exploitation. So, thinking out of the box could be the way.
CULTURAL ACTIVITIES Together We Stand, Divided We Fall The ways of knowing the others and their richness are many. In fact, as we live in a Europe United under the sign of some values like Freedom, Democracy and Peace the intercultural night was our first quest in order to discover the variety of this continent beloved by Zeus.
In on hand, we met people through music, gastronomy, crafts and traditions. For example, we realized that we share some dances and lifestyles although we are, geographically, far away from each other. On the other hand, the languages lessons served as a colorful chain in which country showed its world perspective through some words like flower, horse, baranta fight or love.
So, using music, dancing and traditional local games, we were able to bring to light each language particularity, because, as Wittgenstein said “The limits of our language are the limits of our knowledge�. This time we surpassed that barrier thanks to our multicultural and mosaic Europe. In conclusion, a United Europe must be built under the banner of diversity. Difference is the column of Union.
Bran Castle: Mission impossible – finding Dracula Our little group of lucky ones, who had opportunity to come to Romania, was offered the chance to discover various parts of Central Romania. We could not miss the chance to visit the famous Dracula castle – Bran castle. This offer was too sweet for us, because let be honest – you can not come to Romania and not see the Dracula castle. We saw the castle, but Dracula was not at home.
Bran Castle situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia.
In the past, this fortress was home of Vlad III., voivode of Wallachia. The purpose of fortress was to protect Romanians from their enemies. In the last century the castle was used as a holiday resort for the Royal Family. It’s current restored furnishing celebrates this period. The story of Dracula was made by Bram Stoker. Using the story written in Stokers novel Hollywood producers made a picture movie. From that time further Dracula came alive. Just like Bran castle and Dracula, Transylvania, also, become alive in touristy way. The smart people of Transylvania from nothing made a pretty good business. To our little group this trip was brutal return to reality – Dracula doesn’t exist, only crowds of people, naïve like us. A bit disappointed and tired we continued our trip. Next stop – Brasov!
Brasov – welcome to Hollywood? Brasov is sweet, medieval city with big sign. Brasov sign - Hollywood style. On the top of hill looking above on his inhabitants, this sign is reminder that American culture is all around us. With this tough in our minds – we acted like tourists. We visited the old center of the city (Black church, the walking street, the thinnest street, etc.) and we saw the costumed people who, as in old times, patrol in the center with their trumpets and signal to the locals and tourists the exact hours. We went on buying souvenirs, drinking coffee on the main square, sightseeing and asking our self who is copying who – Hollywood Brasov or Brasov Hollywood? We will never know. We should ask Dracula, maybe he knows the answer.
Visit to Orban Balazs Cave On the 8th day of youth exchange we made a trip to Orban Balazs Cave with the aim of exploring the Mining crafts like lime mining and lime burning. One of the main tasks was discovering the resources and possibilities of the mine and the region. On our surprise we started a trip by travelling on tractor through a dusty road surrounded by Transylvanian hills. During the hiking to the cave we crossed few rope bridges over river which was quite new experience for some of us. After visiting the cave and being scared of the bats in dark parts, we had typical Hungarian food called gulyás, playing some games and enjoying the nature.
Reflection on Crafts Everything happens for a reason‌ Even we did.
We were gathered here in Meresti with a purpose – to connect past and future, to help small, traditional, family businesses survive in the 21-st century. And believe me this is exactly as hardly achievable as it sounds.
How do we compare horse shoes made by the blacksmiths, spending hours and hours of banging the metal over and over again, to the ones molded by the thousands in the smelt-house. How do we compare the basket weaver and his entire family bending each individual branch with the exact amount of pressure and preciseness for every single basket, to the cheap, nylon, plastic mass-produced Chinese stuff. How do we compare the cheese guy… Oh wait, he was actually Ok. So how do we do it. We mostly tried the same approach I’m trying with this article right now: The Charismatic approach. Our items have history, our items have real people behind them, our items are natural and ecological, our items are tourist friendly, our items are SPECIAL. Did it work? Read the follow-ups and you’ll know ;)
CONTACTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Laura Lara Sánchez Javier Caíñas Rodríguez Miguel García Sánchez Iván Gómez Viña Lia San Juan Fernández Vilma Keturakyte Toma Grajauskaite Gedmante Budreckaite Greta Stakelyte Agniete Mikelinskaite Belecheva Violeta Radko Kovachev Georgi Atanasov Taner Mehmed Casilli Federica Filieri Ilaria Chiara Todisco Francesco Larini Stefano Bellomo Andreja Črljenec
Spain Spain Spain Spain Spain Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania Bulgaria Bulgaria Bulgaria Bulgaria Italia Italia Italia Italia Italia Croatia
hambrebruta@gamil.com cibersmoog@gmail.com santocino@telecable.es ivangomezvina@gmail.com liasjf@hotmail.com vilmagnk@gmail.com toma.grajauskaite@gmail.com gedmante.budreckaite@gmail.com gretaine@gmail.com agniete.mikas@gmail.com office@iicbg.ong r.kowachew@gmail.com pnx476@alumni.ku.dk taner89mehmed@gmail.com casillifederica@libero.it skins95_@hotmail.it kiaratody@hotmail.it x_fra_ix@hotmail.it stefanobellomo@live.it andreja2689@gmail.com
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Iva Zelić Martina Dabić Marija Novakovic Monika Manjaric Borsos Petra Cintia Győri Farkas Henriett Orbán Veronika Orbán Gábor José Vieira Liliana Pereira Vera Pereira Catarina Pinto Jorge Pinto Benke András Szabo Imola Dajka Norbert Lurcza Gyula Larcher Krisztián Hegyi István
Coatia Croatia Croatia Croatia Hungary Hungary Hungary Hungary Hungary Portugal Portugal Portugal Portugal Portugal Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania Romania
iva.zelic.ivach@gmail.com dabi.martina367@gmail.com marijanovakovix@gmail.com monik.manj@gmail.com borsos.petra@gmail.com cintia.gy@gmail.com hfarkas91@gmail.com luhujzaha@gmail.com orbangabeszb@gmail.com jose_e_c_vieira@hotmail.com liliana_m_t_pereira@hotmail.com verapereira90@gmail.com catarinavazp@live.com jmrppinto@gmail.com andris@netter.ro sz_imola_szoszyyy@yahoo.com dajkanorbi@yahoo.com lurcza.gyula@citromail.hu krisztianlarcher@gmail.com hegyisti@gmail.com
The materials and the pictures were made by the participants of the youth exchange Traditional Crafts = Modern Businesses. Designed and edited: Varga Zsuzsanna. This publication was funded by the Youth Association from Transylvania. www.ata-ro.eu
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.