Participants will be able to create a variety of traditional handicrafts under the guidance of experienced instructors. During the ceramics workshops, visitors will be able to make and decorate figurines or other clay objects according to their own ideas. During the workshops on making felt jewellery, everyone will have the opportunity to create jewellery based on their own idea and design, while learning about the felting process, the principles of combining colours, and techniques for shaping forms and combining different materials.
The workshops are one of the activities of the recently launched “VIA FABRILIS – Route of Traditional Crafts II” project. The project, carried out by the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec and the Museum of the Karkonosze National Park in Vrchlabí, develops the idea of an international tourist route initiated five years ago, connecting Bolesławiec on the Polish side with Vrchlabí on the Czech side and running through a number of towns where traditional handicrafts are produced. It is an apt and interesting idea, as demonstrated by the “VIA FABRILIS” route receiving one of the awards granted by the Ministry of Regional Development in 2012 in the “Poland Is Beautiful – 7 Wonders of European Funds” competition. The route’s initiators now want to interest as many people as possible in traditional crafts and persuade further centres that cultivate handicraft traditions in the region to join their initiative. As part of this undertaking, museums, craft workshops and tourist organisations can present their offerings to tourists from Poland and the Czech Republic.
The workshops are free of charge and open to all age groups, regardless of participants’ level of interest in the subject or proficiency in a particular handicraft technique. They will be accompanied by regular film screenings presenting the region’s craft heritage.
Workshop participants and all enthusiasts of Bolesławiec ceramics and local history are also invited by the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec to explore its collections. The Ceramics Department at 13 Mickiewicza Street features the permanent exhibition “Historic and Contemporary Bolesławiec Ceramics”. The City History Department at 14 Kutuzowa Street presents “Bolesławiec Ceramic and Sculpture Open-Air Workshops”, “A 19th/20th-Century Bourgeois Salon”, “In an Old Pharmacy” and “Napoleonic-Era Collections”. In both buildings, museum shops also sell commemorative postcards, publications issued by the museum and ceramic vessels with their characteristic stamped decoration. From 21 to 23 August 2013, the museum will be open from 10:00 to 16:00, and from 24 to 25 August 2013, from 12:00 to 16:00. Admission is free throughout the Ceramic Festival.
The “VIA FABRILIS – Route of Traditional Crafts II” project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme of Cross-Border Cooperation Czech Republic – Republic of Poland 2007–2013.
(commissioned information: Museum of Ceramics/ii)