Hairstyle from Hronské Kľačany

I have been making jewellery professionally (professionally means that I made money for my expenses and needs without needing to be employed elsewhere) since my graduation. So it will be 18 years since I am trying to constantly get better and work hard. Every time, journalists ask me two mandatory questions. First one is: “Were the beginnings hard?” Yes they were and I still don’t think I’ve won. Those who never built something of their own, will never understand the stress. It’s a life full of the unknown and the unexpected. It’s like standing over the abyss and climbing to the top over the edge. But the view over the abyss is why it’s worth building. Not everyone has the personality for it, not everyone can handle it but I recommend you all try to be dependent only on yourself and it is up to you to create a product other people will buy.
The second most asked question is:
How did you get into the subject of folklore?
For me, it was a natural process. If you're doing this kind of work you need to balance it with serenity. I found mine in our old rural house where next to the birds chirping in the garden I got an idea why not begin to focus on this topic. It was a year after my graduation that I moved to a rural area and started discovering folklore. 17 years ago, when you googled “folk ornament” or “folk costume”, it showed absolutely nothing. A blank page.
Today, when you do it, you find billions of various things (mostly Scandinavian or Polish patterns, so be careful). I had to look. I bought all the accessible books concerning this topic. Back then those were only two books and I asked a photographer Milan Hlôška with origin in Starý Tekov, who photographs folk festivals and is a co-author of a “Od Tekova vietor veje” book, if he would be willing to provide me with photographs of folk costumes. I came to his home in Nitra. He really helped me to find contacts in Tekov and donated his photographs from Tekov and other regions.
And that is how my first jewellery collection came into being, inspired by the folk patterns “Slovak Epos”, photographed on a model with a horned traditional folk bonnet.
I learned its installation step by step, just as this year, so we wouldn't embarrass Tekov. For me, the traditional horned folk bonnet is a symbol of why today, you know my work and it is a reminder of my very beginning I will never forget. I'm really happy that we managed to, during my spare time project about traditional Slovak hairstyles, record also the one which was hiding under it.
Idea: Petra Toth
Realisation of the original hairstyle: Lenka Špalková DNJ Beauty
Music: Andrea Bučko, Dominika Kavaschová: Morena - Jedna druhej riekla
Remix: Jani Ürögi
Production and postproduction of the video: Be On Mind