Franc Jaklič Woodenware and Vessel Making
Ribnica has been known for its woodworking and woodenware for centuries. Today, responsibility for the preservation of traditional craft skills in the wider Ribnica area is in the hands of the Ribnica Handicraft Centre. One of the branches of woodenware making is also vessel making or pintarija, the craft Franc Jaklič specialises in.
- Name of Craft in the local language
- Posodarstvo
- Type of Craft
- Woodenware and vessel making
- Knowledge Holder
- Franc Jaklič
- Location, Website
- Sajevec 16, 1310 Ribnica, Slovenia
- Type of Business
- Family business
- Year of Establishment
- 1979
- Successors
- Children
- Workshop and sales space
- 100 m²
- Materials
- Wood (spruce, pear, elm, maple, alder and walnut)
- Technology / Tools / Machines
- Hand and machine work
- Techniques / Processes
- Wood preparation, cutting, drying and production in several stages
- Education of the Craftsperson
- High school; The craft was passed down to him from his father
- Best-selling product
- Several types of wooden vessels
- Average time of production
- 8 hours
- Average price per item
- 5 €
He took over wooden vessel making from his father, who was from Velike Lašče and who married into the Sajevec family in 1950. He brought with him his family’s home craft, a tradition that had been his family’s business for at least five generations. He made pails, grape tubs, buckets and similar, and peddled his goods from farm to farm.
Franc Jaklič made his first serious attempt to develop the craft in 1977, when he made a series of small, shallow pails for the fair in Ribnica. That was the time when household appliances had changed considerably and large dishes were no longer as popular as before. By 11 a.m., while his father was still hoping to sell his first piece at the fair, Franz had already sold all his pails. “That really sparked my ambition, so I started to develop new products.”
