Ancient Crafts in Southern Oltenia

7/27/2019 Ancient Crafts in Southern Oltenia

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ANCIENT CRAFTS IN SOUTHERN

OLTENIA

Scoala Gimnaziala Caraula



POTTERY

Horezu ceramics is a unique

type of Romanian pottery that is

traditionally produced by hand

around the town of Horez in

northern Oltenia.

It reflects many generations of knowledge and skills

development of pottery, which is

why the craftsmanship

of Horezu pottery was inscribedon UNESCO Intangible Cultural

Heritage Lists in December

2012



Colors are bright shades

of brown, red, green, blue andso called "Horezu ivory"

It is made using traditional

methods: the clay is manually

extracted from the clay deposits,

it is manually tempered andceramics are fired in wood

heated ovens.The most popular symbol used to

decorate Horezu pottery is a specific

rooster. Other motifs could include the

tree of life, a snake, stars, or a simplespiral



ARTISTIC SEWING-WEAVING

Carpet loom in Oltenia

The artistic weaving has a special place inthe traditional handicraft art. The artistic

weaving and sewing were skills made in the

family and represented a part of the

Romanian woman's main occupation.

From the daily clothes to those of feast and

to the textiles that "dressed" their house,everything was made by the hard-working

hands of the Romanian woman from the

village.

The material used is: the cotton, the natural

silk, the flax, the wool, especially for the

textiles for the interior (towels, carpets)

Inside the peasants houses, the carpets

were the folk pieces for decoration.



Unique to these

rugs are its vivid

colors,

not found in

carpets in any

other parts of

the country. The

carpets are

made on both

vertical and

horizontallooms

The carpets, which were usually woven

in the specialized workshops in the city of

Craiova or in the monastic centres all

over the Oltenia county and last, but not

the least, in the peasant households, had

not only merely utilitarian or decorative

functions, but they also had a particular

role at weddings and funeralsceremonies

In Oltenia, the rugs distinguish through

models that symbolises the nature -

flowers, birds and often, women silhouettesin traditional costumes.



EGG DECORATING

Painted eggs are a symbol of Easter

customs, beliefs and traditions,

representing an element of spiritual

culture that is specific to Romania.Using wax, many Romanians create

extremely beautiful decorative motifs

that recall ancestral traditions

The eggs are decorated using a type

of thin and round sticks called chisita,

made of beech wood.



FOLK MASKS

Typically made from the hides of sheep, goats

or cows, the masks are adorned with fabric,

hats, pompoms, metallic bits, feathers, beans,

straw and animal horns to represent bearsand goats, they’re traditionally worn to

welcome in the New Year during a couple

weeks in December and early January.The popular masks

are used for rituals

of calling the rain, of hunting or in ritual

dances and

represents

characters from the

popular mythology

and from folklore



WOOD AND GLASS ICONS

The icons painted on glass support can be

seldom found in Walachia and even then,

they are taken from Transylvania. The

drawing, generally clumsy, naïve is

realized on the back of the glass, thing that

protects the painting, with the help of

templates made on paper.

The oldest and most common icons were

painted on wood support. Made by peasant

painters or by the painters in themonasteries, these are mostly found in

Moldavia and Walachia. Thee icons were

located on the east wall of the living room

and of the clean room. Besides the icons,

sometimes , were placed brunches of basil

and on top it was placed a towel.



WOOD ART

Romanian masters always decorated

their crafts in different styles but the

main pattern used was geometrical and

the themes were ones related to

flowers, animals and humans.

The wood was through centuries the main

staple of the Romanians, being used for the household structures or at making

tools, objects, household utensils, furniture

pieces, religious objects.

Traditional gate, Oltenia



IRON WORKING

Blacksmithing workshopswere still used in the first half

of the twentieth century in

rural communities and

produced agricultural tools,

woodcutting and splitting

tools, construction tools and

horseshoes crucial to the

community’s needs.

Answering to the needs of the

village, blacksmiths were

often tasked with making large

quantities of agricultural tools

such as sickles, scythes and

spades



PLANT WEAVINGS

The art of weaving, especially straw,like all other crafts from natural fibers,

has been known since antiquity.

Nowadays’ craftsmen who

still practice the art of

weaving, only makedecorative, household

objects and toys

from natural materials

such as straw, oats,

barley or wheat.

Documents

Ancient Crafts in Southern Oltenia