Discover Your Skills
Discover Your Skills is a creative ticket for visitors aged 10 and more.
In the traditional lifestyle of Bulgarians, there was a clear division between male and female labour. Knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing yarn and sewing were part of the duties of women in the family. Men made baskets and agricultural tools. If you want to get acquainted with the specifics of a home occupation of your choice (making braid decoration, knitting with corn husk, dyeing yarn, making felt decoration), check your skills in making an article with your own hands by getting a ticket with a creative experience Discover Your Skills.
Ticket prices:
adult – BGN 25
pupil/student – BGN 15
Production time for one product – about an hour.
Prior booking is required at least 7 days before the date of visit.
If a visitor wishes, within one visit to the museum to be introduced to more than one craft, home occupation, or in case of combination of tickets with some experience between them, a discount of 20% of quoted prices is applied. During visits of groups of more than 20 people or for tour operators with a contract with the museum, a discount of BGN 2 per person is applied.
For further information and requests, please, contact Svetlozar Todorov, Head of the Cultural Management Department, at 088 586-59-66
adult – BGN 25
pupil/student – BGN 15
Production time for one product – about an hour.
Prior booking is required at least 7 days before the date of visit.
If a visitor wishes, within one visit to the museum to be introduced to more than one craft, home occupation, or in case of combination of tickets with some experience between them, a discount of 20% of quoted prices is applied. During visits of groups of more than 20 people or for tour operators with a contract with the museum, a discount of BGN 2 per person is applied.
For further information and requests, please, contact Svetlozar Todorov, Head of the Cultural Management Department, at 088 586-59-66
Dyeing yarn with vegetal materials
Dyeing of textiles with materials of vegetal origin has been known to humans since very early history. Vegetal materials used for dyeing include roots, bark, leaves, stems and flowers. Unlike chemical dyes, dyeing with vegetal dyes is quite a challenge, and it is almost impossible to repeat a certain color. Its depth depends on the season when the vegetal material has been collected, as well as on the quality of the dyeing agent. Natural dyes were used until mid-19th century. One of the few places in this country which keeps and applies the original technology of dyeing yarn with vegetal materials is Museum Etar.
Work with belenitsa (corn husk)
The items from belenitsa (corn husk) are part and parcel of the Bulgarian material culture. The most popular article made from corn husk in the past was straw-matting. These were mats with the main purpose of insulating earth floor in village houses from cold and humidity. The floor was first covered with a straw-mat, then with a goat-hair rug and finally with a woolen rug. Since the beginning of the 21st century there has been growing interest in this more or less forgotten home occupation. Corn husk can be used to make vases, baskets, bags and serving mats.
Sewing with gaitan
Gaitan is a knitted woolen braid with a flat base and rounded surface and is used for trimming clothes made from aba (coarse woolen cloth)—full-bottomed breeches, bodices, tunics. Gaitan braids are applied to the edges of clothing and at the points of friction thus preventing wear and tear. After certain time they are replaced and the piece of clothing becomes like new. Today interest in braid has revived, as this type of decoration is used to embellish clothes, wall panels and jewels.
Making adornments from wool with the needle-felting technique
Embellishment items are made by using the technique of dry felting. Special needles are provided suitable for the felting and shaping the item. Wool has no alternative for making such adornments.
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