Learn & Experience

During the National Revival era, several crafts developed in close connection with dressmaking, among them braid making. It focused on the production of gaytan (woollen braid). Braid was applied in the decoration of Bulgarian traditional costumes, and in abadzhiistvo—a craft practiced by men, probably because of the coarse fabric they used to make aba (homespun and the cloak made of it).

The beginning of mechanical knitting of braid dates back to the first decades of the 19^th century, when the chark—the first Bulgarian knitting machine invented by Gabrovo blacksmiths—was introduced to the craft. Chark machines for braid making were deployed in a special premise called the braiding odaya (room). It actually occupied two floors located near a millrace. The chark machines were upstairs, and beneath the floor made of boards only, was where their motors operated. The braid making odaya from the exposition of the Etar Museum was transferred there in 1964 from the locality of Tepavitsite near Gabrovo where it had been functioning since the 1860s.

The process of pottery making is very much like the biblical story of Creation. The earth and water started interaction with the air and fire—the four elements united to give rise to a unique creation.

Having emerged to meet the practical needs of humans for various household cookware, pottery rose to the rank of one of the leading crafts during the National Revival era. During that time a few pottery centers were established.

The heyday of Gabrovian pottery was from the 1870s to the 1890s. Forty-five masters worked at that time and had workshops and kilns of their own. They occupied two pottery neighborhoods, the so-called lower potters—the older potter neighborhood. In the 19th century settlers set foot on the right bank of the river as well and thus the new neighborhood emerged too inhabited by "upper potters".

The last representatives of traditional pottery in the region of Gabrovo worked during the 1950s: Ivan Loungov and Kolyo Dragalov (until 1954). Dragalov's house was restored in the museum in 1967 based on drafts and photos together with the kiln to illustrate Gabrovo's past glory as one of the leading pottery centers.

Every participant in the workshop gets the chance of making an article from clay under the guidance of a master potter.

Wood-turning used to be a core occupation for the population of the mountainous neighborhoods to the south of Gabrovo. It was passed down from generation to generation and sometimes three generations of masters worked on the same lathe. Wood turners' choice most often focused on either sycamore or beech. For greatest durability and quality sycamore was the option, while beech was in wide circulation given its abundance in the forests of the Balkan Range. Other options included walnut tree, plum tree, cherry tree, linden tree, pear tree and elm.

The items made by wood turners varied largely in shape, size and purpose. The lathe was used to make wooden bowls, pans, salt-cellars, wooden lidded vessels, candlesticks, distaffs and many other items. They had quite intriguing names: sara, chantalak, kankavel, shashkan, batal etc.

Gabrovian wood turners produced items not only to meet local demand. Their articles reached as far as the markets of Asia Minor and Egypt. Their fame and superb skills made the craft a household name for the Gabrovo region, and in the early 20th century when Gabrovo compared with the English city of Manchester in terms of economic upsurge and industrial development the city was dubbed Gavanchester (derived from Manchester and gavanka, a wooden bowl) with a good reason.

Participants may join the making of a traditional wooden vessel.

The art of icon-painting emerged in the Bulgarian lands in the 9th century in connection with the adoption of Christian faith as the official religion of the state. Strictly regulated by the Church, this kind of painting has progressed through different stages of stylistic development of the Eastern Orthodox Christian art. After the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria and the consequent religious discrimination, iconography died out to return to the scene and prosper anew during the National Revival era. Three icon-painting schools emerged in the Bulgarian lands: the schools of Debar, Bansko (Razlog) and Tryavna (named after the towns where they developed).

At the icon-painting studio in Etar's Craftsman Street today, traditions in creating icons combine with the introduction of new, modern-day elements to the familiar iconography samples and biblical storylines.

In the studio, the participants in the program may join different stages of making an icon—shaping contours, painting with tempera paints, sticking a gilded sheet.

During the National Revival era furriery shops virtually dotted the entire Gabrovo. On the eve of the War of Liberation (1877—1878) the city sported 55 furriery shops.

A special shelf (pishkyoun) was placed by the window of the furriery. The artisan would sit on it with tucked legs to cut out, sеw and shear. Originally, sewing was manual but later Singer sewing machines were introduced widely. Today by visiting the furriery on the ground floor of the house from the village of Batoshevo one can get a good idea of the entire technological process of making articles from processed fur—Wallachian, Dobrudzhan, Troyan and Macedonian fur caps, hats, slippers, gloves and pouches.

Participants are invited to join the making of a knitted leather bracelet.

The workshop is laid out in the house from the village of Toumbalovo, Sevlievo region, built in the mid-19th century. It is a typical example of a rural house in a mountainous region owned by someone who did farming for a living and also practiced the low-profit craft of packsaddle-making.

Various musical instruments are made in the workshop such as pishtyalki (kids' whistles), shepherd's whistles, doudouks (whistles typical of Western Bulgaria in the main), kavals (shepherd's flutes, one of the most popular folk musical instruments), bag-pipes, gadoulki (rebecs, quite typical instruments for the region also known as kemane) etc.

Participants follow the entire process of making a wooden whistle (cracking wood, woodturning and decoration) and may join one of the stages.

This trade depended on goat-farming which provided the raw material for the articles.

Huge quantities of sacks and bags were woven for carrying various goods, and also horse riding belts and horse feed bags. These articles included the typically Gabrovian large grain sacks and rugs in the natural colors of goat hair.

Goat's hair processing makes use of hair in natural hues which is not dyed. It is unique among crafts because all technological stages – from preliminary processing of the raw material to spinning and weaving—are performed by the artisan in the workshop. In the history of Bulgarian handicrafts goat-spinning & weaving is the most conservative one. Nothing has changed in it during the long centuries of its existence. For this reason it remained a low-profit trade. Whatever profit a goat-hair spinning & weaving master would do was barely enough to make him a living.

In the museum's Goat's hair processing workshop articles based on traditional techniques are made: bags, saddlebags, stair-carpets—by using original tools: a spinning wheel, vertical loom, tarak etc.

The participants in the program may join weaving and take a photograph as memento.

This craft includes making wrought-iron sheep bells (hlopki) and cast bells. In Gabrovo it is limited to making only wrought bells (hlopki) from iron sheet and therefore the trade is known with the name hlopkarstvo (hlopka-making).

According to stories told by craftsmen, the first hlopka bell was brought over to the village of Nova Mahala (one of Gabrovo's neighborhoods today) by merchants Georgy and Tsanyo Pavlev who gave it to their brother Donko Pavlev Kovatchev. He teamed up with other masters and started making the wrought-iron bells in the years after the Balkan wars (1912—1913). The very first bells made were known as traki (from trakam, a verb meaning clatter). They are flattened, shaped with only cold forging and have an imperfect ring. As a result they faced low demand. There are also horned bells but the so-called "rounded" bells were the most preferred due to their fine ring.

The house that accommodates the Bell-making workshop is a replica of a house built in 1880 in the village of Nova Mahala. In it the master uses a traditional technology and tools to make a wide range of sheep bells.

Visitors willing to join the training are acquainted with the craft and take part in making a billet of a hlopka bell.