Happy Potters

While making traditional potičnik, he has a steady hand. He’s confident while creating, as he should be - he was born into it, as the love for pottery has been in his family for 300 years.

Some of Janez Bojc’s oldest memories are from his father’s workshop, where he was entrusted to prepare the clay, which he pressed with his feet.

That’s why it’s even nicer that today the whole family likes to spend time in his workshop.

His daughter Jasmina and wife Andreja usually finish his products with beautiful colours and make some figurines themselves, and although the sons, Grega and Nejc, have other professions, he passed the knowledge of this beautiful craft to them too.

Color glazes and underglazed paints are a nice way to add some unique style to the product, as Janez likes to keep the shapes traditional. 

Potičnik - the traditional round clay baking pan with a sleeve in the middle - is perfect for baking various cakes, and of course the traditional Slovenian potica.

The family digs the clay near their home. 

Imagine how cosy it must be at home when you have furnished it with elements you not only created yourself, but also dug the raw materials for them together with your family. 

Clay is found in nature along streams, rivers and caves. In the Ribnica region, there is plenty of it, so making clay products was - and still is - a way to reconnect with nature and make something useful at the same time.

Jakob Nosan digs the clay for his products on his own, too. Pottery has been in his family for three generations, and his big wish is that it continues to be in the future too, so he also likes to teach and encourage his family members. 

Although they chose a different career path, Jakob successfully transferred his knowledge of clay design to his son, grandson and also son-in-law. 

Besides various baking pans, he also makes clay bowls, jugs, and cups that Jakob’s wife Marija usually decorates with a white, sometimes wavy line, or dots.

When the products are made, they must be dried. This process takes a while, especially if the walls of the products are thick. While drying, the products must be turned, so they can dry evenly. 

It’s very important that they’re dried properly, otherwise they can crack in the oven.

There are two burning processes. The temperature for the first one is about 950 degree Celsius, then it’s time for glazing and the second burning process at about 1000 but sometimes even higher than 1200 degree Celsius.

The product must cool off in the oven, as the quick temperature change can cause cracks too.

Jakob promoted this craft at many fairs abroad, mostly in Germany, France and Italy. 

One of the most popular products of his at the time were his whistles and figurines. In 1990, his clay ornaments were chosen to decorate the Christmas tree in the Vatican. 

Janez Pogorelec was already interested in pottery as a little boy, but didn’t pursue that dream at first. His grandfather Franc Pogorelec was a known potter, but unfortunately Janez didn’t know him. 

Blood is thicker than water, so although all grown-up, Janez started to learn by himself. Since no one introduced him to it, he learned by trying. 

Every detail in the traditional clay products has its purpose. When Janez started pottery in 1999, he stuck to established forms, though he did not know exactly what they were for. 

He thought the edge in bowls is only there for the aesthetic, but later learned that it serves to make it easier to catch žganci with a spoon. “If you listen to people,” he says, “you find the reason why certain things are done the way they are." 

These beautiful figures Janez made are not just a cute decoration. They are little clay flutes in the form of horses, cows, owls, chickens, birds and other animals, with which you can even play a melody! 

These little flutes are a sort of hallmark of Ribnica’s potters, who have always liked to create fun products.

Pottery, of course, isn’t the only way to express yourself with clay. Janez’s mother-in-law Ana Češarek is a sculptor. She, too, is self-taught. 

She started to pursue the life-long ambition of making little clay flutes when her son-in-law decided to revive the family tradition of pottery, and later started making little statues of various saints, which adorn several churches and chapels across Slovenia today. 

Besides the Bible, she’s often inspired by Slovene literature, culture, and tradition. 

Potica, as delicious as it is on its own, just can’t be as good if it’s not baked in the traditional potičnik. 

Well, now that we have our potičnik prepared, all we need is a recipe!