The Busintsi “Skilful Hands” Workshop or a Tradition Transported to the Future!
This is a place for people with skilful hands – for everyone who has the desire and curiosity to engage in ancient crafts.
The village of Busintsi is situated about 100 km to the northwest of Sofia and 8 km from the town of Trun. The road is scenic and following it, before you know it, will take you to the Yellow House and its mistress, Stefka Boneva. She is the heiress of her great-grandfather Master Spasko the Potter, one of the people initiated into the secrets of the Busintsi pottery school. In 2019, Stefka started the revival of a family tradition and the Yellow House which today is a spiritual center for old crafts. It is also a center for the collection of specimens, namely vessels made by old masters from Busintsi. The young woman started making vessels using the technique of this school and offers the creations in her shop. Each visitor can take away a piece of clay shaped as a vessel or sit at the old pottery wheel and feel the clay in their hands under her masterful guidance.
Gradually, Stefka breathed life into the Skilful Hands Workshop by welcoming 250 children at a time for one-day camps dedicated to various activities – pottery, beekeeping, preserving nature and the life of wild animals, orienteering using a compass, and others. Regularly, the Skilful Hands Workshop hosts events organized by others such as learning to play folk instruments – the traditional drums or the bowed string instrument gadulka, singing, drawing with wax, appliqués with wood… Stefka also runs workshops to revive the traditions in Busintsi. She organizes festivals for adults and kids to restore the crafts in danger of dying out. Stefka sees the future in turning the Yellow House into a center displaying the journey of the clay from the earth to the ready-to-use vessels. This idea of ours for an outing to Busintsi will certainly appeal to you because it combines a walk in the pristine nature with learning more about Bulgarian traditions and crafts. Meeting a genuine Bulgarian, the descendant of old masters, will give extra meaning to your weekend, and will recharge you with lots of positive emotions and energy.
