Slobodan Stoleski

Macedonian legendary author Petre M. Andreevski once wrote that, unlike other nearby villages, Vraneshtitsa exists owing to its only craft – pottery. Located within the Kichevo Municipality, it is considered to be a major center of traditional ceramic pottery in our country. People have lived here of earthenware for as long they can remember.

One of the most famous persons in the village is Slobodan Stoleski, one of the greatest masters from Vraneshtitsa, with his fascinating story about its long history of handcrafting earthenware products. Endowed with huge supplies of clay, pottery has been a way of life for more than 5000 years.

The process of pottery making is not easy. The clay is dug out from at least several meters below the surface, it is drenched in water, then compressed by people’s feet and ground by traditional machines. It is subsequently compressed again by foot, kneaded, and only then it’s ready to be molded on the potter’s wheel.

The pottery objects are decorated with quite primitive means: colors, graphite, relief motifs. With their different forms and rich decorations, they leave the impression of a well-developed sense of art and imagination. A lot of the ceramics found on the local and international markets are likely to have come from this village.

 

Slobodan Stoleski was also part of the project “RESPONSIBLE FUTURE”, a mentoring and research project in the field of inclusion, crafts and fashion, designed for hearing impaired students from the Partenija Zografski state school center in Skopje.

With the support of the project and its developer Education for Employment in Northern Macedonia – E4E@мк, three pottery stakes were made available and will remain in permanent ownership of the school, so that in the future, students can be schooled and trained in this activity.

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