International workshops (kolonija)

Every year around the same time we organise a workshop with participants from al over the Europe, and we hope the world to. The main goal of this workshops is building and developing the international cooperation as well as exchange of knowledge and experience on the artistic and human level. Not only for the sake of the art of ceramics, but also for the sake of our spiritual development. Share the whealt of knowledge and break the boundaries of country, ideological, political and religious kindes, and participate in making of the beather world.

Het Laatste Huis (The last house)
Big help in setting up and starting our atelier has come from our friends from Belgium based ceramic association 'Het Laatste Huis' . Thanks to the mister Lou Smeeds we have gained the courage to immerse ourselves in to the beauty of wood firing and natural salt and ash glazing. Inspired by him we have set out to develop a place for many to come and join us in our journey.

Internatinal ceramics centre
We have set up and build a place to stay and work for about 10 to 13 people. Depending of the weather conditions we are offering a camping possibility on the terrain of our atelier. Our atelier is specifically busy with ceramics in the way they have been fired and decorated in the time of our predecessors the Japodes tribe who use to live in our areas before the Romans have conquer them. Al of the knowledge and the mystery of them is a life time job for us and we are eager to do it.

Yet, we se that there are more possibilities and that not only with ceramics can the story be told, so we have start it an parallel initiative of setting up an traditional crafts village.

This village might offer the home to some craftsman and artists that are working with some traditional and almost forgotten tools and means. There is going to be space for everybody who is willing to join and to share his prehistoric knowledge with the rest of the world.

How far have we come...
We have lay down a firm basic for our ceramic centre. We have rebuild and restored our family home, have build the atelier and have gathered a necessary tools and machines to work. There is still some equipment to be purchased but that is coming up coming years. We still need to build some extra accommodation space for people to stay and a gallery space to exhibit our work. We also need to step up our marketing strategy and activities so that the world can discover us. We hope to realize al of this in a period of 5 years.

On the other plain, as for the traditional crafts village, we are looking for artist and people of al kind of doing things that fit in to our idea to come and join us in the initiative. The village of Janja Gora is on the 30 km distance from the national park Plitvice lakes. It has the chance to get lot of visitors, specially from people coming to visit the lakes (about a million a year).
The prices of the houses and the ground are very low at the moment as a consequence of the war that has thorn this region in the '90 last century. That opens the possibility to do more whit less if we al react on time.

We hope to find some artist or traditional craftsman associations from other countries, to join us in making a beautiful place to work and live.

If you would like more information about us and our ideas and initiatives, please contact us.

Atelier Janja Gora
Janja Gora bb, 47 304 Plaški, Croatia
+385 95 911 86 29 (English and Dutch speaking)
info@janjagora.com
www.janjagora.com

 

NGO International ceceramics centre Atelier Janja Gora • MB 2487977 • Riješenje Ureda državne uprave u Karlovačkoj županiji
Klasa UP-I-230-02/09-01/2, Ur broj:2133-07-06/1-09-2 od 09. 02. 2009. • Žiro račun: 2340009-1110376382, Privredna banka Zagreb d.d.
Osoba odgovorna za zastupanje: Branko Šupica
© Atelje Janja Gora 2011