Wicker cradle and winter surf at the Old Town Hall

On Tuesday 22 March 2022, the Old Town Hall in Prague hosted a presentation of the results of the collaboration between design students of the Jaroš–Bednář studio and traditional craftsmen. The designs will be on display until 29 April as part of the Bohemian Perfection project, which combines contemporary design with traditional crafts.

Thanks to the project, the students had the opportunity to meet masters of traditional crafts and antiquarians during the winter semester. They were thus able to better understand the story behind the crafts. "We believe that sustainable products of high artistic and craft value created in this way can bring the heritage of our ancestors back to the present day, so that it can once again become part of our interiors and wardrobes," says Barbora Adamcová, the organiser of the project.

At the Old Town Hall, among the products made by our students, there is a winter surf made by Petr Brancuský using the original technique of making ash skis. The author teamed up with Jasanka, a company that produces traditional wooden skis, and designed a surfboard with a structure made of ash and cherry boards with non-slip oak pins. This allows him to go up to the snowy mountain tops and then ski down. Other exhibits include a head ornament made of blown glass beads from the Podkrkonoší region by Roman Koubek, clothing models from Zuzana Šimůnková's original blueprint, and a cradle made of wicker, for which Tereza Horičková won the 2022 Olověný Dušan award for design. Her design proves that the old basketry craft can be the answer to today's demands for design and sustainability.