Life in a Northern (Czech) Town

As the Dream Academy once sang, "In winter 1963, it felt like the world would freeze." Well, it's 2007 now, but last weekend Danielle and I knew what they meant. We ventured to the northern Czech Republic to visit our fellow-Fulbrighters, Chad and Chloe, and to take a serious look at the glass industry in our new home. Just to remind everyone where we are, here is a map of the Czech Republic:


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Before we get details, I have to say I'm sorry. I've been hiding for weeks, because I've been writing, and we have been keeping our heads down. Thus, posts have been few and far between. The good news is that things are picking up again - we had our visit last weekend, our Thanksgiving(s) here, the beginning of the Christmas season, and a potential visit to Austria. So, be prepared for Na Zdravi to pick up again...

So, here's the back story. Chad, Chloe, and their son Thomas live in a small town named Kamenicky Senov. They are from Seattle, and Chad is a glass artist. He came over here to learn certain techniques for engraving and sculpting that are done in the C.R., so he can teach these techniques back in the States. Chad is working and studying at a technical high school in Kamenicky Senov that is the oldest glass-working school in the country, with a man named Frantisek that he has known for several years. Last weekend, the school had an open house, and Chad invited us all up. We also visited a glass factory, a combo glass-studio and restaurant, and experienced life in a small Czech town. All in all, about fifteen of us headed north via car and the Czech bus system (ugghh - it makes Greyhound looks like Rolls Royce; trust me - stick to the trains in Europe), and we got in on Friday night.

The whole trip was amazing. We ate in a great restaurant on Friday night that featured traditional Czech food and glass blowing. It was called Ajeto, and was in Novy Bor, which is the largest town near Kamenicky Senov. Chad blows glass there once a week, and the owner is an incredible artist. We watched him (his name is Petr Novotny) create a sculpture which consisted of a hand holding a conical vase; he also let Elise, the seven-year-old daughter of our friends, Heidi and Mark, blow a Mickey Mouse head after dessert.

After dinner, we retired to our hotel, which was a German villa during the first half of the twentieth century. After WWII, most of the Germans left (read: were not so politely asked to leave by the new Czech government), so it was taken over and turned into a hotel. It also has a spring in back of the hotel which still delivers clean water. Kamenicky Senov is set on a couple of hill tops that rise from a small valley, and it became a glass center because the forest there is primarily beech - the ash from beech can be used to fuse glass when it is burned, so it was natural for glass furnaces to be built there. The town has about 5,000 people, and a couple of major glass makers. The most famous is Preciosa, who makes chandeliers; they recently sent a crystal chandelier to Dubai that was 8 meters high.

We toured the Jilek factory, which is a smaller firm that makes hand-blown art glass. They also do a lot of sales in the Middle East, and the factory was amazing. We watched the workers, who operate in teams of three or four, blow vases - one man takes a lump of molten glass and smooths out the imperfections, a second blows it into a a hollow globe, a third blows the vase into a mold, while a fourth works the mold and finishes the base. We learned several surprising things from the tour:

1) The glass blowing industry is unapologetically all-male. The blowers and bosses are all men, while the few women work the molds or finish pieces. When asked why this was, the director of the factory suggested that women weren't strong enough to handle the steel glass-blowing rods, would be offended by the blowers' lack of manners(!), and wouldn't want to use the communal rods. Needless to say, Danielle was totally satisfied with this explanation.

2) Everyone drinks while they work. Generally, I would hesitate to mix alcohol and 1300 degree molten glass, but it seems to work for them.

3) Being in a small town and seeing a traditional industry made us appreciate just how how conservative life can be in the Czech Republic. People were nice, but older men really seemed to feel responsible for us. It was surprising, and sometimes frustrating, but you could really see how traditional social values have persisted in the country.

The undoubted highlight of the weekend was our visit to the school where Chad works. It is called Střední uměleckoprůmyslová škola sklářská. The school was amazing! The students' work was remarkable, and we learned about blowing, carving, engraving, and finishing glass. We also learned about how the students are trained, because they have to master figural drawing, scultpting, and some art theory and history before they begin to work with glass. Students elect to attend this school at age 14, and train until they are 19. Even though the school is the equivalent to a high school in the U.S., the students' education is more like a college degree in art. The showcase of their products was amazing, and Danielle and I bought a beautiful clear glass plate with sandblasted squares and cut grooves on the edge of the surface. It was crazy to think that an 18-year old had made this! Be sure to check out the gallery on the website to see what the students have done.

Otherwise, we had a long dinner and lunch in local hotspots (i.e. smoky pubs) and just spent time walking through the town and the beautiful woods surrounding it. There were 10 inches of snow on the ground, and it was misty all day. Between the surroundings and the amazing art we saw, it was a great escape from Prague. The tiny town was REALLY different, but an incredible experience; seeing people create something beautiful out of ash, sand, and a handful of chemicals (for color) what an unexpected reminder of what people can do with artistic vision and traditional materials. BIG thanks to Chad and Chloe (and Thomas!) for hosting us and sharing their world with us for a weekend. Below is a slide show of some of the incredible photos from the weekend.