Night visit - Radio Slovenia
Designer Marjeta Hribar is "that girl with coal"; her jewelry is even sold in New York, and the coal crown will also be worn by Miss Slovenia 2018
Listen here: https://radioprvi.rtvslo.si/2018/07/nocni-obisk-1214/
is sometimes jokingly called a modern miner. He says it’s one of the nicer titles for what he does. When she processes coal and creates jewelry from it, most of her studio and she herself are black. Much like the miners who once worked in its nearby mines. Coal accompanied the night guest as a child. She spent it in a mining colony in Zagorje ob Savi, where from time to time she happily stole a piece of this fuel:
“I watched his shine. He seemed like a black gem to me. ”
She sometimes drew with him walls, she almost always had to return it. After years and many tried and tested ways of creating jewelry, however, coal has recently returned to her. Before she could make earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, cufflinks from him, she had to get to know him well, she says:
“Coal was already used by the Romans and the ancient Chinese, but we have no finds because the pieces fell apart because they did not know how to protect them properly. It took me two years to get to the shape I wanted to have. I have been looking for a long time for a way to process it to last approximately 100 years. I put it in the freezer to see how it responds to the cold. To see how it responds to heat, I put it on the radiator. And then again in the cold and then in the sun. ”
Marjeta Hribar is known in the local environment as "that girl with coal". With these words, she was also sought by an elderly gentleman, who decided to show her a place in the woods where the tiny veins of coal are still. The interlocutor usually goes there with a backpack on a rainy day:
“Some people go for mushrooms in the rain, I go for coal. When I come back, my smile is wider the more coal is in my backpack. ”
The first black crown in beauty pageants
One of the most demanding, if not the most demanding, orders she has received so far is the production of a crown for the current Miss Eco Slovenia. “When I received the call, I wondered what? How black crown? It's something you don't do every day and that's why the project required quite a few sleepless nights, "explains Marjeta Hribar and adds:
“With a project like this, you have to grow very fast in terms of your design skills. I had to figure out how I was going to make it. In the end, I opted for a combination of black coal - larger, polished stones and smaller, naturally shaped pieces - and green glass. Miss eco Slovenije has a green ribbon. ”
Making this crown took her one month, she planned it for two months. Now the next crown is already on her desk. This will be worn by the new Miss Slovenia from September.
Marjetina's jewelry is also sold in New York, but she is also happy to accept at home those who sometimes go on a longer, other times shorter trip to buy her products.
“The story of coal jewelery was discovered by foreigners from Germany when they were on holiday with us. They decided to find me in my hometown and look at jewelry. Neighbors asked about "those girls with coal", and they directed them to the right apartment. It was a shock for me that someone is trying so hard to take a piece of Slovenia with them, ”explains the interlocutor.
Coal on fashion accessories will soon be able to be carried around by those who will be able to collect shoes that will be decorated with this million-year-old rock.