{"id":2886,"date":"2018-11-10T09:36:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T07:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newedgemagazine.com\/?p=2886"},"modified":"2018-11-10T10:16:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-10T08:16:27","slug":"janza-dolinsek-theres-freedom-in-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newedgemagazine.com\/index.php\/janza-dolinsek-theres-freedom-in-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"JAN\u017dA DOLIN\u0160EK: \u00bbThere’s freedom in clay.\u00ab"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI don’t know if I should call myself a ceramist or a designer,\u201d ponders Jan\u017ea Dolin\u0161ek <\/a>as she lifts one leg up to rest her foot on the edge of the chair she\u2019s sitting on across from me in Hana Karim<\/a>\u2019s studio. Back in June when I met with the two girls for their interview they were still working together in that bright creative space \u2013 now, Jan\u017ea is venturing out on her own and is about to open a studio bearing her own name on Kri\u017eevni\u0161ka street in the heart of Ljubljana. She\u2019s come a long way since that first workshop she\u2019d attended at Hana\u2019s and an even longer way since her time at college where she\u2019d studied visual communications. It was there that she first came in touch with clay as part of a project she had to do for a class \u2013 and the feel of it has stayed with her ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I\u2019d left my job in a very corporate environment, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. So I attended one of Hana\u2019s workshops \u2013 I\u2019d been looking for a place where I could create with clay under a mentorship of someone more experienced in that field. I knew of Hana and her work; she\u2019d just opened her own atelier and had just started out with those workshops, so I signed up.\u201d Afterwards they\u2019d struck up a conversation sitting on the steps in front of Hana\u2019s atelier and connected immediately. \u201cI\u2019d left a comment on her Instagram after that and Hana too was in a really interesting phase of her life at that time. She was looking for an apprentice and she\u2019d messaged me if I\u2019d be interested.\u201d Jan\u017ea laughs at the memory of how it all began, saying \u201cit was just your typical Sunday afternoon. I was making pancakes at home and I told her \u2018listen, if I could, I\u2019d come over right now but my dinner\u2019s gonna burn.\u2019\u201d So Jan\u017ea came to Hana\u2019s atelier on a Monday morning and immediately started out as her apprentice. \u201cI gave her a rolling pin and some clay and she had to roll out ten plates and was ecstatic about it.\u201d Hana remembers.<\/p>\n

Even though they\u2019re both ceramists and are in a way each other\u2019s competition, the two remained friends throughout their time working together, even after Jan\u017ea had stopped being Hana\u2019s apprentice and started creating her own line, titled JN\u017d ceramics<\/a>. \u201cI think it\u2019s more than obvious that we\u2019re on two completely separate paths. Hana\u2019s aesthetics is really close to me, but it wouldn\u2019t make any sense for me to create things that are like hers. She\u2019s a colourist \u2013 and as much as I love colours, I just don\u2019t really express myself through them. I think it\u2019s really good that we came together as two artists with completely different styles. Hana\u2019s like a ray of sunshine \u2013 I learned so much from her and even though I could\u2019ve easily felt inferior to her she never once made me feel that way. If anything, she only ever lifted me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why clay and why ceramics? \u201cThere\u2019s a certain amount of freedom in clay. It\u2019s amazing because you take this mass of what\u2019s essentially mud and it\u2019s up to you to give it shape and colour and size and purpose. There\u2019s so much manoeuvre space to create which is so refreshing to me since that was what I\u2019d been lacking all this time when creating from behind the computer. I need something I can hold on to, some sort of tactility. That\u2019s not to say that graphic design isn\u2019t cool \u2013 I love it and you can create so much with it, I\u2019m a big supported of prints! But it\u2019s just not for me. I try to be what I create and create only the things that I believe in and can stand behind. I just find that I express myself better through clay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer of 2018 had been a busy one for Jan\u017ea. She\u2019d spent her days with Hana, creating her own line in her company in her atelier, had her very own stand at Odprta Kuhna and attended Sejem mladih ustvarjalcev (\u2018Fair of young creatives\u2019) at Urbano Dejanje festival in Ljubljana. In September she\u2019d found an empty space on Kri\u017eevni\u0161ka street 2 in Ljubljana \u2013 even though it was in a pretty bad shape, Jan\u017ea could see through the cracks and realized it had soul and the potential to become the perfect little creative nest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rented it out \u2013 it was like jumping off a cliff and diving headfirst into the deep. We started the renovations and I\u2019m so grateful for my boyfriend, my brother and all my friends for helping out. I\u2019m especially thankful to my family for all their support \u2013 I couldn\u2019t have taken this big life-changing leap without them. Or I could have, but it would have been so much harder. And I keep repeating this but I\u2019m forever grateful for and thankful to Hana \u2013 after all, all of this is \u2018her fault\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The space will serve as a working studio and won\u2019t be a shop for now, but it will be open for visitor\u2019s at least once a week. Jan\u017ea hopes to organize and hold workshops of her own in her atelier, maybe an exhibition, some events and one of the rooms will serve as a creative space for two of her friends who are fashion designers. \u201cI think it\u2019s great that we\u2019ll combine different forms of art under one roof and I\u2019m genuinely looking forward to it even though I\u2019m a little bit nervous \u2013 I\u2019m so used to having my mentor and friend by my side. But I know that Hana\u2019s always with me, one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think being an artist there\u2019s this inner instinct that we all have, a need to create; you don\u2019t necessarily always want to do it and would rather shut it out and lay down on a beach somewhere and not think about anything. But you can\u2019t shut it out. You can\u2019t turn it off, the need to create is constant. It\u2019s not just a decision you make overnight. And it might be horrible at times when you run into an artist\u2019s block but many times it\u2019s also wonderful. It\u2019s an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find Jan\u017ea on: www.janza.si\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photos: Jan\u017ea and Jo\u0161st Dolin\u0161ek<\/p>\n