Marek Bolf's kalimba journey began with just the clothes on his back and an empty wallet, as he ventured out from home. Living in humble conditions without heating, surviving on nothing more than bread, he clung to a fervent desire to bring music back to the people. Marek still treasures his first seven-note gourd kalimba, which he spent four hours tuning. Since then, several thousand kalimbas have passed through his hands, bringing joy to satisfied customers worldwide.

Functional art gives birth to tangible objects that evoke emotions. Diversity speaks through the combination of old craft techniques and new technologies. By embracing the challenge to keep the originality, texture, simplicity or complexity of different materials such as wood, ceramics or iron, the designers and craftspeople of Kreatippci seek unexplored territories that reflect their current state of mind. Each new art piece is thus original and repurposed all at once, and these two co-exist in harmony.

With the motto “the journey is the destination,” Katarína Pozorová embraces challenges, finds meaning, and connects insights from different fields. After dipping her toes into the world of glass during her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, she soon understood that her artistic expression was linked to her craft skills. Simply drawing her vision down on paper was not enough. The urge to discover the possibilities of the 3D world and feel the material in her hands, to experiment and push its boundaries, was too great.

A cycling tour across Europe can unfold in multiple ways. For Jiří Markalous it sparked the desire to start creating. He has been drawn to the art of guitar making since a very young age. Without hesitation, he ordered the necessary tools and embarked on a new journey: the transformation of raw wood into musical instruments.