On the border between reality and oblivion, in the village of Milošev Do high above Prijepolje, lives and creates one of the rare old craftsmen who knows how to make the traditional wooden cheese bucket (čabrić). This last of the Mohicans is named Miroslav Svičević, he is almost ninety years old, and still goes to the forest every day to prepare material for his craft, which he inherited from his late father and which today exists only thanks to his hands.
-First I go to the forest on my motorcycle, that is the most important thing. Then I cut and split, I split these long ones with an axe, then I dry them, then I plane them. There are tools — a broad axe, a drawknife, a cooper’s adze, explains grandpa Miroslav to RINA, while sanding the wood and recalling the time when cheese in every household in this area was stored exclusively in čabrići made by people like him.
His hands, although tired from decades of work, still remember every movement.
-Now I can’t do as much as before, but I try to produce as much as I can. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be working. I make them exactly as my father made them, only they don’t turn red like they used to, says this vital old man.
Next to him, all the time is Stanimirka, his life companion and the quiet strength of the family.
-I went everywhere with him. If someone comes to buy, I stay, I know how to sell. I wasn’t in charge of the money, but he would give me a little, she adds with a smile.
And while many today return to their native village only on weekends, Miroslav and Stanimirka are among the last to live in Milošev Do throughout the year. And they don’t complain — the mountains, they say, seduced them long ago and they could no longer separate from them.
When asked if anyone will inherit his craft, grandpa Miroslav smiles and looks at his grandson.
-I will try to learn from grandpa while he can still show me, so that someone can inherit and have this to do. Maybe it will be needed someday, you never know, says the grandson while proudly looking at his grandpa the craftsman.
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Source: RINA; Photo: RINA