At the „Sasfészek (Eagle Nest) Craft Yard” the activities take place at several work stations. These include furniture painting, folk costume sewing, chimney cake baking, with the children being able to choose the order they want to try out the workshops presenting and practicing the tradition folk crafts, after their arrival.

Furniture painting

Furniture painting was once a flourishing craft throughout Western and Central Europe. Over the generations, of course, each of the furniture-painting carpentry workhouses has developed a specific style, tailored to local craft knowledge and the needs of the shopping circle. The specific features allow the expert to identify the origin of the furniture.

In our little nest the local motifs are presented, and the children can get a little taste of the furniture painting as folk crafts, they can observe as restorer Mara Zsuzsa, using these style features, completely recalls the moments of our past when these motifs were a part of the everyday life. They could be seen on the outdoor, indoor furniture, household objects, giving them a bit of a personal touch.

After getting a little taste, the children can decorate small pieces of furniture made by the neighbouring woodworking company with the motifs presented and the paints made available to them. Here they can freely try colour rendering on a wooden surface, and they can let their imagination run wild by creating aesthetic works.

Folk costume sewing

The folk costumes were a traditional clothing style that is now slowly being regarded as a piece of history. There are many who try to conserve it by trying to revive it in household textiles and as a decoration of some garments.

Our Szekler people also have their own specific folk costumes, for which homespun fabric plays a major role. As one of its main characteristic is that it is made by traditional handmade work, it can be tried out by children through making doll clothes.

We would like to clothe the rag dolls made by seamstress Barta Magdolna in our traditional folk costume, so that each garment would be made under the guidance of our seamstress, after which the dolls would be dressed up in festive costumes.

Although now only used as a mean of expressing ethnic identity, it had a long history of bearing positive values, it symbolized the work, diligence, purity, and the ethic of endurance. These are the values we would like to pass on to our visitors by them accustomed with traditional folk wear.

Chimney cake baking

The chimney cake is a true Szekler cake dating back to the 16th century, but its expansion starts at the beginning of the 18th century. It is registered as a Hungarian pastry and became a Hungaricum in 2015. It is an essential image element of Szeklerland and Transylvania.

The chimney cake has its place as well in our little nest, where our visitors can partake in a little gastronomic journey. Vitos Fodor István, the owner of Vitos Chimney Cake, will hold a professional presentation on this culinary delight, after which will provide the visitors the opportunity to bake their own chimney cakes, starting with kneading, wrapping, all the way to baking and flavouring the cake. Thanks to the spectacular oven, they can experience the joy of their work in the strict sense of the word.

It is important to target multiple senses of our visitors, so after trying out several types of craft activities, they should get to a point where they can experience the wonder not only with their eyes, but also with their tongue, and most of all, in their hearts.

We look forward to openhearted people that are able to embrace this wonder, take pleasure in the activities, live the joy of working together, the cohesive power of the community, and take a little bit of it home to someone who has longed for it.