The history of this project dates back to 2017, when a team of craftsmen and folk artists in the Open Studio of the Heritage House ( in the Museum of Hungarian Applied Folk Art) thought of creating a joint collection. Presenting the diversity of the fourteen craftsmen and forging their diverse knowledge into unity initially caused many headaches. After several joint discussions, as the project leader, I (Reka Farkas) proposed that the collection should be based on black, and in connection with this, the little black dress. The idea inspired the community. After several months of work, the first collection was born, which we presented in two places in Budapest and at Martonvásár. One of the positive results of the long-term joint work was the connection of different craft areas and masters. The joint works of a weaver and beader (Judit Kamocsay and Nagy Gyöngyi), an embroiderer and weaver (Rózsa Erika and Mikolt Detre), a beader and leather worker (Anna Fehér and Eszter Kelemen) combined high-quality technical knowledge. The internal initiative was already successful that year and soon became more and more popular.

On the five-year anniversary of the Open Studio, we rethought our most popular programs, which is why in 2020 we opened up the possibility of a wider circle of creators joining the renewal of popular object culture in this form in connection with a tender. The prolonged closure during the pandemic, the lack of programs, and the resulting increased need to show off also contributed to the fact that it was possible to reach out to people active in other art fields, for example the designers working in the salon of the Handcraft Academy. (Kézimunka Akadémia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSBDPUcMdME&t=4s

In 2021, motivated by the successes of the previous year, we announced a tender again. Here, we placed great emphasis on the preparation of the professional content of the application. With this, we presented a new challenge to the practitioners of folk craft object culture. We defined the starting point according to a design task: in connection with the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, we selected original folk costume pieces from the costume collection. We supported the preparation with a series of lectures, where our lecturers were selected from different fields of expertise (ethnography, fashion history, design, costume making). Despite the fact that we narrowed down the initial topic more than usual, the competition received nearly 100 creative works. Two artisans and three artisans took part in the judging, and it was based on the criterion system of the folk arts qualification. We found few controversial pieces, but there were objects where the views of artisans and industrial artists sharply diverged, for example, a loud piece of jewelry made of plastic pearls with beads was found kitschy and exaggerated by artisans, while industrial artists found it unique and attention-grabbing.

Half a hundred exciting creations - clothes, jewelry, shoes - were submitted from all over the country to the Open Studio's 2022 Little Black competition. The special feature of the year is the cooperation with the textile department of the Metropolitan University under the title "This is how I see folk art". In this, we invited the students of the university to create modern black dresses based on Hungarian folk costumes (e.g. black bride) based on tradition. The cooperation has been going on since January and took place in several stages. In the spring, craftsmen and designer students presented their ideas to each other and shared their thoughts on traditional object design. On another occasion, the students of the Metropolitan University were able to gain an insight into the craft techniques of our traditional masters in the framework of craft workshops (beading, lace making, embroidery, wind processing, felting, leather work). The occasions provided a great opportunity for our craftsmen to get to know a different way of thinking, and for the students to see the craft techniques up close and get to know masters from another generation. The sessions were very popular among the students. The relationship between folk art and fashion design inspired the students in an extraordinary way. In May, the craftsmen of the House of Traditions took part in the year-ending presentations and could see the completed clothes.

In this year applicants had to process the selected museum objects. We draw attention to an area or motif that is little known, or to techniques with which few contemporary masters deal. https://www.facebook.com/hagyomanyokhaza/photos/a.130660486945803/5873388479339613/?type=3

What if we try out something in widespread, in a in an environment where it does not fit. We transfered young girls to a beutiful ladies in some festivals. Encourage them to dress in modern folk artists works, and make a friendship with that. It was a super amazing experiment!