Fam. Borodi

Vasile Borodi is a skilled craftsman from Sârbi, Maramureș, Romania, who makes traditional hats. Together with his wife, they also make different traditional products such as necklaces, traditional bags and woll slippers. Vasile says that he is the only craftsman in the area who still makes this kind of traditional hats. He has been practicing this profession for over 40 years. He learned it from a skilled and much more experienced neighbor, he says. From his grandmother he learned how to make necklaces and traditional bags.
Mister Borodi thinks that in order to practice this profession one has to have handiness, but the love for the craft is much more important. He works in his home workshop, with his wife. The hats they make are made of straw or poplar. The straw is taken from a woman in the area and the poplar material comes from Covasna area. He tells us that some hats are simple while others are created to be worn during holidays, because in Maramureș no man goes to church without a hat, as well as at weddings or baptisms.
Vasile Borodi enrolled in the Academy of Traditional Arts from Sibiu. He participated in several fairs over time in Oradea, Sibiu and Timișoara, but he always had the greatest success in sales in Constanța. Out of their love for traditional art, Borodi family have arranged a real traditional museum that houses a lot of objects made by them and other craftsmen from the Maramureș area. People interested in his creations can visit his workshop in Sârbi as he gladly waits for them.