Beautiful things from the region

Every workshop has its own scent. In Philipp Schwarz's small shoemaking workshop, there is a classic smell of tannins and fats. "I attach great importance to the quality of the leather," assures the 30-year-old. Philipp Schwarz is the last of his guild who knows how to make the "zwieg'nahten Goiserer". The handmade custom-made shoes with the double seam made of pitch wire - a thread rubbed with pitch and beeswax - are his trademark. At least 40 hours of work go into making a traditional pair of Goiserer; considerably more when it comes to a Budapest model with hand-punched perforation, the "Lyra perforation". Customers have to be patient for a year before they can wear their Goiserer.
Philipp Schwarz is one of thirty entrepreneurs from the Salzkammergut who want to make the importance of traditional craftsmanship visible for the region. They are "Pfochtler", as it is called in the dialect of the lower Salzkammergut.

The HAND.WERK.HAUS association was founded more than ten years ago to give crafts a space. "The roofer, the harmonica maker, the parquet layer or the stove fitter - they all produce things that stand for our regional culture and identity. We have to highlight and emphasise that," Barbara Kern promotes the purpose of the house.
There needs to be a stronger sense of mission: "The craftsman is just as much a bearer of culture for the region as the farmer. Crafts stand for training, skill and local jobs." In short: If the crafts do well, the people do well. The historian is the communicator and driving force behind the craftsmen's association of the same name, which runs an exhibition centre with an attached crafts shop in the middle of the village in Neuwildenstein Castle, a former Bundesforste building.

The three-level HAND.WERK.HAUS is a follow-up project to a regional exhibition from 2008. Here you can see handicrafts on the themes "From Head to Toe", "From Gable to Cellar" and "From Hand to Mouth".

Deer horn is a stubborn material. Master optician Pamminger needs a lot of skill to draw the shape of the glasses on the horn plates, to mill, grind and engrave them.

He has to be very careful not to ruin the deer antler spectacle blank. The inner structure of the material is not always even. One wrong file stroke - and Pamminger is stunned, as it were.

The optician's ambition is to show what craftsmanship can create: "I make things that are not commonplace in my industry. My masterpieces meet the customers' desire to wear something individual and down-to-earth."

He speaks and continues to work on a unique visual aid. Either way, it's important work - because as the centuries-old saying goes, which you learn on one of the guided tours of the house: "When the eyes grow dim because of growing age or some other condition, the makers of glasses come to the rescue.

TEXT: Josef Ruhaltinger PHOTOS: Mirco Taliercio

Text & photos were published in Servus Salzkammergut Magazin 2021.