“There are days when it’s easier and days when it’s worse. Christmas, All Souls’ Day, his birthday, the day of his death will come. You remind yourself of everything,” says Beáta. “Those moments are still alive and they will be alive. Only today I can talk about it. And the day will come when I will be able to talk about it without tears.”
Beata Bobulová
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
While talking about grief, Beáta remembers meeting a man whose daughter died. When she asked him if time really heals, he answered her with an image: sadness is like sand on the road. Just a breeze and it’s back. And that’s how it is unfortunately – it never goes away completely.
“You learn to live with it,” says Beata. “There’s a saying that it could always be worse and it really could always be worse. I’m thankful today that I have healthy children. That’s what keeps me going.”
The birth of the wooden wheel
Traditional work was out of the question. She had children and was not well mentally. The idea that she should leave home for work every day was unimaginable at that time. So she decided to deal with the financial situation in her own way. At night, she made gift packages. She filled them with honey, wine and various delicacies. Through friends, she gradually reached companies that were looking for Christmas packages for clients or employees. And then came the wooden wheel.
As she says, she found it herself. In the apartment, she discovered several wooden wheels that her cousin from Telgárt had once brought her for the children to play with. “Nothing is a coincidence,” says Beata. She started gluing various ceramic ornaments to the wheels and used them as decoration on gift packages. It was only the enthusiastic reactions of people that gave her the idea to ditch the packages and devote herself only to the wheel. So Beata began to devote herself fully to the production of wooden ornaments. “At that time, I was looking for signs in everything. Even if something appeared in the sky, I expected that it was a sign sent by my friend. And those wheels also gave me different signs, you can see some shapes in each one,” she says. The wheel provided her with activity. And it was the activity that brought her back into the game.
Beata Bobulová
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
However, she never forgot the moment when a person finds himself alone with children. That is also why she decided to help women who have gone through a similar fate as herself. In 2019, she founded the civic association Súčaš života and started reaching out to women from her neighborhood who knew what it means to lose a partner and be left alone.
One of the first was a young widow who was only 19 years old at the time of her loss. They were widowed at the same time. “When I first saw her – I was in my forties and she was not even twenty – I thought that she would be able to handle it easier. That she is young, that she will still get married. Today I realize what a strange view I had then,” admits Beata. The young girl took the loss of her partner very hard, it was her first love. She very quickly fell into a difficult, suffocating reality, without a partner, with a child and without housing. More women were gradually added. Erika, also a widow, found out about the wooden wheel herself and contacted Beata directly. In the end there were five of them.
Already in the first year, they sold over 1,300 ornaments. After 2020, the social enterprise Drevenô koliesko was established. Today, it employs five people. They live in different parts of Slovakia – Žarnovica, Telgárt, Chrabrany, Senec or Poprad. The goal of the company is to stabilize people for a period of one year. “That’s what I needed. To get a year from someone to recover,” Beata recalls of her most difficult period.
It was important for her that people have the opportunity to work from home and not have to commute to work every day when their whole world falls apart. The production of wheels is simple, it does not require any special talent, and for many it serves as psychological hygiene. In addition to the actual production of wheels, however, she needed someone to saw the wheels for her. That’s when the parents of Marek, who suffers from dwarfism, called. Marek loves working with wood and has his own saw at home. They can produce products faster and in larger quantities.
Wooden wheel
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
Over the years, the Wooden Wheel has undergone a significant transformation. It no longer concentrates only on making ornaments. Beata began to transform the wheel from an ordinary decoration into something more. She approached the College of Fine Arts, the departments of design and architecture. Students helped her find new ways to use an ordinary wooden wheel. Thus, educational games for children – for example Ovečka – and other creative projects were created. Today, the wooden wheel also cooperates with designers and artists.
Wooden wheel
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
A difficult path to customers
Beata and I spoke for the first time a year ago. She organized the Magical Forest event at the House of Culture Pezinok. She filled the culture house with trees, various habitats and activities for children. Painted wooden wheels and works by various artists hung on the walls.
Wooden wheel
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
It was the Christmas period, which is traditionally the strongest part of the year for a social enterprise. Companies used to order small gifts for clients or employees from similar projects. However, as Beata explains, times are changing. The culture of Christmas gifts in companies is slowly disappearing. Although non-profit organizations are still a popular form of support, even years later it is difficult to “get a foot in the door”. “I have ten minutes to convince someone over the phone to buy our product,” she explains.
It is difficult for social enterprises that are not so well known to become visible. Support from the state is often minimal and cooperation with other non-profit organizations is difficult. There is so little interest in it that once someone is successful, they don’t want to share their success. Beate has a hard time understanding this. “I’ve always said, two people pull together better,” she says.
Beata Bobulová
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
There are piles of wooden wheels on the tables. Some of them are already decorations – painted, with magnets, ready to hang or put on a shelf. Others are still only a semi-finished product. Next to them, colors, laces, beads, stamps. Wheels waiting for someone to give them shape and meaning. Other wheels work as fun education for children. Belinka the sheep or bow tie allows children to practice fine motor skills. While children are weaving strings through the wheel, they are learning about sheep and butterflies. At a time when a large part of learning is moving to screens, she believes it is important for children to have something tangible in their hands. Something to slow them down.
Wooden wheel
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
Change of direction
A year later, Barbara and I talk again. I ask her if things are getting better, if that foot is already in the door. He talks about a change of direction – from exhibitions and presentations to experiential education. The wooden wheel is gradually being moved to schools. They cooperate with primary schools to modify the existing sets so that they fit into the new curriculum reform. “It was a great way to get contacts directly to directors who could try our products,” he admits. “Directors normally get 55 emails with different offers, and it’s hard to impress them through email alone. This way they can try it out.”
Wooden wheel
Source: Branislav Wáclav/Aktuality.sk
Nevertheless, he feels how difficult it is to get at least 15 minutes to present his project. It’s all about luck. “I try in vain to impress someone with a semi-pleasant voice, when he simply does not have the capacity or mood for it.” And the situation is getting worse, according to her. People are already overwhelmed and increasingly resistant to new stimuli. Despite this, Beata is not giving up and is working on several new projects.
When I ask her how she keeps going through all the rejection, she says simply. “Faith,” he answers without hesitation. “A faith that still holds, because I always reach some kind of maximum ceiling and then something beautiful happens. Sometimes I feel that the universe really exists and the energy you put into it must come back to you.”
