“It is an old craft, an old folk craft, and these are baskets of various kinds - bottles, demijohns, women's handbags…”. Mladen Bušljeta, basket weaver from Lika-Senj county started his Excover interview like this, while presenting his twig products at Autumn in Lika fair. His latest model, which was designed and made just before the fair, is a women’s handbag that needs just a little more finishing so it could be ready for fashion shows.

Visitors from Croatia and the rest of Europe

- I would like to open a weaving workshop, a school, and a studio – definitely a studio, through which I will share my skills and knowledge with everyone interested in weaving with twigs and branches. Many visitors from all over Croatia, as well as tourists from Austria, Germany, and Netherlands already showed interest in this kind of products and activities – says Mladen Bušljeta, who is now famous for his products, but all started spontaneous, out of love.

Everything started because of one girl

- I met a girl, a teacher from Međimurje while I was in Karlobag, and she later immediately came to visit me in Lika. She told me I could make her a small twig basket for her students, so I said no problem, but I had no idea how to even start making it. As her visit was approaching, I quickly went to find twigs and branches, but I was successful only from the third attempt. She was delighted with the basket and from then on, I firstly made hundred baskets and it became my hobby – reveals Bušljeta, adding that just a hobby wasn’t enough for him, so he kept going, and now creates wonders, for which everyone knows him about.