The Magic of Clay and the Farm: How a Family Swapped Sofia for the Village of Lobosh

Eight years ago, my husband and I decided to leave the big city, take our children and go to the countryside. I am a landscape architect by profession, he is in the IT field, but we both dropped everything, took our two children and left."

That’s how the Kryakov family decided to open a new page in their lives in the village of Lobosh (Kovachevtsi Municipality, Pernik Region), where they now have a house that they will later turn into an art center. Monika Kryakova spoke about her entrepreneurial idea during the seminar “Opportunities for Entrepreneurship in Pernik”, organized by Brand Media Bulgaria within the framework of the European project TOP JOBS and in partnership with the Municipality of Pernik.

Clay is magic

Having spent one year in the village she was still wondering what exactly to do when she met a pottery teacher, who introduced her to the craft.

When I touched the clay, I realized that this was magic that lasts a lifetime. I bought a potter's wheel and kept spinning because learning a craft is quite a difficult process," says Monika.

She sees the potter's wheel as the wheel of life: "So many things happen whenever I sit behind the wheel - if I ask a question, I am given an answer, and I fall into meditation and self-discovery."

She turned the old barn of the property into her studio and began giving classes for children and adults. However, the studio caught fire and everything was destroyed – a “pretty tough” period, she says.   

Then, pregnant with her third child, she decided that after giving birth it was time to develop the potential of the rest of the property by turning it into a guest house. She also found another space to turn into a new studio.

With my two hands and my husband's two hands, and serious work, we created a very beautiful place." 

Monika wants to turn their house in Lobosh into a place for self-discovery and self-development, plus she gets new ideas all the time. Today, clay art, painting and bakery workshops are held there, in addition to herb classes, and birthday celebrations.

The most important thing for me is to give something to the people who come here, to make them feel good and to give them peace of mind."

Her idea is to reach out to local people by including them in various workshops, inviting them to pass on a craft – whether it is making pies with puff pastry, knitting or sewing.

Her new passion

Monika used to buy the clay she works with, her new passion is searching for wild clay, which she digs herself. She said that there is a lot of clay in Bulgaria, but there is no formal operation for its extraction. Most ceramic artisans order clay from Germany, but she found that in her area there are several types of clay – red, white and gray.

For her, the feeling of working with wild clay is completely different, and Monica has a special relationship with the red clay, which she digs in the backyard of her house. 

I go with shovels and buckets, I take the clay, I process it, and that's how I complete the whole process myself."

ZhaboKryak Farm

In addition to the house, the family also bought a 14-acre farm nearby and is already cultivating 5 of them focusing entirely on organic farming and permaculture.

We are growing vegetables and hopefully fruits soon - we have planted the trees. We are involving the children, and I hope volunteers will come and join us," says Monika.

The vegetables are sold through friends and various platforms. The idea is to also welcome busy city dwellers who want to help with growing the produce.

The farm name - "ZhaboKryak" (“FrogCroak”) – alludes to the family's surname. "We are the Kryakovs and people always ask me to repeat our surname so I say - "like croaking frogs".

And these days, in the garden of the house, there are indeed frogs croaking in the small pond that the family built on their own.

Why did they say farewell to Sofia?

Both Monika and her husband are from Sofia, and she says they love the city, but "its dense construction and traffic jams and dirty air and so many people and... that was enough."

Before they took this step, her husband sold his big IT company, and they used the money to invest in land and properties in the capital city, which today help them support themselves because developing a business from scratch can be a complex thing.

Monika Kryakova says that this was a serious and difficult step for the family to take.

She mostly enjoys the fresh air of the countryside and can no longer even understand why people want to live in Sofia.

Many people have a desire to do this, to leave the big city, but they are afraid. They are afraid because they don't know what they will do in the countryside, but I am of the opinion that there are many more things to do in the countryside than in the big city, as well as many more businesses waiting to be developed. One simply has to open up and work hard."

Today, her husband doesn't want to touch a computer and only sits down to help with technology for the greenhouse, while Monica is living her big dream. And if you happen to have a weekend free from the city whirlwind, this Lobosh guesthouse is ready to welcome you to relax and work.

When you're fed up and want to run somewhere, escape from everything and everyone, and want to hear your own heartbeat, come to me, in the village of Lobosh," Monika extends a cordial invitation.

Co-Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Managing Authority. Neither the European Union nor the Managing Authority can be held responsible for them.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov