The hand-made production of suha roba – small and medium sized everyday kitchen and household utensils from wood – has a long tradition in Slovene lands. In the dark winter evenings of days gone by, peasant folk took a well-deserved break from toiling in the fields; this was the time when all the family members gathered together in a domestic production line to make woodenware. It was a craft that was particularly strong in the forested regions of Lower Carniola, and survives to this day in the areas around Ribnica and Kočevje in the Kočevski Rog district.

With regard to the articles made, this craft encompassed an enormous variety of products, from toothpicks, through spatulas, spoons and ladles, to rims and bases, sieves and bolters, as well as a whole host vessels and tools. Turned and lathed items were also produced, as were wickerwork ones. Although for the most part confined to useful everyday items for the home and farmstead, production also extended to children’s toys, decorative articles and souvenirs. Hundreds of traders from the Kočevje district once plied the Habsburg crown lands, and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, selling these wares.