Among the nomadic Roma, they best preserved their identity as the Caldara Roma. Like the craft of blacksmithing, the processing and modeling of non-ferrous metals was of particular importance for the material culture of the Roma, but especially for the entire Romanian society, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Boilermakers made and repaired various types of copper vessels, from small vessels such as trays, pans, cups, pots, kettles, pole pots, to large vessels for household and community use such as water buckets, kettles for boiled food, stills for poverne, as well as vessels with ritual value, such as the baptism cauldron or mug for agheasas. The most skilled boilermakers did not shy away from the processing of brass sheets for roofs, the best client in this regard being the Church. The skill of the Caldara Roma is also reflected in the documents of the time, which testify how the nomadic Caldara Roma had a much better work technique than those from urban or rural workshops.
Roma family from Caldara from Vlașca commune, Ialomița county
In Vlașca commune, Ialomița county, located in the east of Fetești municipality, in a community where about a fourth of the population is represented by the Roma ethnic group, I met a significant "community" of Caldara Roma. A first contact was with Stănescu Ion, boiler maker, who guided us through the life of the corturari or pletosi Roma, as they were also called.
Talking to Stănescu Ion, boilermaker from Vlașca commune, Ialomița county
He learned the craft in the family: "I learned the trade from the age of 10, from my father, with whom I went everywhere, we slept in tents, on mattresses filled with straw or bird flakes, and the food was rarely enough to fill you up."
He remembers how in his youth he worked with copper pots, boilers, copper or tin tins, boilers, tins with or without a lid, either by hot beating or hammering metal sheets, or by casting, vessels that he then sold all over the country , going from Brăila to Bistrita-Năsăud. "We procured the materials from the areas we were passing through and worked them in the best technique, that is, by hot hammering the copper sheet, cut according to a pattern to take the desired shape. To do good work you should not lack scissors (of different sizes), tongs, jaws, hammers, mallets, anvils, templates or improvised fire-starters."
Copper objects made by boilermakers from Andrășești commune, Ialomița county
At the age of almost 70, tinsmith Stanciu Ion rarely works with copper objects anymore, but he says that he does not give up, if there is a demand for it. Today, many of the Caldara people are gone abroad, perhaps because their nomadic culture is only apparently sedentary.
