I got into the basics of bookbinding at school in Ostrava and Bohumín, where I got an apprenticeship certificate. However, I picked up most of the craft from my mentor Miroslav Janota. I worked for him after my apprenticeship and absorbed all the professional skills. I bought the bookbinding business from Mr. Janota when the workshop was in danger of closing when he left.

But I have not been a bookbinder all my professional life. After a while, I didn’t want to be locked in a small workshop all the time. I needed to go out into the world, I wanted to study and meet new people. So I moved away from the craft for a few years. I studied, learned the language abroad, worked in a luxury casino, in banking and at university. But I always said I would return to bookbinding. And I’m happy that I did 😊 Now I see real work behind me, making practical, pretty and most importantly tangible products. I still can’t get enough of this after years behind the computer and between money 😊

My goal is to provide quality bookbinding services, products and expert advice. I want to preserve the workshop with all its historic machinery and equipment and pass it on to my successor. Hopefully I will be able to raise it in one of my descendants 😊

I continue the more than thirty-year tradition founded in 1991 by bookbinders Miroslav Janota, Ladislav Nováček and Hana Ondřichová. The original three-member collective of founders gradually narrowed and since 1996 the bookbinding shop has been run only by Miroslav Janota. The emphasis on the quality of products and work, together with the friendliness towards customers, has meant that Janota's bookbinding shop has been continuously offering its services for the last twenty years, even at times when other bookbinders in Zlín are closing down their operations. Over the years, no more than six bookbinders and two apprentices have worked in the workshop at any one time.