- I was just gonna say, I think I enjoy, you know, going out and getting the wood as much as making the things that I make because you never know what you're gonna see.

(upbeat music) (snow crunches) - See like this.

(upbeat music continues) Here's a good one, I think.

Yeah, that's got a good branch right there.

(upbeat music continues) (tree snaps) (upbeat music continues) (peaceful music) (tool scrapes) My venture into craft work started when I was seven, actually.

And when I made my first spoon, I buried the hook that was used to carve out the bowl in my thigh, but I kept going and as I got older, I made more and more spoons and also things like birch bark boxes and learned how to do birch bark weaving.

I've just done so many different things, and it's, I never am bored.

I don't even know how to be bored.

(peaceful music) (wood thuds) I've always been interested in history and actually, the main thing that got me interested in wanting to do what I do, the mentor or teacher that I was learning from said there's a fellow up the road that has a carriage shop, and he's looking for an apprentice.

So at age 14, I ended up signing a seven year apprenticeship with him, building carriages and building wheels for carriages.

That was really my big adventure into the world of craft and learning how to use hand planes and hand tools and make things.

(upbeat music) When I was taking apart a carriage, and there was a a little ticket down inside a door and on the ticket was written, "Meet Mr. So-and-so at the opera," and it was from the St. Paul Opera.

And I wondered for a long time, you know, who that might have been and what that meeting was like and that was a person's life that was connected to that little piece of trash that they just dropped down in between the door and the window of the carriage.

And so it's that kind of thing that connects me to the past.

And I've always been interested in traditional everything, folk costumes and traditional woodworking and what people, you know, how they lived and that sort of thing.

So it's all part of the same thing.

(peaceful music) I've always made things like these birch bark boxes.

This is just a small snuff box basically.

And then recently, I've made these knot baskets which you see around my shop, and they are made of four pieces of bent willow.

They interlock together in this amazing way.

They are specific to an area in Sweden and also in Finland.

They're also from the area of western coast of Norway.

And a lot of other places too including the other Baltic states.

And they're everyday baskets.

They were just like a tote bag that we have today or a shopping bag.

So they were used for everything.

So this is one I made in France when I was teaching.

So this one's modeled on this one, and it's, you can see how different they are but similar.

And I got this one in Holsing Lauden, an antique store, and this one is about 150 years old and the inside painting was done probably later, but this is typical Sweden where they have a black frame and a painted body.

(upbeat music) I don't think most people would realize how much work it is to make these baskets.

They're much more of a woodworking project then they are a basket project, in one sense.

I'll make some splints like this with the draw knife at the shaving horse.

(knife scrapes) And then I want to split these with the bend so they go this way so I can get the flattest piece out of it.

(knife scrapes) Sometimes they split nicely like this.

(knife scrapes, gentle music) (knife clatters) (wood cracks) Yeah, I'll only get a short one outta that.

And a little bit longer off that one.

(tool scrapes, gentle music) Such a great sound.

(tool scrapes, gentle music) So that's where I need to work on this one a little bit.

(gentle music) (spoons clatter) Spoons are an interesting object because they were used for courting.

If I were interested in some woman somewhere, I would make a spoon, and if she accepted this spoon, then she would reciprocate by giving me maybe an embroidered handkerchief or something like that.

And everybody had very few objects that were theirs.

They often belonged to the farm.

And so a spoon was something really personal, and it's kind of an intimate object in a way.

In teaching, we call them a gateway drug to woodworking.

(gentle music) (axe thumps) I mean, I do think of myself as a craftsperson or a craftsman, but my, I've always really thought of myself as more of a teacher.

And so I teach at lots of different schools around the Midwest and at events and do demonstrations and things like that.

Then, my spoon blank is kind of done, and then I go and I'll start trimming up the sides.

(axe thumps) Approaches, this is the way.

- Oh, okay.

- My teaching experience is directly tied to the notion of kind of paying it forward.

I was given a lot of knowledge by a lot of different people growing up to do all this craftwork.

And so I feel in a way obligated to return that knowledge.

You're only working from about two-thirds up, (axe thumps) then down.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

(axe thumps) It's really wonderful to connect on a deep level with these people and help them discover their inner creativity.

And 'cause a lot of people say, "Well I can't do any of this work."

And the fact is that they can.

I've really met very few people who can't do craft work.

(axe thumps) You've got a good rhythm going.

(axe thumps) The best thing is to find out that you can do these things and it provides such an amazing amount of satisfaction and joy in your life outside of, you know, all your other things that people do.

If you have something to really look forward to at the end of the day when you come home and can make things that are wonderful and you wear them or use them to eat or drink out of them, you know, it's pretty amazing.

(car whooshes) (accordion music) One of the best, I'd say probably once in a lifetime projects I've ever had was working at Waldmann, which is a 1857 lager beer saloon.

It's the oldest commercial building in St. Paul.

Here we go then.

The owner there, he said, "I want it to be done like it was done in 1857."

I was in charge of doing a lot of historic paint research and figuring out, you know, how people worked back then.

Yeah, this is, it's, you know, all original paint and finish.

The bun feet have been added to give it a little height.

So those are new, but they look like they're old.

- [Person Offscreen] This table is from where?

- It's from Sweden.

It's from 18, probably the 1860s or 1780s, probably.

(accordion music) The Scandinavian furniture that's in Waldmann, there's a little bit of it.

I've had the great opportunity to flip them over and repair them so that they're, I got a good chance to see how they're put together.

The tavern table has lots of initials carved in the top of it and, you know, it was used and it's still being used as a part of that continuing tradition.

I call it the highest form of public art 'cause it's totally usable.

(peaceful music) So in 2008, I had the opportunity to go to Saterglantan, which is the craft school in Sweden.

I was there for five and a half weeks, and I took three different classes, and I went with my friend Bill Yeager.

So he's really tall and I'm really short and he does flat plane figure carving.

And we had an amazing time.

That's when I realized I was on the right path.

That was what I really wanted to do.

And I was meeting the people I wanted to meet.

I was doing the things I wanted to do, and I was learning continuously, and I was doing blacksmithing, and I was doing basket making, and it was just perfect for me.

And all the teachers and all the students were so generous and in, you know, a matter of weeks, I had made a whole network of new friends that were just, that are still my friends.

(peaceful music) I'd always learned all this, about this in books and from talking to people and to have it all come to life is really quite something.

And then to bring it back and share it with other people.

It was a magical, magical experience.

(peaceful music) (violin music) (wood thumps, hand scrapes) (hammer thumps) I've had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling and a lot of study and meet a lot of people, and if I hadn't started making spoons at age seven, absolutely none of it would've happened.

So that connection and that sense of community is very real for me.

And I can travel all through Europe and visit friends who make spoons, and because of that greater circle of craftspeople, I feel welcome everywhere.

(axe thumps, violin music) So back 16 or 17 years ago, a fellow named Frank Foltz decided that he wanted to start this gathering for spoon carvers.

And so he asked a number of us to meet.

It didn't originally happen at Milan, but that's where it ended up.

And we had this spoon gathering.

And so being a founding member of that was quite something.

And it's grown and grown and now they're spoon festivals all over the world, and they all can be traced back to the one in Milan.

(violin music) As a craftsperson, the time that we're living in right now is really interesting to me because I've been doing this long enough to see how crafts and how handwork has changed and COVID had this unforeseen gift, I think, that despite all the tragedy of it, there was this explosion of handwork and interest in handwork and the handmade.

I think that sense of community that a lot of us crave is not being met with technology.

You know, we all have cell phones and there's a certain connection that happens from those but it's the real interpersonal connection and finding new friends and making new connections with people that I think is more validating on a human level.

Craft is actually a really wonderful tool for social change.

It's a human connection to a world in the past, but it has a meaningful connection to what we do now.

(triumphant music) - [Narrator] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram.

Online at 967kram.com.

(peaceful rhythmic music)