- On this episode of Making, we join a bunch of hookers as they find camaraderie in a century's old skill, meet a ceramic artist whose porcelain figures are both playful and practical, and visit a factory whose profits go up and smoke.

That's all next.

Here on Making.

(light cheerful music) This Program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(light cheerful music) Hello and welcome to Making, the show dedicated to makers and the artistry of their craft.

I'm your host Matt Burchett.

And thank you so much for joining us.

This week, we begin here with the Big Muddy Rug Hookers where dedicated makers create contemporary pieces of art using traditional skills that have been around for centuries.

- [Speaker] That is what brought you to observe.

(light cheerful music) (indistinct conversation) (people laughing) (indistinct conversation) (relaxing music) - Well, we've always been a group that got together in rug hooked.

And Guilds are founded in order to work with a National Organization Association of Traditional Hooking Artists.

So it just seemed natural a few years ago, for us to get together and form our own guild so we can now link up with hooking groups all over the world.

- I've been doing this for about a year now.

I'm 12 years old.

There was an outreach through 4H, and my mom suggested me doing it because we had been sewing and cross stitching and done like starting all of these other textile crafts.

So we decided it would be fun to try another new craft.

- Process of rug hooking is very simple.

You have a backing.

In the older days, they would've used a burlap bag or an old feed bag because it was what we would consider a make do art.

It was whatever you had around and you stretch that onto a frame.

In general, you can use a picture frame, you can use an old more elaborate floor frame, you can use an embroidery hoop.

Then you have a hook that looks like a crochet hook.

They were usually handmade, sometimes set into a block of wood to make it easier to work with.

And we would use strips of cotton or wool or yarn and it's held underneath and it's pulled through into a loop, and then you pull through another loop, and then you pull through another loop, and after about a quarter of a million loops you have a rug.

It's a very simple process.

What makes it special are the intents people bring to their rug, the colors they choose, what's close to them, what's important.

- I got into rug hooking about 10 years ago.

I'm actually a rug braider and had done that for, I don't know, probably 35 years.

And I was actually trimming a braid one day, trimming a strip off.

And I ended up with this lovely, lovely strip of wool, and I thought, "Oh, I can't throw that away.

It's too good."

And so I found somebody who knew how to rug hook and took it from there.

There it went.

(relaxing music) - Rug hooking is an older art became more popular in this country around the 1830s.

It's possible that it came in through New England and the maritime regions of Canada where sailors would hook or pull rugs or little maps, they call them mats they're about this size, that they would put between the ropes of the sailing ship and wood so that it wouldn't scuff.

And one of the stories is that that technique was then brought home by the sailors and women who had been sewing rugs, which would've been using a running stitch, switched over to using a hook and pulling strips up.

So culturally, it has a very strong connection to sailing and maritime history.

(relaxing music) - I think all the Guilds share in common, the sense of community.

That is probably one of the biggest things that they have going for them.

We are friends both within the group, we are friends outside of the group.

- We have lunches, we tell stories, we laugh, we share.

So it is very much friendship as well as a craft.

- It's really fun to look up to everyone else to see like maybe they've been doing it for a long time, but it's fun to see how they do it and how I could learn from them doing it (chuckles) with their designs and the coloring they choose, the stories they tell through their rugs.

They're really fun.

They're all kind of like grandma to me and are very kind and generous.

It's very fun.

And they help me when I don't think something's right or I'm not sure what to do next on my rug.

- We're absolutely thrilled that we have a couple of younger members in our Big Muddy Group here because that's how these things keep going.

When we can get young people involved in this sense of community, (light cheerful music) it has amazing benefits for all of us.

We get to work with people, like maybe the ones that we don't see every day, maybe the younger ones that we may not be acquainted with other than through one of our crafts.

- I usually make things and design like my own rugs to things that I like or I'm interested in.

I like to do planets because I'm into space.

And right now I'm doing the first initial of my name to go in my room.

(light cheerful music) - It brings together people from all backgrounds.

We, to be honest about it, we have many different political views, we have many different social views, we have many different religious views.

But when we sit down to rug hook, we are a community.

We support each other.

We actually care for each other very much.

We're friends outside of getting together and hooking.

So it gives us a place of neutrality to share something we love and respect each other for that.

(upbeat music) - I was born in Osaka, Japan.

And my mother and my father, they both love art.

And you know, my mom especially, she likes to craft.

And she likes to go to museum and look at beautiful art.

And my father, he was into pottery.

And so growing up my father would take me to pottery shops and pottery village.

But back then, I just never thought I gonna be a potter.

So growing up, we used a little like handmade, hand painted pots at home for every day.

So, I had an idea of what good pots should look like.

(chu And so I'm just more familiar with pottery.

I start taking art classes gradually.

In the beginning, like I wasn't majoring in art.

I was studying like computer science.

I just later on, told my parents I really want to study art and that's what I love.

And that was my childhood dream.

Like when I was like fourth grade, my teacher asked all of us in the class, "What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

And that was my dream, like being artist.

(calming instrumental music) I start using porcelain when I was in undergraduate.

And the difference is that stoneware has more kind of sandy, tiny little piece of like, basically like rocks.

It's just kind of more rough, like we call grog, but it's just more rough on skin and rough on hands, but it's easier to throw.

Easier to make larger piece versus porcelain.

The porcelain is not much smooth and kind of like a cream cheese kind of texture, (laughs) But it makes it more difficult to make larger piece.

However with porcelain, the color on the piece would be much brighter.

And it just brighten up the whole surface.

Like all the painting comes out brighter.

Glaze comes out brighter.

And that's what I really enjoyed.

And I can make something really fine detailed piece.

So I'm going to make a jar, a lidded jar.

And the first all, of course, wedging, That's the first step.

I will weigh the clay and wedge clay.

And then I will throw the piece, lid first.

And then I will make the body, a jar.

And after I start, I will trim the piece, Actually trim the lid and jar.

And when that's done, I will paint the piece with the slip.

Since the slip has to go while the surface is kind of still wet but not dry.

We call it leather hard.

And so we don't want to put the slip when it's like born dry.

It would peel off because basically slip is clay.

So like if you put the clay onto dry surface, it would peal off after the firing.

I still have to glaze, but like for me, I'm adding another step of, step for painting.

So the painting takes longer than anything else.

Like the throwing is fast, but painting takes like 45 minutes an hour.

It just depends on how big the piece is and how intricate is the design is.

I like brighter more feel more like peaceful and pleasant something I feel when I look at nature.

I love hiking, back packing.

Growing up in Osaka, you can imagine that it's a huge city and there's not much green, not much in nature.

So when I came to the United States, it was amazing experience for me.

Like even just seeing squirrels and rabbits in the yard, that's amazing for us.

And so I love going out to, go hiking and backpacking, and seeing the wildlife, and bringing those home to my studio.

and try to paint something that it reminds me of those beautiful moments that I saw while I was hiking.

I just enjoy making artwork and I like to just keep creating something that is interesting to me.

And it's also making art, making pots, it's the constant learning proce And I have been making pots for a while, but that's still...

I can still learn more and it never ends.

- [Hooker] They want me to hook rug as the trophy for the national season.

- [Speaker] Oh, cool.

Wow.

- So we're back here at the Wool and Cotton Shop with the Big Muddy Rug Hookers.

And I'm sitting here with Judy.

And we have a pattern here.

And I've been given a not entirely unthreatening looking instrument.

And she's gonna tell me what we're here to do.

So what do we have set up here?

- Well, this is a pattern that we've chosen and it's called Winter Buddies.

And it's a deer with the chickadee resting on its horn.

- [ Matt] Okay.

- And antler.

- Snow scene as.

- Exactly.

Yep.

And we've chosen the wools.

We've chosen these creamy grays for the deer.

And this teal, this combination of teal for the background - Okay.

- And his antlers and this brown.

So.

- [Matt] All right.

Well, tell me where we can get started.

- [Judy] Okay.

- [Matt] You've got a little bit already set up here.

- Yes.

Just to give you an idea of the colors and you've got a little background around the snowflake here.

And then we have the deer, piece of the deer.

And so we'll just, we'll just move into some of the... We'll start here at the jaw line because that's what I can reach the best.

(chuckles) And basically you hold the wool underneath the linen between these two fingers, your thumb and four finger.

And you let the wool pass in a flat line so that it doesn't get twisted.

And so push your hook down, follow the inside of the line.

Push the hook down, open that weave up a little bit, and then pull your wool strip through.

- Okay.

And so you're leaving kind of a tail on first.

- A tail.

- Okay.

- We'll come back and trim those later.

And then, we just push down, bring another one up, The kind of rule of thumb is you pull it up as far as the wool strip is wide.

- Okay.

Now are you going in, you're not hitting every one of these notches or- - No, it would be too tight.

And so you kind of go, it depends on your wool strip, how wide it is, how thick your wool is.

But basically you just want their shoulders touching.

It's just kind of... Yeah, just... - [Matt] Okay.

- [Judy] Yeah.

- As long as long as your loops are touching, you don't see the background behind it, then I see.

- Right.

Yeah.

Want to try?

- Sure.

I'll give it a try here.

Okay.

So right in about maybe there.

So I'm gonna widen that up a little bit.

- Right.

Now, widen linen up.

- So try not to pull everything out with it.

(both laughs) - If you kind of take your loop and pull it back toward the last loop that helps sort of lock it in place.

You don't pull that other loop out.

- [Matt] All right.

I think I'm keeping them halfway even there.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- So would we just connect these?

Or how would you change colors?

At what point?

I don't know how you're gonna go and add the texture.

- Probably just come on down here.

This line is in as just sort of the deer's jaw line.

And it's just gonna be a little bit darker than the rest of the deer just to give that definition.

- Okay.

- And so we'll do that and then we'll probably come up.

And as you can see the pattern here on the antlers, there's a little light or shadow.

And so you'll choose if you wanna make that shadow, if you wanna make it light coming in.

- But that's when you're painting, you're kind of deciding where your light's coming from a little bit.

- Exactly, yes.

So usually you do the central motif first, and then you start filling in background.

So I'd probably do the deer and his antlers, then I'd come in and do the snowflakes, and then I'd start doing background around it.

- You've got your snowflake already established there and you're doing the background.

Would you work outwards in a spiral?

Or how do you establish that background texture?

- [Judy] Well.

- [Matt] Is it kind of just- - Not necessarily a spiral.

You might do some other movement in here.

You wanna establish movement, you want the effect of the snow.

And so you'll think about, how you want to establish that movement.

So you might do some lines a little differently.

You might bring one down like this.

Same way with- - But that's up to the artist.

- Mm hmm.

That's a interpretation that you choose.

Same way with the deer.

You wanna establish movement.

Is he looking up?

Again, the eyes gonna show whether which way he's looking and get the effect of his fur or hair.

How it would go, you would run the direction of your hooking that way.

And I talked to you a little bit about these.

The background, you'll notice are like three different wools.

And the reason we do that is so you don't have a flat appearance.

Same way with the deer.

You're gonna have several different wools to establish some texture.

And that way you don't get a flat appearance.

If you use all one color, it just sort of looks like coloring page.

- Show me how...

If I get this stitch completed, how would we terminate what we're doing here with this line?

- Oh, okay.

- So if I, if we're gonna- - Good question.

- If we're gonna go all the way to this jaw line, how would we finish that off?

- Well.

You just... Yeah, let me.

- Say you'll be way quicker out than me.

(Judy laughs) - I don't know.

Probably not.

- Oh, I guarantee it.

- We're gonna stop here.

Okay.

We just take our scissors and clip our loop right here.

So it just end those, believe it or not, those loops, once that's all steamed, they'll hold for...

They'll hold forever unless- - Long as the backing holds.

- Uh huh.

Exactly.

And as long as the cat doesn't get ahold of it.

- That's very fair.

(Judy laughs) Well thank you so much for showing me what you all are doing here.

It's just pretty interesting.

- Well, I hope you found it interesting.

- I did very much.

Thank you so much.

- [Judy] You're welcome.

(upbeat music) - The history of the corn cob pipe starts right here in Washington.

The legend is that either a trapper or a farmer came down the river or up the river and had been making his own corn cob pipes.

And he stopped here to the founder of our company who was a wood turner at the time.

His name was Henry Tibbe.

And Henry was a Dutch immigrant from Holland and asked him, "Hey, is there a possibility you could make these on your lays?"

And Henry said, "Yeah, I'll give it a try."

So he tried it.

It was so successful that he quit wood turning all together and started a brand new business that had never existed before in probably in the world.

There were all together around maybe 12 different corn cob pipe companies at one time.

We were the first and we're the last.

For a corn cob pipe, you have the bowl itself that's made from corn cob, the shank that is made from wood, and then the stem or mouthpiece that's made from a food grade plastic and, or acrylic on our higher grade pipes, they're made from acrylic.

So you've got the bowl, the shank and the stem are the main three components of a corn cob pipe.

The corn that we use is unique to us.

We're the only ones that have it.

It is a hybrid.

It's not genetically modified.

The four varieties that go into it are old, open pollinated varieties from back in the 1920s and '30s.

The University of Missouri actually helped us develop that, way back when we wanted some that would give us a white cob, some that would give us what we call a red cob.

So they helped us develop that and develop a hybrid that would give a nice large diameter.

And now we're not so concerned about the length of it, but we need a big fat cob.

So we'll harvest it.

Take it to our shelling operation, which is across the river.

Shell it.

Sell the grain.

And then bring the cobs over here to be stored on the third floor of our building, ideally for a couple years.

The very center of the cob is called the pith.

That gets drilled out.

But then the next part of the cob is called the woody ring.

And if you let that dry long enough, it literally is as hard as wood.

Then you get to the chaff on the outside.

And that, we kind of sand the chaff down.

And then coat it then with Plaster of Paris to give it a nice smooth feel to it.

(machine grinding) Once the cos are dry enough to use, then they go down shoots from third floor down to first floor.

And they're cut into sections.

So to make the pipe bowl.

- I get the raw cobs after they're cut on the saw machine in the back.

(machine whirring softly) I just knock it on there and I do the shape.

And there's some pipes that I'm doing from memory.

Other pipes, if I'm trying to get the width, I have a sample right next to me that I just grab.

I'll just measure it up to there.

If it doesn't match, I'll put it back on if it's too big.

If I do them really fast, I can get about 500 done in a day.

- [Phil] After the bowl is formed, then we coat it with Plaster of Paris.

Sand it.

Coat it with Plaster of Paris again.

Sand it again.

And then apply some lacquer to the outside of it just the in.

That does give it some structural rigidity and just makes it look nicer too.

And then the shank hole has to be drilled where the part that goes into the side of the bowl, that hole has to be drilled.

And then it's ready to be assembled.

You're ready to put the shank in, and the mouthpiece and all that.

They just glue that in with a glue that's similar to Elmer's glue.

And let that dry.

And then you've got a pipe.

And it sounds like you could make a pipe all in one day.

You can't do that.

By the time we start, with a section of cob, and to make a pipe, it takes about four days before it's actually ready to go out the door.

Corn is unique to the Americas.

Corn was developed, hybridized by the Native Americans in Central America, primarily Mexico.

And then on into the North United States area.

And tobacco was first developed as a plant in the America.

So corn cob pipes are one of those heritage products that goes back so far.

In our case, over 150 years.

Regardless of what people think about smoking, pipe smoking itself has a long heritage.

They think of their grandfather.

They think of their uncle.

They think of their dad.

Just the smell of pipe tobacco will bring back memories for people of their grandfather possibly.

You feel like your part of history.

You feel like, you're sharing this product that is basically made exactly the same as it was 150 years ago.

And you feel like you're part of that.

You almost can't get more uniquely American and definitely not more uniquely Missouri than a corn cob pipe.

(relaxing music) - That's all the time we have for this week.

But we hope all of our makers have inspired you to unlock your creative spirit.

We thank you all for watching.

And we hope you'll join us next time to see what we'll be making.

- [Speaker] More information is available on social media or online at kmos.org.

(cheerful music) This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station for viewers like you.

Thank you.

(machine grinding) (light cheerful music)