- [Matt] On this episode of Making, we join a band of artisans as they play with sharp knives and soft wood.

Snap some picture-perfect art pieces with this portrait photographer.

And take to the river with a painter who brings history to his work.

That's all next, here on Making.

This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(calm folk music) Hello, and welcome to Making.

The show dedicated to makers and the artistry of their craft.

I'm your host, Matt Burchett.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Today, we begin here at The Knot Hole, a wood carving studio where carvers can come to learn from the best.

By using traditional methods and both ancient and modern tools, these artists can evoke life and create character from simple blocks of wood.

(calm folk music) - [Joyce] See how I'm laying this down?

My eyes turn and look so I can see where the grind mark is.

- [Marilyn] My name is Marilyn Anderson and I'm the daughter of Joyce and Andy.

And I'm actually named after my grandmother, Marilyn Storms and John Storms, who actually started this shop.

It started as just a hobby.

And grandpa just wanted a place to carve with his buddies, and grandma didn't want the mess in the kitchen anymore.

(Marilyn laughs) So it kind of grew into this.

- That's how we got started.

And my dad would teach maybe little-ish like, six week classes on how to carve.

And so it just kind of grew from there.

Just the demands of people coming in and wanting this or that.

We just started expanding on our tools and our books.

And the main service we do here is we introduce people to wood carving.

We show 'em carving techniques and have the safety part of it.

And you know, we provide some- We'll cut out blanks for 'em that they want to do.

And we have a small variety of tools, but they're good tools.

You know, if you have a bad tool, it could make carving be a chore and you won't like it.

So, you know, we said don't get the cheapest tool you find out there, you know, there's a middle range and they'll last you a lifetime.

- [Woodworker] If you don't have your own tools, they'll loan you tools to see if you like it, so you don't have to invest anything at the time.

And then eventually you'll start wanting to buy your own tools, and then you'll wanna learn how to sharpen your own tools.

So it's a process that they get you started and you don't have to invest any money to get started.

You just come down and see if you like to carve.

- I walked in the door about five years ago and I, you know, they gotta run me out at night, you know?

And I've been coming ever since.

And I, you know- You never come in a place where there's a bunch of strangers there, and wood carvers, and not leave not knowing everybody by their first name by the end of the day.

- [Joyce] We also sponsor seminars, which I say they're more the professional instructors like Debbie Edwards that came in here and taught the wildlife class.

- [Debbie] When I first started carving, I took a few classes because I had six tools and they were all dull.

I didn't know anything, you know.

I did carve one all by myself, you know, or several of them all by myself with my dull tools, you know, because I didn't know how to sharpen them.

But being around in classes, I learned from people around me too, that I sat next to.

I would pick up little things that they would show or come in.

Wood carvers are such sharing people.

They share with you what they know and what way that they do stuff.

And so you gain a little bit of knowledge here and a little bit there.

Then, you're kind of, your own technique develops, you know, in carving.

Your top three bones on most animals, both front and back are approximately the same length.

You know, whenever I'm carving something, you know, it's like I explain to the class in the beginning.

I work up a piece in clay before I ever go into the wood.

That way I can get my movement and action or turned heads or raised legs and get it all looking like what I want as opposed to going straight into a piece of wood and trying to duplicate something, maybe a drawing you've done or a photograph.

You know, if you work it up in clay first, not in detail, but at least get your size, shape and everything and movement, then it makes it so much easier whenever you do go into the wood because you've got something 3D right there to compare with.

So you're pretty good, you know, I don't think I'd do much right there.

We'll end up coming- Once we get the eye in, then we'll put in these hard creases right here.

A lot of people don't realize the amount of time it takes to do the study and when you're carving realism, you got to know what's underneath, not just what's on the outside.

So you gotta study anatomy, muscle structure, the way animals move, you know, there's a number of things to it.

And just once you learn or gain some knowledge from here or there, then just doing it, you know, that's the- You can't carve once or twice a year and expect to get better, you know, with something that takes work and practice.

You'll become better.

- [Joyce] We get a lot of, you know, new people, like young kids even come in and we can give 'em something simple to do and teach 'em safety things.

But most of the time there, you know, other people, most of them are retired 'cause they've wanted to carve and they'd say, "I don't have time," until they retire.

But everybody comes in here and says, "Oh I don't have an artistic bone on my body."

And I think everybody has some kind of an artistic talent, they just don't know where it is.

They haven't tapped into it yet.

I get some people in here, the craft of carving is probably the first thing they need to to learn, so they're doing it clean and well.

But there's a bunch of 'em has imagination that starts coming out when they start carving.

You know, we have blanks and things and pictures that we can show you where to go and then you can just let your creativity and your imagination go after you learn the craft of it.

- [Marilyn] As a young kid, I've just, I've grown up, I grew up watching them.

Grandpa carved and grandma did the painting and grandma would always carve his ornaments and she'd be like, "Okay, someday you'll be hanging this on the tree and you'll remember this day."

And she was so right and it's been such a gift that they've passed on.

And I just, I always often think like what our shop is today.

I'm like, I wonder what they would think of it.

I mean I don't know if grandpa ever imagined that his hobby had turned into such an adventure and a journey with so many people.

(funky music) (folk music) (upbeat music) - [Angelica] I would describe my photography as unique and tailored for each individual.

Something that I- And the reason I'm a photographer is I get bored.

I cannot do the same thing over and over and over.

That's just not who I am.

And photography has allowed me to create unique portraits.

I don't like to do mini sessions mostly 'cause I don't wanna do the same thing over and over and over.

I want each client to come to me and meet me.

First of all, I don't let them book online.

I want to meet my client.

I wanna hear from them.

I want to see if we connect on a different level.

Once we know we are there, I love to ask them like "Hey, how do you wanna be photographed Tell me your ideas."

And then we kind of put together, and then we create something unique for that person.

My photography is very...

It goes more to the fine art.

I love to create images that looks like a painting, at the end that's my final result.

I love to just create images that people are gonna have at their home for many, many years.

We have a closet full of gowns, more casual clothes, little girls dresses.

I decided to create a closet on the goal of one, making it easier for my clients.

That way they don't have to go and buy a whole new outfit or outfits 'cause they usually wanna buy a variety.

I don't want them to go and buy a bunch of outfits when we have stuff here that we can pair them.

Also the reason I love our client closet is 'cause a lot of our clients, they're afraid to be in a gown.

They're afraid to be in something different.

So sometimes they'll come out and they're like, "I don't know."

And I'll be like, "Just trust me."

Or sometimes they'll be like, "That's not my color."

And I'll be like, "Yeah."

But the next time they come over I have that dress on the hanger and I was like, "Hey, I know you say this is not your color but just trust me, give it a try.

If it doesn't work it doesn't work."

So I love to have the client closet 'cause it gives versatility to our shoots.

It helps our clients to find pieces that they don't have to buy.

And also I always tell my clients, if I don't have something in my closet, I love to play new things.

So a lot of my clients, we have wrapped them just with fabrics and their images look like they have- Everybody's like, "Where you get that dress?"

I'm like, "Girl, I just wrapped them with fabric."

Like that's just what we do.

We love to create.

That's what we do in this studio.

Personal branding and head shots is something that is huge here at the studio.

We do those often.

We do every third Thursday of the month.

We do like a head shots marathon for everybody who wants to do it.

But we get a lot of maternities.

We don't do newborns but we still get people that come for maternity, which I love it because I was terrified when I decided I didn't wanna do newborns that I couldn't do maternity 'cause I love maternity.

But we get maternities, we get high school seniors, we get dancers.

We worked on a dance project this summer that was amazing.

So we get a lot of dancers.

We get couples, we get kids, we get seniors, we get a little bit of everything.

We just focus mostly in indoor.

We do do outdoor sessions, but I always tell my clients like, why go and fight with the weather when you can have the nice studio with the air conditioning?

But if our clients decide that they want outdoor, we love outdoor sessions as well.

The first step is they contact me online.

The moment they contact me, I'm always like, "Great, let's set up a consultation."

The consultation is when they get to come to the studio, we get to meet and get to know each other.

And I love to get to hear what they want from the experience.

After the consultation, if they decide we are a good match for each other, they book, I collect my session fee, then we set up an appointment for them to come.

The day of the shoot, I will have a hair and makeup artist waiting for them here at the studio.

So they get to come in, get their hair and makeup, get all the time to play dress up in our client's closet, and after that we do the shoot.

After the shoot, they get to come straight to my computer and we get to look at our images and edit.

(Angelica explaining photo) And I always tell my clients, they love them just raw.

Like if you love them raw wait until they're edited, like you have seen nothing.

This is just like, the base.

A lot of the editing mainly is focused on removing, like cleaning the backdrops.

I do love to add a flowiness to the dresses.

I love just to make sure that people are looking like live vibe.

And again like, I don't know, just beautiful.

I like to make sure the hair looks good and I do all hand edits, so I don't paste presets or anything.

I don't believe that all images should look exactly the same.

I love to treat each image differently.

You know, some clients I give them more of a light.

Some clients I give them more dark mood.

I just, again, it's coming down to meeting the person and creating something unique for them.

So because of that, I don't just do presets, I enjoy it.

The best artistic part that I enjoy, I enjoy taking the time to edit, to make sure that every every detail is okay and it's good.

My whole goal through my portraits is to make sure that my clients feel like they belong on a magazine.

Just because they're not famous doesn't mean they don't belong there.

I want anybody, with any body type to feel like they belong.

That's my goal with my portraits.

(funky music) (Andy chatting) - So we're back here at the Knot Hole, and I'm sitting with Andy, and he's got us set up with a small pre-form project.

And he's gonna kind of walk us through a couple of things to get us started here on our first wood carving project, 'cause I am not a wood carver at all and he's gonna make me less of a not wood carver.

So Andy, you've got some center lines and things like that drawn here.

Can you kind of let me know what we're looking at here as far as getting started on this project?

- [Andy] This is carving in the round of our three dimensional carving.

You can round this bird off to get this shape.

Okay, and that center line, if it's not worn off, should still be there.

Because I'm rounding from that center line to that center line.

Whether you're doing an arm or whether you're doing a bird or whether you're doing a leg of a bear or something like that.

It's still, there's center lines, there's- And you round to those center lines.

On a bird, I can honestly tell you, I can guarantee you if you do not keep the center line running down the beak, the beak will always look crooked.

This bird is a simple bird.

It's called, we call 'em smoothies.

We don't carve the feathers in, we don't carve the individual feathers.

We don't texture it with the downy feathers or anything else like that.

It's basically a smoothie.

It's something to teach symmetry and to teach the person how to use a knife.

As I was explaining before, I, you know, there's two motions that you can carve this.

And again, I hold the thing in my hand, I hold it with my four fingers.

My thumb's always moving and the reason why I move it is because I push with it.

Okay, I don't do this.

I can do this, but I'm gonna hurt somebody that's sitting in front of me or I'll hurt myself because I'll slip or something like that.

- [Matt] A whole lot less control.

- [Andy] So what I try and do is I try and, I'll push with my thumb and control the action of the knife with my wrist.

You'll notice I'm not using my elbow or my arm.

I'm using my wrist and my hand and I'm using my thumb.

And those are the- This is one move.

You'll notice that I never carve...

I do about four or five strokes and then I'll rotate the bird, and I'll do that and I'll rotate the bird and do that.

And sometimes if I'm going against the grain or if I get tired of pushing with my thumb, I'll turn around and do the old potato move where I just keep my thumb outta the way like I'm peeling a potato, you know.

- But you're doing that just so you don't get too far progressed on one side.

- Exactly.

- You end up playing catch up on the other.

- Exactly.

Because if I finish this side and I was completely done with it and I like the way it looks, I'd have to make this side look exactly like that side in order for it to look like a good wood carving.

And then if I took too much off of this, then I'd have to take this off.

(Andy and Matt murmuring) It's easier just to, it's easier just to kind of keep rotating it in your hand and pulling it all together all at one time.

A lot of people go, they come in here and they'll go, "Well I don't want, I can't wood carve, I'm not creative."

Well you don't really have to be creative.

If you wanna wood carve, we give you a picture and a block of wood and you can carve it.

And as long as you can follow a picture and a block of wood.

Now if you wanna create your own figures and your own carvings and things like that, you know, learn how to draw.

- [Matt] So I mean I know you've been, you've been in wood carving for many years.

What keeps you coming back to the well as it were?

- [Andy] Well I like the creativity.

- Okay.

- [Andy] I mean I like the creativity of it.

Wood carving is, and it's- I like teaching people.

I wish more younger people would get into it.

I started when I was 30 something and it's just been fun.

- Yeah, I can see where the teaching aspect would definitely be be pretty enjoyable also.

- [Andy] You can see how.

The crowd we had in here today.

- [Matt] Right?

You had a great crowd.

- All these people are friends.

Eventually they still all come back and they're all are friends and- If there's a bad tempered...

If you ever run into an ill-tempered wood carver, (Matt laughs) you probably oughta suggest you find another hobby.

Cause I don't know of too many.

- Well this is a very social, you know, activity anyway.

I mean, it's very easy to sit here and do this and carry on a conversation, but at the same time concentrating on what you- - The only thing I would suggest, don't try and watch TV and wood carve.

- [Matt] That's fair, that's fair.

- Unless you have a box of bandaids.

(Matt laughs) - Well, thank you very much for your time, sir.

- Yeah, no problem.

- I've definitely got a long way to go on my project here but I think I'll probably get a knife and work on it myself at home, so.

- [Andy] About another hour.

- We'll get done.

I'll let you know, thank you very much.

(calm folk music) - [Gary] I taught school in the Washington School District in Washington, Missouri.

Taught there for a year.

I had 630 kids and I taught at five different schools and had a great time.

The kids were great.

The second year I didn't go to school, I didn't go teach.

I stayed home all day and painted.

And I was working with watercolor primarily.

I started working with wildlife.

Watercolor is very good for very detailed feather work and things like that, you see.

But then I got a commission through the Bank of West Plains to do a mural for them.

And it was obvious I wasn't gonna be able to do that in watercolor.

So I had to go to oil.

I'd worked at all the different things, so I just went over to the oil.

It provided me an opportunity to tell the story larger and with a bit more detail and a bit more gusto than you can get out of watercolor.

After about 12 years working with wildlife subjects, the market really began to wane.

And, I mean, how many ways can you paint a duck anyway?

You know, you're flying and you can set the water and things like that.

My studio overlooks the river and I said, you know, I bet a lot of people went up and down that river.

And I had always been interested in historic interpretation and I thought, well, maybe I could tell the story of the rivers.

So I went to the library and I checked out about a half a dozen books on the history of the Missouri River.

And within the first 30 to 40 pages, I had some great painting ideas to tell some stories.

And the river, I mean, everything from the fur trade to Lewis and Clark to all kinds of adventures later on with the different steamboats that went up and down the Missouri River and ones that went down and the stories behind that.

Great stories.

And I literally found lifetimes worth of stories to tell.

So I started telling stories with my work.

I would read about it and it went in here and around and around and it came out here.

Most historians read and interpret either on a text format, writing books or an oral format, lectures.

I read and interpret on a visual format.

I'll use Lewis and Clark for instance.

I spent about seven or eight years on Lewis and Clark.

And people say, "How did you do that?"

Well, obviously it's 1803, no photographs.

There were literally no images, no illustrations or anything of Lewis and Clark.

And Clark left us with very few images, as far as that's concerned.

So what I had to do is read and I had to go through military journals and read.

And then go through experts such as the Army archives and things like that.

People that were experts.

And even the experts didn't agree in many instances.

So you had to go with your best story and say, "Okay, this is the story I want to tell.

How am I gonna tell it?"

So I literally had the uniforms made of the Lewis and Clark soldiers according to what we, you know, we all agreed, that is the academics and so forth, agreed this is the way it's gonna be.

And we got down to the buttons.

Pewter buttons for infantry, brass buttons for artillery.

Once I had the uniforms made, then I had people that modeled with the uniforms on.

And then I did preliminary studies to map out, I call it mapping out a painting.

I do it in pencil and I say, I want a figure here and here and here doing this, and I want a figure here, here and here doing that.

And then I want this figure up here and I want my dog Beanie up here at the top.

I will take a drawing that I did or a photograph I have and I put those drawings in there and I go to Photoshop and I'll start plugging them in.

Used to, it took me forever to draw and redraw and redraw and redraw.

Now I take literally my drawings, I'll pick and plug it in.

And you can make bigger, smaller, move it front, back and move it all around.

And then eventually you go, "Okay, I kinda like that."

And then you can say, "Okay, now I'm gonna do a drawing from my Photoshop image that I produced there."

And then I start doing the drawing.

And then I'll do a preliminary oil study.

The drawing establishes composition and contrast.

And then I'll produce a small model of that painting and that establishes my color values and how they're all gonna relate to one another.

If I'm gonna make mistakes, I want 'em made small.

But if you look at the work, they all tell a separate story about the rivers, mainly the rivers, in the last 35 years or so.

So a lot of my work involves a teaching process.

I mean, you know, there's a certain amount of painting and things like that.

But basically what I'm doing is teaching history to people.

- 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 for watching and we hope you'll join us next time to see what we'll be making.

More information is available on social media or online at kmos.org.

This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(calm folk music)