Craft in America

From PBS - The Peabody Award-winning series, Craft in America, is dedicated to exploring America's rich craft history. Forge profiles exceptional artists forging metal magically transformed by fire. Forging is an ancient method where metal is heated and reheated, strengthened and hammered into sinuous, extravagant curves. Through this mysterious process, artists express their creativity and skill. Chloe Darke, age 22, is hungry to explore and driven to create. She produces hand-wrought silver place settings for Old Newbury Crafters in Massachusetts, where her daily work reinforces and informs her personal work, which centers on the female form and aesthetic. Tom Pullin served in the U.S. Army for almost 25 years and he brings his team-oriented service background to his art. Elemental and visceral, the practice of metal forging empowered him to make peace with a haunting, emotional past, as the act of "making" is itself healing. Albert Paley is ranked among the most successful and prolific sculptors in America, and his work has evolved through time and technology to a monumental scale. From the first mental image, to drawings, to cardboard models, to CAD (computer-aided design) maquette, to final multi-story welded steel sculpture, the hand is still his most important tool. Join Paley as he prepares for Paley on Park Avenue, the most ambitious project of his 50-year career.

From PBS - Craft in America, the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated series is an inspirational journey to the artists, objects, techniques and origins of American craft. Holiday embraces familiar and new winter celebrations as part of our American experience with the handmade. Celebrate some of our most important cultural and religious customs and get inspired to discover your own creativity. Meet Harley Refsal, acclaimed wood carver and Nordic folk artist as he explains that many holiday traditions including Santa and the Christmas tree come from the winter solstice, the pagan holiday that marked the start of the solar year. Watch as the grand prize is awarded at the annual National Gingerbread House Competition, which attracts hundred of extraordinary entries from across the country. Visit the Biltmore House, the largest privately owned home in the U.S., where the Christmas decorations and mementoes hint at the timeless holidays of a glorious bygone age. Colorado artist Susan Garson hand paints fanciful designs on menorahs that she molds from clay, and she takes us to her congregation for a special Chanukah celebration. Witness the colorful Mexican influence on Christmas in San Antonio, Texas. Follow hundreds in the Gran Posada procession; watch Dora Garcia and Gerardo Muñoz of Garcia Art Glass blow glass ornaments; see ceramic artist Veronica Castillo make a vibrant Navidad Tree of Life; cook traditional tamales with Isabel and Enrique Sanchez; and create luminarias with papel picado artist Kathleen Trenchard.

From PBS - Craft in America, the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy nominated series, is an inspirational journey to the artists, objects, techniques and origins of American craft. Industry explores the business of the handmade, taking us to workshops where artists are crafting the future and making contributions to the local and national economies. Industry highlights the important connection between the consumer and the maker and explores the value of exquisitely crafted handmade objects in today's creative economy. San Francisco quilter Joe Cunningham visits Lucy Mingo and Mary Ann Pettway in Gee's Bend, Alabama, where quilting has brought economic success thanks in part to generations of women who have passed down their expertise. At Lowell's Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Graham McKay makes dories in a 220-year tradition, and directs a living museum that features the craft of boat building and its pivotal role in the economy and history of New England. The economy of Asheville, North Carolina has been made into an arts destination, thanks to the creativity, expertise and sheer determination of artists like Bethanne Knudson. Visit The Oriole Mill, where American textile manufacturing is thriving once again. In Brooklyn, New York, artist Shane Yamane combines traditional techniques with modern technology to market his fine jewelry on his website and through Etsy, the online craft marketplace that yields an astounding $1.35 billion in annual sales for 1 million artists worldwide.