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Listen to “Japan’s Gorgeous, Precarious Fishing Poles”

Japanese master craftsmen can command up to $100,000 for turning bamboo into a fishing pole. Yet, this time-honored craft is at the brink of extinction — and it’s not the only one. How could this happen in a country that, for centuries, has served as a model of handmade perfection?

In Praise of The Makers

In his new book “Material: Making and the Art of Transformation”, master furniture maker and designer Nick Kary explores the roots of craft, through stories of makers and their essential materials.

By WILLIAM BRYANT LOGAN
A review of “Material: Making and the Art of Transformation,” by Nick Kary
 (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020)

Watch “Whitehall: An Homage to a Classic Rowboat”

The Whitehalls, classic wooden rowboats designed centuries ago as working crafts, are still alive on the San Francisco Bay.

The Beauty of a Timeless Rowboat

Centuries ago, a fleet of rowboats called Whitehalls plied the waters of the San Francisco Bay, helping the chandlers at their helms ferry goods to and from the giant sailing ships working the city’s port. Today, descendants of those early crafts are being built, rowed, and occasionally put to work on the same waters.

A documentary short by WENDY “PEPPER” SCHUSS
Story by TODD OPPENHEIMER

Mexico’s Master Guitar Makers

When a Disney film, “Coco,” spotlighted a small Mexican town where almost every shop makes guitars, it suddenly made ornate, white guitars famous. Underneath the new pop icon, however, lies a variety of much finer instruments—and a rich craft going back generations.

Story by LAURA FRASER
Photography and videography by ANDREW SULLIVAN

Listen to “Mexico’s Master Guitar Makers”

The now iconic white guitar made famous by the Disney film “Coco” was created in Paracho, a small Mexican town where almost every shop makes guitars. Underneath the new icon lay centuries of craftsmanship.

View “How Bows, Arrows, and Arrowheads Get Made”

Watch “The Violins of Cremona”

Since the 16th century, Cremona’s luthiers—including Stradivari himself—have been using a particularly resonant wood from Paneveggio, known as Italy’s “violin forest,” to handcraft the world’s finest violins. Then a 2018 storm decimated the forest. A band of experts in Cremona is now rallying to save this iconic tradition.

Watch “Master of the Chair”

In this short video, we watch Boggs use (and discuss) his wood rail bender, which does the work that normally requires two or three people. After the bending, he moves the wood to “the hot room”: 116-120 degrees, 16 percent humidity. (He also uses the hot room to dry mullein and stinging nettle for tea.)

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