- [Narrator] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Narrator 2] Funding for "WEDU Arts Plus" is provided by the Community Foundation, Tampa Bay.

- [Gabe] In this edition of "WEDU Arts Plus," a local sculptor connects with the past.

- So I think there's just something about it being immutable material, and the fact that you're literally working with the ground under your feet.

It's an interesting experience.

- [Gabe] Sustainable accessories.

- [Sherry] I mainly work in wool, silk, sometimes bamboo fibers, and sometimes I get the fleece that I have to take and wash and card and dye.

- [Gabe] The magic of astrophotography.

- [Tajmur] We'll take all these images and put 'em together to get a photograph, and the photograph will reveal things that you just cannot see with your naked eye looking through a telescope.

- [Gabe] And memorable gift wrapping.

- So you deal with gifts like you deal with everything else in life.

You try to make it work for whoever's receiving it.

- It's all coming up next on "WEDU Arts Plus."

(upbeat instrumental music) Hello, I'm Gabe Ortiz, and this is "WEDU Arts Plus."

For ceramic artist Osa Atoe of Sarasota, pottery is about more than just creating beautiful objects.

It's a way to connect with her Nigerian ancestors and the indigenous people of Florida, who have a long tradition of collecting wild clay.

(groovy music) - My name is Osa Atoe, and I'm a studio potter.

I was living in New Orleans, Louisiana back in 2013, and I was working at a coffee shop.

My main thing back then was being a musician.

(groovy music) I was a punk musician.

I played in bands since I was probably my early twenties, so to make ends meet, I made coffee during the day, and one of my coworkers mentioned that there was a new pottery studio in town, and he just thought that I might be into it.

So I ended up taking one class and just falling in love with it.

(upbeat music) - If you have a bunch of, you know, manufactured cups or plates or bowls, and they're all in a matching set, you just grab one and you throw some food on it.

But with handmade pottery, you know that someone's time is invested in it, you know that that time is now is a physical object, and you are using something that has literally come from somebody's mind, and it makes the meal more significant, or the beverage or anything like that.

- One of the things that's so special about clay is the fact that you can use it in so many different forms.

I think that it gives people a grounding sense.

I mean, you're literally working with the Earth, but the fact that you can use it as a dry powder, a liquid, in its plastic form, you can't do that with wood, right?

So I think there's just something about it being immutable material, and the fact that you're literally working with the ground under your feet.

It's an interesting experience - Here locally, I feel she's definitely going to be one of those artists that opens up the doors for other artists.

So she's doing something with her work, her art, her collection of pottery that no one else is doing.

- I collected wild clay samples for many years before I even used it.

I just thought it was interesting.

We're at Sarasota Bay, and we're just a couple blocks from my house.

Before settlers came, this was an indigenous meeting place for millennia.

You can find fossils here.

You can also find clay.

This is some of the clay that we found, it fires to kind of a pale yellowish color, but this is native Florida clay from Sarasota.

Well, when it's wet, it's a little bit on the sandy side.

It's very plastic though, and easy to mold.

I've made little pinch pots with it and fired them.

People who use wild clay in their practice need to be able to collect large amounts of it to build their entire body of work on, and up until recently, I didn't have access to large quantities of clay, which is partly why I didn't use it.

- Being in my industry, I'm kind of in the construction industry in general, and so I kinda have my ear to the ground on where projects are happening, where the earth is being disturbed or moved, and so those are actually really good opportunities to access the clay, which could be buried under, you know, six, eight, 10, 12 feet of soil.

We probably have clay beneath our feet here, but we have no way to access it.

- Commercial clay and wild clay are just...

It's like it's night and day.

The way that they feel in your hands, it's completely different.

The way that they behave, and then also just the amount of labor.

So commercial clay is wonderful because it's already processed, it's ready to go.

With wild clay, there's a lot of labor that goes into that.

I would say it's almost a difference between going to the grocery store and buying a bag of spinach, and eating spinach outta your garden.

- It is work.

It's not a hobby.

It's not like...

It's more than an interest.

It runs through like every vein in her body.

- I think because of who she is, and because she doesn't typically fit into a box of an artist, specifically a ceramic artist, you don't think that someone like Osa, that's Nigerian American, would even be interested in that type of work.

But she is, and it's just really cool to see someone who doesn't typically fit that particular art medium, doing that work.

- Kaabo Clay Collective was founded in 2021.

Kaabo means welcome in Yoruba.

That's a language my parents speak to each other.

It's a social and mutual aid network for black ceramicists.

I did start pottery in New Orleans, which is a majority black city, but I was always the only black person in any of my classes.

It's not just the absence of black people in those spaces, it's the absence of black culture.

We have so much to add to clay culture.

We have a long history of making pottery and sculpture, so Kaabo clay, it's just been invaluable to me personally.

It's kind of like building what I needed, and then understanding that if I need it, other people need it too.

- There's a lot of art in Sarasota, plenty of it.

The landscape I feel like is...

It needs a little bit more diversity, and I feel like there's a lot more of hidden talent in Sarasota and Manatee that people don't know about, and that's kind of where Osa kind of falls into that.

She's one of those up and coming artists that people may know outside of the region, a lot of people do know Osa outside of the region, but here in Sarasota, I feel like she is not as celebrated as I feel like she should be.

- The lesson that I get from working with clay in general is having to collaborate with the material, especially when I work with wild clay, it doesn't behave like commercial clay, and I have to change the way that I respond to it.

If I just try to force my will on it, it just won't work.

Also, there's so much about clay that's about waiting for the right time to do a specific thing, and if you're impatient, it just won't work.

(laughs) It just will not work.

So clay has taught me to be more patient.

It's taught me to be more gentle, but there's infinite lessons that clay is always teaching.

- For more information on Osa's pottery classes, visit potterybyosa.com.

Take a trip to Shreveport, Louisiana, to meet fiber artist Sherry Tamburo.

Using sustainable materials, she experiments and makes colorful, eco-friendly accessories.

(serene music) - From a very young age, I was always involved in some type of material or a fiber my mother sewed, and thought it would be a good idea for me to learn.

In the seventies, I got involved with the expansion arts program in Florida, so I learned how to weave.

So I have a couple of looms.

I learned how to spin.

I mainly work in wool, silk, sometimes bamboo fibers.

Sometimes I get the fleece that is... That I have to take and wash and card and dye.

So it's all sustainable materials, nothing has to die.

Recently I was in a workshop in Austin by a woman from the Netherlands, and she taught a class on making coats and it's...

I made a coat and it's all one piece.

You have to make it so large, five times as big as the coat, because wool shrinks.

And then we laid the fiber on there, and we had to add different pieces so we could get the fullness.

And then we had the sleeves.

No glue, no sewing, it's all manipulated.

Wool has scales in it, and when it's warmed up and there's friction, the scales open and then they connect to each other.

So the scarves with the silk, I have a silk base, which I dye all my silk, and then I lay the wool on the silk.

Now I have to use cold water, because I don't want the wool to felt before it goes through the silk.

There's no sewing on these, is a piece of silk and it's wool.

By slowly massaging the fibers, they go through the silk and connect on the other side, and then it becomes one continuous piece of fabric.

(serene music) On my eco printed pieces, I use natural dye.

There's a bug, it's called cochineal, that grows on cactus, that I use a lot.

I can get a bright fuchsia with that.

So these were eco printed yesterday.

I cook it for three to four hours.

Actually, I steam these in an electric turkey roaster.

I love that.

I just discovered that.

Then you take it out and you let it sit overnight before you undo it, and it's really hard to not undo it, because you really wanna see what you have.

And I haven't unrolled them yet.

I did two scarves together on this one.

And so this is basically what you do.

Oh god, it looks gorgeous.

To take these apart, the bottom one had already been dyed with cochineal, the bug that grows on cactus, and then... (Sherry gasps) Oh God, that's gorgeous.

See, I never know what's gonna happen.

This is eucalyptus right here.

Wow.

And this is sycamore.

This is more eucalyptus.

Didn't do too much there, but this one is really...

It's a oak leaf.

Came out gorgeous.

(serene music) I'm experimenting with doing a lot of pods.

It's kind of like magic, because you put the fibers down, and then you wet them with warm, soapy water, and then you wrap 'em in a pool noodle, and you use bubble wrap, and then you roll.

It's labor intensive, but you get a good workout.

When it starts coming together, it takes a form of its own.

You have to sculpt it, because wool has a memory.

I have an idea, I have a sketchbook, so I try and sketch everything out before I do it.

It doesn't always come out like my sketch, but it is close.

And then I will put towels and fabric in them while they're wet, so that they'll dry in the shape I want 'em.

The pods are like a cocoon.

They're like a safe space.

And that's what they remind me of.

I'm making lighting fixtures.

I have a cage that I get, and then the insides go in it, and then I felt around it.

Those are fun to make, bags.

Wool is so durable, they last forever.

Hats.

I do hats.

I love making hats.

And I'm doing some jewelry, some necklaces, and I have cuffs that I make.

I've been working on acoustical pieces, like this piece behind me.

This is a layered felt.

Took me about six weeks to make that thing, but it absorbs sound.

This piece is called "Among the Fronds."

First I did a whole layer of just wool on the bottom, and then I made prefelt, which is very loosely together, but it holds together.

And I cut leaves out and then I put tape in between.

I would put one edge on the background, and then put a piece of tape, so that the whole thing wouldn't fuse together.

The bases I make using a resist, it's called a resist, and it's floor underlayment.

You know, if you're putting down Pergo or something, there's that white base that you put down before you put it on there.

Well, I use that for my resist.

So you cut a shape out, everything starts out flat, and you put fiber on one side.

Then you flip it, put fiber on the other side, and you do that.

You usually do four or five layers, so that you can get a really nice, thick felt.

And then you cut a hole and you pull your resist out, and then you start to get your shape.

This is a cat cave.

It's the first one I've made, but they seem to be really popular in Europe.

This was all white.

I used white wool, and then I eco printed this.

This whole thing was flat and it had a round resist inside.

Then I cut a hole, pulled the resist out, and then I fold it.

That's where you...

When you fold it, that's where you get it to where it's at a stiff stage.

This is five layers of wall on here, but then this is eucalyptus here.

And then I have some roses in here, rose petals and rose leaves, which give a nice green, and the whole thing was eco printed.

(slow groovy music) - Find out more at facebook.com/sherrytamburo.

Each year at the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, astronomers gather together to photograph and gaze at the stars.

Up next, hear from the director of the event and learn all about the wonders of astrophotography.

(electronic music) - My name is Tajmur Kahn, I'm the director of the Winter Star Party here at Big Pine Key.

(electronic music) An astrophotographer is basically somebody who points a camera to the sky and tracks the sky, and takes long exposures.

Sometimes these exposures can last over several days.

So we might start and take 10 minute exposures, and take a 100 10 minute exposures in one night, and then continue in another night, and then even a third night.

And we'll take all these images and put 'em together to get a photograph.

And the photograph will reveal things you just cannot see with your naked eye, looking through a telescope.

The light is so dim, that it takes hours or even perhaps days to gather all that light to make the image.

So you cannot just see it instantly with your eye.

When I first got into the hobby, it used to be, "Oh, let me see how many I can do in one night."

And it's the other way around.

I would try to do three images in one night, but you don't get a good image.

You get very grainy, noisy images when you do that.

The trick is to do one object over three nights.

A favorite is the Orion Constellation, where Bellatrix is the top star, is the head of Alfred Hitchcock.

And you'll see an arc, which is called Bernard's Loop, that is the stomach.

And then you have an arm, a very faint, reddish arm.

And Betelgeuse is like the cigar that he typically smokes.

So that's why we call it the Alfred Hitchcock Nebula.

This is Omega Centauri in the Centauri constellation.

This is one of the largest globular clusters with millions of stars.

And it don't know exactly how many millions, but they're several million stars in this cluster all orbiting each other.

The neat thing about it they say, scientists say, is if our solar system was inside that cluster, it would never be dark.

There will always be light.

It's a very interesting cluster.

Everybody loves to come down and see it because it's so big and large, it's the largest one that we get to see.

This is a great place to have a star party.

We have a lot of people that come down, about 600 astronomers that set up the telescopes on the beaches, because it's one of the southernmost places where you can see objects that are below 67 degrees declination, which basically means we can see certain objects that you just cannot see anywhere else in the continental United States.

So because of that, it draws a lot of people down to point their telescopes low in the horizon, and see objects such as Eta Carinae, which is one of the largest nebulas that are out there.

(futuristic music) So here at the Winter Star Party, you'll notice that we don't use regular flashlights.

We use a red flashlight.

And the reason why we use a red flashlight is because your eyes get dark adapted, and it takes roughly 25 minutes for your eyes to be truly adapted to the dark.

You are at the mercy of the weather.

You are at the mercy of the equipment's, you know, things go wrong.

Even the wires hanging off the scope can cause trailing in the stars, 'cause you're following the stars.

So the motion of the stars going across the night sky is so smooth and so precise, that there's really not much manmade mechanical equipment that can accurately move in the same way.

(futuristic music) It is a form of art in its own right, in its own way.

'Cause different people have different ways of manipulating the data and showing the photograph, or how they do it or how they image it.

And each one is a little bit different.

- To learn more about the Winter Star Party, head to facebook.com/wspscas.

Charles Adams loves to wrap gifts.

Full of personality, color, and energy, his uniquely wrapped creations become works of art.

Travel to Carson City, Nevada, to learn more about his craft.

(gentle instrumental music) - Almost anything can be elevated to an art form if it's done beautifully, tastefully, beautifully, nice texture, nice colors.

It's just that people don't think of gift wrapping as art, yet.

(groovy music) My name is Charles Adams, and when it comes to gift wrapping, I guess I look at it differently from other people.

Gifts are given on special occasions and in my mind, in order for the recipient to feel special, the gift wrap must be special, and geared to them.

Some of my gift wraps are extreme and out of the ordinary.

I call it extreme, because I think about who the recipient of the gift is gonna be.

I always include humor in gift wraps, and I think this kid has a funny personality.

He laughs a lot, he's mischievous, he's a pain to his parents, but basically, he's a good kid.

I'll put a rat on that kid's gift.

And of course when he sees it, he just comes unglued.

So you deal with gifts like you deal with everything else in life.

You try to make it work for whoever's receiving it.

And that's the difference between my gifts and most other people's gifts.

(festive music) There's just a very few people that take the time and the energy and the effort to take gift wrapping to a higher level.

It can be kept simple, and you can do like a shoelace bow on a nice paper with a nice ribbon, and it's very simple, clean and easy to do.

Anybody can do it.

Or you can think about the gift as art, where you want a stacked bow or you want to use certain colors.

You want it to grab the eye, and you want the gift to sort of represent its own message.

In other words, the gift speaks for itself.

When you see it, it's adorable.

So you're gonna love it or they're gonna love it, just 'cause it looks so good.

Doesn't matter what the gift is.

(festive music) I worked at Columbia Pictures in Hollywood as a decorator, and my life was very interesting, because I had been on sets with stars.

As you get older and you've had a productive life, and you've met some of the top-notch people in the world, you can't just become sedentary, you gotta still be active and you have to keep your mind going.

I didn't set out to be a gift wrapper, it just worked out where, the better I got at it and the more comfortable I became at doing it, the more people would ask me to do it and then I would comply.

(festive music) To each his own, we all think what we think and we do what we do.

Life is short, sweet, and you must be self entertaining.

You gotta find humor in everything, because it's there.

And when we get to the end of the line, we're outta here.

So let's have fun in the process.

That's what gift wrap is about, having fun.

- And that wraps it up for this edition of "WEDU Arts Plus."

For more arts and culture, visit wedu.org/artsplus.

Until next time, I'm Gabe Ortiz.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat instrumental music) - [Narrator 2] Funding for "WEDU Arts Plus" is provided by the Community Foundation, Tampa Bay.

(orchestral music)