- [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat jingle) - [Narrator] Coming up next, "Off 90".

Come learn with us about a historical government program designed to bring subsistence homesteading to Austin.

Join us as we visit a permanent makeup parlor in downtown Austin.

And finally, come along and see a blacksmith, an aluminum foundry, and an organ maker.

All right here in southern Minnesota.

It's all just ahead "Off 90".

(upbeat music) (music continues) (upbeat jingle) (somber music) (music continues) - The Austin Homesteads were a government-funded project for subsistence homesteading to set up a community here in Austin.

And it was part of the New Deal, so part of those economic relief programs to try to pull us up out of the Great Depression.

(music continues) So the whole idea and the true spirit of the project was to combine urban and rural living.

So the idea was you would still work, at least part-time, and then also spend time in your subsistence homesteading with your garden to plant and grow your own food, to supplement the food that your family would eat.

So when the program was first announced, I think 1933, Jay Hormel, who was president of the company at the time, George's son, contacted the government and said, "Hey, I think Austin would be a great community for this."

So there were 34 subsistence homestead projects throughout the country, and there were two in Minnesota.

So we had one here in Austin and then another one in Duluth.

There were 44 homesteads built here in Austin, and they got anywhere between one to five acres.

I think most probably had two or three.

And they could choose, the homes were four, five, six rooms, and I think that just depended on how many bedrooms you had.

- That was built in 1936.

And in 1936, it was put on five acres of land and it was designed for people of low income.

And it was a way for them to have a garden, chickens, cow, horses, whatever they had.

My name is Liz Bankes, and we are standing at my home in Austin, Minnesota.

We haven't done a whole lot.

I mean, we've done some changes to the house, but for the most part we've tried to keep it intact.

This was here and the barn was here.

And we turned this old barn into a garage.

We've got about a little under two acres here.

- [Jaimie] They weren't super fancy homes, but they were definitely simple, modern.

They had furnace, they had electricity, you got a garage, a chicken coop in addition to your home.

The idea was to be able to provide good affordable housing for people who otherwise might not have had the opportunity.

- Well a lot of these homes like this, they've done additions.

They like, right across the street from us, it was a house exactly like this.

They've added on upstairs and downstairs, so they make the homes bigger.

We've got another running around the corner that's done the exact same thing.

And if you're out in this area, sometimes you can actually see where they've done like a room here, room here.

I mean, they add on and I think it takes away a little bit from it.

But you know, if you have a big family and you wanna live out here, that's what they've done.

(dog barking) Oh stop, that's enough.

When you come in, you have like the kitchen, living room, and we have like an office.

You go upstairs, you have one bedroom and a bath.

The bathroom, we have the original tub, we kept that.

And then we have one bedroom up, and then we have our basement where we utilize our space down there too, so.

Other than that, we've just tried to keep it as quaint as possible.

And my cupboards, these were all original.

These here are original to the cupboards.

- [Jaimie] The neighborhood today I think looks much like any other neighborhood in Austin.

When you're driving through it, you don't really know or you don't notice, I guess, that maybe the houses are special or similar.

So many of them have been added onto and changed.

And also a lot of the people ended up selling off some of their extra acreage, so the yards are not as big as they were initially as well.

There's probably double the houses back there now than there were in 1935 when people moved in.

- I feel really blessed to have all this land.

You know, there isn't one area in my yard that I can't sit where I don't have some form of feeling of gratefulness.

And the beauty of it.

We've planted a lot of trees, flowers.

And when this is blooming, my yard is absolutely gorgeous.

- To find this connection to something that was happening locally but was part of a broader national, huge economic relief project, I just think that's so interesting that Austin got to play a part in that.

- As far as the Depression, I have a connection because of my father.

And he traveled the rails, so.

And you know, people were hungry, and there was a lot of things going on.

And the Depression, it was a really hard time for people.

So this house being basically a Depression house, that part of the history means a lot to me.

So, 'cause it gives you a connection to like, with my parents and what they went through and what a lot of other people went through.

So for me it's important to keep it as close to original as possible.

(somber music) (upbeat jingle) (upbeat music) - I'm Annette Beasley, and I am the owner of Vintage Vixen Artistry.

We do tattoo, and I specialize in permanent makeup.

I have been doing hair and brow shaping and temporary makeup for about 16, 17 years now.

And I was very interested in the transition from temporary makeup to permanent makeup.

Permanent makeup that can cover eyebrows, eyeliner, and lips are what I specialize in.

Eyebrows can be micro-pigmentation, micro-blading, nano-blading, there's a lot of names for it.

But it's basically helping to enhance either brows, eyeliner, or lip coloring.

Our lips kind of lose their coloring over time.

The coloring starts to recede a little bit.

Our lips then look a little smaller, a little more dull, so we can just kind of help add a little blushing, give you a little more rejuvenation to the face, a little more color.

I was doing hair for a really long time until I tried to make that transition from the temporary makeup to the permanent makeup.

Before you can do any of your hands-on portion of the training for permanent makeup, you have to have that tattoo license.

So I took kind of a two year detour from what I was planning on doing for the permanent makeup just to make sure I could give my clients every possible benefit that they could have from extra training always goes a long way, especially when you're working so close by eyes and the face, which is some of the thinnest skin on all of our bodies.

So you definitely wanna master the tools and whatnot before you move to this area.

I wanted to make sure that I went about everything as tip-top as I could, and I went through the extra extra training of the two year at a tattoo studio.

And that was completely separate from my permanent makeup training in the cities.

Permanent makeup can be beneficial for everybody from maybe gals that have had potentially scar tissue in the area.

It's not always guaranteed it will stick in the scar tissue, but the older it is, the more likely it will stay for them.

Some gals just don't have a whole lot of hair there naturally.

Sometimes we just want a little more definition, especially in that arch and that tail area.

A lot of us that survived the '90s maybe over-plucked our hairs and they didn't come back, so we just want a little fuller look to revitalize.

It really can open up the eyes by quite a bit, just to add a little bit of definition in there.

So there's a lot of different services that come with permanent makeup.

The brows have micro-pigmentation versus micro-blading versus nano-blading.

Micro-pigmentation is essentially taking a tattoo machine and doing kind of a pendulum motion above the skin like this, very soft, to give almost the illusion of filling in the eyebrows with a powder makeup.

Nano blading is a newer service that's supposed to mimic micro-blading.

So micro-blading is utilizing a blade that has, you know, four or five little needles that are all together in a row to look like a blade, and then you kind of create little cuts into the skin to give the illusion of hairs.

It's a little more invasive because we're putting those slices into the skin, so it's not something that we recommend doing more than maybe a couple times in your lifetime.

But it only lasts a couple years on average, if you're lucky.

The blading, maybe two to three months, shading is closer to two to three years.

That's where the real bang for your buck is.

Nano-blading mimics micro-blading but is not as invasive on the skin because we're using a tattoo machine and it's constantly going up and down while you're moving it versus just slicing the skin.

So the nano-blading is really what I recommend now for clients that are wanting a little more texture added.

For lips, I do ombre lips where we kind of try to focus most of the definition along the outer edges, kind of help regain some of that pigment that's maybe shrunk over the years and redefine the edges.

The cupid's bow right up in here, that's where we try to put the most definition.

And then as we get towards the inner part of the lip, we try to gradually fade into nothing so that as it's fading over the years from eating, drinking, smoking, talking, it's gonna fade faster in this inner area that's constantly touching and rubbing.

So if we do it all the same color, the inner parts will out much faster and you'll see that line of separation much faster.

So if we do an ombre shading, darker along the edges, gradually get softer towards the inside, you never see that line of demarcation.

It's just a soft fade out.

Permanent makeup has come a really long way in terms of safety.

You know, maybe 10 years ago when they were just using tattoo ink, the molecules in the tattoo ink, especially like triple black, they're so much smaller.

So you run a much higher risk of maybe hitting a blood vessel, and it can travel into that vein and leave a permanent black vein there, or potentially maybe a permanent black eye.

But we have since changed the permanent makeup pigment quite a bit.

It's a much larger molecule now, so it's designed to not be able to fit even into those little blood vessels around the eye.

Favorite tattoos, I love all of them for different reasons.

And it usually ends up being the story behind it moreso than the actual artwork that resonates with me and sticks with me and makes me remember the session and the person with it.

A lot of times it's just great knowing that you gave them kind of closure, a lot of times.

Sometimes it's sad when it's a memorial piece or something for a loved one, maybe that's passed, or a pet, a lot of people like to get stuff for their pets.

Sometimes it's kind of a sad session to talk about their memories, and especially if it was a passing that was unexpected.

But it's nice knowing that you can help give them that little sense of closure.

They feel a little, I don't wanna say better about it at the end, but you can tell that you've helped affect them in a positive way, at the very least.

I try to change the game up with tattoo by doing things just a little bit differently than I've ever seen done before.

I try really hard to look into what they prefer for style, and I try to kind of twist my art to fit some of those different styles that they really like.

Floral is really fun and easy to be able to manipulate around the body to give movement where you need it, and not feel so flat and a little more flow to it.

I try to give them a little more option, a little more choices.

A lot of times when you go in for tattoo, you might get one image that's kind of drawn and kind of take it or leave it at that point.

I try really hard to give a few different options, or if it's a really large piece, maybe a few pieces, that they can kind of intermingle and move around and they can feel like they had a big part in putting together their piece and customizing it for themselves.

Being your own boss is great in terms of being able to be there for the kids anytime they have something that you need to take some time off or you can be there for them, that's incredible.

It's really nice to be able to essentially work with your friends.

The first time getting to know people, you have to have that level of professionalism and really get to know them.

But once they are returning clients, a lot of times they get to be like family.

And I'm so blessed, they come in, I get to have all the fun, I do all the art.

I've always had a love for art.

I was always in art club in school, always loved drawing and doodling.

I never saw myself as an artist.

I think it was just because growing up there were so many negative stigmas placed on careers in the art industry.

The term starving artist was really used a lot, and I didn't see it as even a real career choice.

So I didn't pay much mind to it other than just for fun.

It was just for fun.

And it wasn't until I was doing all my research with permanent makeup and had learned that you are required to have the tattoo license, then I realized maybe the universe was trying to push me in that direction.

(laughing) It is an amazing feeling to be able to gift women a little more confidence.

Most people just see the difference, you know, the immediate difference in the area that we were working.

I can see a full body change in these women when they come in from day one when we're taking before pictures, a lot of times their shoulders are kind of caved in, their chin is down, they don't really want their photo taken.

You can tell they're not feeling very confident.

Versus when they come in for healed photos, I see their shoulders are held higher, their chin is held higher, their smile is brighter.

I see a full body change, and it gives me literal goosebumps to see that change in them and to know that I was able to give that to them.

It's an amazing feeling.

(energetic music) (upbeat jingle) - The blacksmith is the king of all craftsmen because he makes his own tools.

Every other craftsman out there gets his tools from the blacksmith.

I am Martin Pansch.

I am a blacksmith.

The definition of blacksmith, it's two words that are put together, black and smith.

So the black part refers to the black metals.

You're dealing with iron and steel.

When they oxidize in a forge, they get black.

So that's the black part.

And then smith is to strike.

(hammer clanking) So it's shaping the metal with a hammer.

Any metal work that has a hammer to do the shaping will have smith in there.

So coppersmith, silversmith, any of those by definition should be the metal and then how they're shaping it.

The limit is basically how big of a piece of material that you can actually get in and out of the forge and how big of a hammer you have.

About 2200 degrees there.

For blacksmithing, there's only really about 20 different skills, and then you can make anything using those skills.

And basic ones are, you know, shaping the metal.

You can draw it out, you can spread it out wide.

You can set a shoulder in it, so if you've got a thick piece and you wanted to do a step up, you can set a shoulder like that.

You can twist things.

You can actually upset metal.

So if you have a set size of metal, you can drive it back into itself and make it bigger than it originally was.

There's a number of skills for joining metal together.

So you can forge weld, so it's just like regular welding, but you just do it in the forge with the heat from there.

You can braze things, so you can combine two pieces of metal together using either copper or brass as essentially a glue.

It's the same as soldering.

You can rivet things, so you can put two pieces together with a hole through both of them and put a rivet in it and rivet 'em together.

So I mean, everything is really basic, but then when you want to put it together to make a complex thing, you gotta figure out what order you want to do the steps in to get it right.

You have to know a little bit about how a different metal is gonna perform to know if it's suitable for the project that you want it for.

And then also so you treat it right when it's in the forge.

(upbeat music) I'm not as much of an artist as I am a technical smith.

I know a lot of other people came from it from the art side, and so they have a lot more talent than I do with that.

I like tools myself, because I have a need to see that something is functioning as it's supposed to.

And with art I can't always wrap my mind around that.

But if I make a hammer or a chisel, it hits things correctly, it's balanced right, a chisel cuts things.

So I'm sort of partial to tools, but I'm trying to get more into the art side.

I think this is part of the American culture of the romanticism of wanting to be the self-made man.

So you occasionally will run into smiths who don't want to take classes, don't wanna learn anything from anybody else.

They wanna figure it all out on their own.

And I usually point out to 'em that the Iron Age has been going on for about 3000 years, and there's been a lot of blacksmiths in there, and they've all, you know, all the good ones have learned something new and passed it on to the next people and passed it on.

And you don't have 3000 years, so you can't make all those mistakes yourself.

You gotta learn from somebody else's.

So yeah, you might be able to discover a bunch of stuff on your own, but if you really want to get into it, find other people who know more than you and learn what they got.

(mellow music) (mellow music) - My name's Don Larson.

We're at Le Sueur Incorporated.

It is a aluminum foundry located in southern Minnesota.

Our melting furnaces have a lot of BTUs, so they're able to bring solid aluminum into a molten state within probably 10 minutes or less, depending on how much we're trying to melt at any given time.

The temperatures inside the melting furnaces range from about 1,350 degrees to 1,450 degrees.

When we receive the aluminum, it comes in an ingot form, which is basically a molded bar stock.

And we put it in our ovens.

It's highly recyclable, so any waste that we have is able to go back into our melting furnaces to be reused.

We really have customers across the board with the exception of automotive.

So we cover recreational products, we cover pump groups, defense.

Basically anything else that can be made out of aluminum we specialize in.

Being able to go out and, you know, point at things that you see in real life and say, "We made those," it gives you a lot of pride.

(mellow music) (faint resonant music) - I'm Martin Pasi, and I lead the organ building crew here at St. John's Organ Builders.

There's just a handful of companies that make their own pipes, including the casting.

What we use is tin and lead and some trace metals like antimony, copper, and bismuth.

Various alloys, of course, they melt at different temperatures, but it varies from 400 degrees to 650 degrees.

You know, the more lead goes in, the higher the temperature.

The high-lead alloys are harder to cast because they're hotter.

We use a six inch thick all one piece casting stone.

It's a rock, it's granite.

When we pour the molten metal, we want the metal to stay on the table instead of running off.

And that's also the reason why we use the lowest possible temperature.

Every second counts, really, in this process.

So, and that's why it's such an intense kind of work.

You know, it's like, you can't really talk or you can't explain things while you're doing it.

Once we start pouring it and once we have the temperature ready, it has to happen within seconds, you know, or milliseconds even.

We only hammer the metal afterwards to smoothen up the surfaces on both sides, and also to densen the metal because the metal is somewhat porous.

And unhammered metal, for example, has different sound characteristics that we are not looking for.

There's not much time to think, you know, how to do it.

You have to think before and then try to remember each second, you know?

But essentially it's just a skill that you gain by doing it and experience.

(resonant music) (upbeat music) (music continues) (music continues) (upbeat jingle) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.