>> Announcer: This week on Eye on the Arts.

>> At times, it feels weird being on the other side of the boards.

And there's times where I'm like, I wanna just go out there and do it.

(chuckles) Like, I know how I want it done.

It's easy sometimes to nitpick, like, "You did this wrong or you missed this."

And yes we have to critique that, but I'm trying to...

Okay.

Also, how can we fix it?

So I try to, you know, continue to use my knowledge that I've gained from my training and apply it now and share it to my students.

>> [] I guess my brand, I think is unique just because I do focus more on customs, but also just trying to make something that speaks to whoever you're purchasing it for, whether it be yourself or as a gift for another person.

>> Kelly: We do school shows here every year.

It's an annual thing.

And we have an elementary show, an upper elementary show, a middle school and a high school show.

So that the teachers can display some of their best pieces.

>> Madison: Saying goes, "By hammer in hand, "all crafts do stand."

So there was a point in time where the tailor needed a pair of scissors or a needle, he has to go to blacksmith.

Farmer needs a size sharpened, blacksmith.

Everything was centralized around, that Smithy.

(lively music) >> Announcer: Eye on the Arts is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment For The Arts, a federal agency and viewers like you.

Thank you.

For the support provided by the Legacy Foundation.

(lively music) >> Announcer: Support for programming Lake shore PBS comes in part from a generous but quest of the Estate of Marjorie A.

Mills, whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

>> Dale: Doing as much as you can, as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short and the earlier we get started helping our community, the better off our community will be.

>> Student: Almost every single professor I've had, I'm on a first name basis.

By building that relationship with faculty, I was able to get involved with research.

It's one thing to read about an idea and a book versus physically doing it and seeing results.

(lively music) >> Stephanie: I feel like skating has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

My mom and my Grammy loved to watch ice skating on TV.

So I grew up watching that with them.

And my dad took me to open skate on my fifth birthday.

I did off ice stance for a little bit just as soon as I definitely recreational.

I enjoy doing nutcracker performances, but then when I got to be 11 or 12, I had to pick between one sport.

And I knew I definitely love skating.

I didn't wanna give that up.

So working with my coach, Julie Pounder she really helped me train and refine my habits and break some old bad habits I developed over the first few years.

And she really helped me to take off with my skating career and get stronger, overcome some nervous habits of my own.

And I started out doing like freestyle events with your typical, you know, jumps and spins and then transitioned over into the solo I stance.

From there, I won the nationals for solo dance in 2012, with gold pattern dance.

It was very challenging.

Definitely training was one of the harder things I've done but it made me the person who I am today.

(lively pop music) So skating.

What I really like about it is a technical athletic sport but it combines the artistry of dance.

And so for me, that was definitely the best of both worlds.

I would say I am a competitive person.

I do like to be active, but yet I also, you know, I'm not coordinated with a ball or a pock.

Like I could never do baseball or any of the things I'm not aggressive enough to do.

Some of those like contact sports.

But I loved skating because it had that dance background.

When I competed in 2012, I had to alternate between a waltz, a quick step and a tango.

Definitely like doing the tango at the end of the day (chuckles) if I was tired or frustrated, you can show that strength or... You know, not anger in a sense but the fierceness of it versus the waltz, you know you wanna showcase the lightness and just joy of skating.

And so doing the challenging skills whether it be jumps, spins, or footwork but also being able to perform with that elegance and grace that comes from training and working on your posture, your extensions and turn out of the free leg.

There are so many details that people don't realize that affect the form that really can make an element stand out and look so much different from another skater.

And that's something I have been trying to stress to my students that, you know, my coach worked on with me as my skating.

You wanna try to stand out from your group.

And so what can you do to stand out?

And it's, you know, all about like your posture, your form and how you can skate across the ice to impress, you know, in a sense the judges, or to max out the technical skill, you know, to gain that higher score and just doing all that you can to essentially develop and produce the best product of yourself.

If you can watch a skater and get lost in their performance and just enjoy it.

You're not like, there counting the elements like, "Okay, she did this many jumps, this many spins."

You're just enjoying the performance.

And that I feel like, definitely is a goal.

(lively pop music) You know, and going through college, skating wasn't something I wanted to move on from.

I did go to, you know, Purdue Northwest now, it was Purdue Calumet when I graduated.

I majored in computer graphics technology.

And I am able to use my degree with marketing our program here at Midwest which I'm thankful for that opportunity but it skating was something I never wanted to give up.

I definitely wanted to be able to share my love for the sport and all the knowledge I gained over the years.

I would kind of help my younger cousins and different adult skaters or friends I know.

And the coaching kind of just became something where it's like, I enjoy it.

And at least I'm still a part of skating even if I'm not training myself.

At times, it feels weird being on the other side of the boards.

And there's times where I'm like, "I wanna just go out there and do it."

(chuckles) Like, I know how I want it done.

It's easy sometimes to nitpick like, "You did this wrong or you missed this," and yes we have to critique that, but I'm trying to... "Okay.

Also, how can we fix it?"

So I try to, you know, continue to use my knowledge that I've gained from my training and apply it now and share it to my students to help them achieve their goals in skating.

(lively pop music) I miss competing.

I mean, I don't even like saying I'm retired.

It's a little bittersweet at times watching them skate and not being able to go out and perform but I still love watching them do it and just trying to be the biggest supporter for my students and just really try to help them achieve goals, you know, and their dreams that they want to whether it be to land a loop jump or to master your set spin, even if it's a small goal.

You know, small goals once achieved then you can keep reaching higher.

But I definitely, I just love figure skating.

I'm so thankful and blessed that I am able to continue working and being able to teach on the ice.

I feel like skating has become such a part of me.

I've been doing it since I was five, six years old.

And now being almost 28, it's like, I can't imagine not doing it.

(lively music) (upbeat music) >> Dani: Every single place has a different pressure system that has created all of these little stones, including you and me and that kind of looked really beautiful.

So basically the whole background of the name is the stones are the nomad of the situation and they all come from the same breadths.

So we're all shaved from the same elements and created by all these different pressure systems and they all turn out so like unique and different.

I just think that's really cool.

I guess my brand, I think is unique just because I do focus more on customs but also just trying to make something that speaks to whoever you're purchasing it for, whether it be yourself or as a gift for another person.

Just always trying to make sure that whatever you are picking out, that you are picking something that like speaks to you in that moment.

I assemble just and create different designs, do a lot of like different stone purchases and looking for beads.

I like statement pieces but also stuff that you can wear every day.

So I like having the statement but also having it be kind of minimal.

I usually start with some type of design and then I'll incorporate like, a side of stones and then I'll just kind of see which one I think is the most like aesthetically pleasing.

So whether that be, you know, based on like the color or if it's, you know, brass copper, silver, gold and then just trying to make everything compliment.

It's super interesting to just because the style does like, change from year to year.

So it's always really interesting.

Like right now everything is kind of phasing out of the neutral color scheme but everything has been super neutral for the past year.

So usually I've kind of been making more like, brighter designs or like whites.

So I have like different sets.

So usually when I'm working on stuff, I'm trying really hard to do things as like, a collection, I guess.

So usually like I'll have like my blues and greens and I'll kind of work around that with my stuff.

Like you can pretty much reuse everything, which is really amazing So helpful for the environment and it's kind of hard to waste product.

So that's another aspect that I really like about it.

So much of the design ideas that I get are just from seeing it every day on people like when you're at the grocery store if you're at work or at the farmer's market.

And like people are just walking around wearing whatever they are however they choose to represent themselves and kind of, it's like a melting pot, all of that.

So, and it literally is (chuckles) because I'll start deconstructing things and, you know, that's like my old jewelry or people will give me like bags of their old jewelry that they were like, "I was just gonna throw it away."

And then you kind of repurpose it and give it new life.

I've gotten in a habit lately, just because I've noticed that when I have done shows or I have posted something on like social media or whatever that people will ask for like, a different color or a different stone or certain stone.

So I've been trying to make the same style but in different colors and stuff but not getting too fixated on that.

So it's always hard to gauge what's gonna be done.

And there are some designs that I like, have a hard time letting the stones go because I know those are the last ones that I'm gonna get.

Being able to create something for someone knowing that like, it's really calling to them or that someone would like really tried to find the perfect gift for that person.

(soft music) It was like two or three years ago around Christmas, and one of my old regulars, 'cause they worked in restaurants like forever.

One of my old regulars had come in and we're working on (mumbles) and he was looking through the stones and like checking out the options.

And he was just like, "That's the stone."

He picks it up and he's like, it has these weaves in it, and he said it reminded him of his wife's hair 'cause she had like blonde curly hair.

The color of her eyes reminded him of the stone.

The waves that were in the stone reminded him of her too.

So it's just little things like that.

It just reminds you of somebody that you love or something that you just love yourself and it just gives you that feeling.

It's a lot more about that for me than actually creating it.

Even though I obviously love doing that.

I find that to be more powerful, but it really, I feel like, you get what you want out of it just like anything in life, so.

(upbeat music) (soft piano music) >> Kelly: I just love teaching art.

I think it is something soulful.

It shows the true heart of a kid.

(soft piano music) I am on the board of the Prairie Arts Council which has been around in our town for 28, 29 years.

And this is the school shows.

We do school shows here every year, it's an annual thing.

And we have an elementary show, an upper elementary show a middle school and a high school show.

So we try to promote the arts across the board throughout the schools so that the teachers can display some of their best pieces.

The elementary show is not jury, it's just a display of the pieces the teacher select, and they get a participation ribbon.

The high school shows juried by a local artist or a person that comes in and chooses pieces.

They each get a participation ribbon.

The judge also gives awards to specific students at each school.

The middle school show also gets awarded.

We have a Best of School, so one person gets a Best of School.

And this year we're bringing honorable mentions to that kind of judging fact.

So it is kind of cool.

Some kids get awards, but I do think that everybody who's in the show is special because I can think of our teacher here from Rensselaer.

She has 600...

I think it's 600 children she sees a day and she can only pick 30 pieces.

So it's kind of a cool thing just to be in the show.

(soft piano music) This show starts in November.

I notify all the teachers in the surrounding schools.

So there's five or six surrounding schools and the teachers get to display X number of pieces per grade level.

They bring it in.

The teachers do basically all the work.

They mount it, they tag it.

They decide which pieces to bring out of thousands of pieces.

They display it.

I have a person that's going to record the entire show and we're gonna have it online or they can come up here and see the show.

Once the show's over, the same teachers come all the way to Rensselaer (chuckles) take it all down, haul it back to the building.

You know, so it's a big process by teachers.

(soft piano music) It's kind of fun that we get together as teachers, you know, normally, I don't see my friends that are teachers all year long cause I'm busy but up here we get to see each other and talk about our works and be like, "How did you make that?"

or "What did the kids think of that?"

So it's kind of cool.

You know, it gives you inspiration and ideas and just a sense of togetherness when we're all in the gallery together.

(soft piano music) As a teacher, you know, you teach a project and you have this idea of how it's gonna turn out.

And 30 kids come up with different ideas and they're all amazing.

I think it's just a different mindset.

You know, you're using one side of your brain for your math and your English and you get to use that creative side that no one has the right answer for.

You know, any answer that you put out there can be different.

It's something that's individual for them.

It's not something that anybody else can do exactly the same way.

It's that uniqueness, I think, that makes art interesting.

(soft piano music) You know, they come in with all different stories but they can lose themselves in art.

I think that's really the biggest thing.

They can come from a home that maybe isn't that great or where they don't have a lot of money and they can come into your classroom and you've got all the supplies and they can make anything they want.

And it's that feeling and living in that moment, rather than thinking about everything that's going on in the world or in their home around them.

(soft piano music) I think that when you see a kid that comes up here you know, you can see them in class and they're working away and they're enjoying it.

But when they come up here and you see their face and they're seeing their work among other high school kids and other schools, and they're seeing how their artwork relates to others, or they're seeing somebody else knows their artwork, you can tell that they're really proud of the work and they love it.

So I think, again, it's another layer of that self-confidence that kids so desperately need.

I just think it makes them unique and they can feel that and having it in an actual gallery, which is way different than having your high school show, you know.

But here you're selected, you're special.

You're in a public gallery where other people can come and see it.

I think it just adds another layer of that for the kids.

(soft piano music) >> Madison: I'd been watching blacksmithing videos and I found this piece of rail track.

I had known that people would use these things for anvils.

I'm like, "That's it.

That's my first piece."

I carried that thing around in the backpack.

Like as I walked around, it actually remind me to continue to pursue this thing.

So yeah, I did that for like a year.

I actually ended up building my first forge out of an eight inch frying pan.

So I got some plumbing parts, put it together in a fan from a bathroom and made my first forge.

I would go out to the tracks on the East side of Chicago, where they barge in coal where there would always be spillovers of coal.

So I go out there and collect the buckets of coal.

(hard rock music) I went for about a year of learning how to start a fire and run a fire 'cause you just have to know it.

(laughs) And you start realizing how to make mistakes with fire.

(hard rock music) I enjoy having the capabilities of not so much doing things but knowing how to figure out how to do things, that's the real draw.

As a blacksmith, everything is shared.

So it's always seems like an equitable arrangement between you and the people that do this.

(mumbles) (metal clanging) Everybody wants you to know you're capable and if you're not capable right now let me show you how to be capable.

There's a saying that there's honesty and accuracy.

(laughs) There's a lot of truth and knowing that you're in a craft, that you have a bucket of screw ups.

You know, and every single one of us have it.

So, it's just nice.

It's humbling.

(vehicle engine raving) 20 years ago, my dad built a house right across the street.

And I used to work with my dad and I heard bang, bang, bang one night and like, "What is that?"

And I drive by, and I drive by it, and I see finally, I pulled in here.

And I'd met Roger 20 years ago.

I joined the IVBA and I got a newsletter in the mail.

This was almost seven years ago with this guy's address in it, Roger Carlson, who's my mentor.

Came by the next day got to talking him with him.

He says, "Well, yeah, "I could use a little help around here."

We hit it off and it was just one of those things where everything fell right in the place for me to be here at Ephraim Forge.

He can't get rid of me.

(laughs) I'll be enough.

His wife was my teacher, my freshman year in high school.

And but him and me around we're kind of attached to the hip.

We're probably more family now than anything.

It was a fast track.

It really was fast track.

I walked into this.

I am the luckiest boy in the world than I really truly am.

I feel like a brat a lot of times 'cause when I had to get down, I just started talking to people, I'm like, "Am I sharp?

Do we do it this way?"

I'm like, well, everybody's is as fortunate as you are.

So I had to realize I'm gonna shut up and listen to these guys 'cause they got more information than I do, truly.

I have more tools, they have way more information.

Roger, you know, my mentor, the guy has been doing this for 40 years and this work is just a sounding.

(soft music) A lot of guys that I know exist with that anvil, that hammer, that coal forge, some of them aren't lucky enough to have a propane forge.

Nothing is inexpensive.

The saying goes, "By hammer in hand, all crafts do stand."

So there was a point in time where the tailor needed a pair of scissors or a needle, he had to go to blacksmith.

Farmer needs a size sharpened, blacksmith.

Everything was centralized around, that Smithy.

Yet Smithy didn't want to do all those things, so he started doing, "I'm gonna mechanize this.

"I'm gonna make a tool for this."

Bend it, cut it, you weld it.

It's a limited amount of things you can do with this material.

But the things that you see that have been done with that material, from the discovery of it and the discovery of the manipulation of it.

We have the industrial revolution to everything that we do to this day.

You know, we're in... Aerospace technology uses forging.

It's as rudimentary as it gets.

It's just a hammer.

It's an mere hammer, but it's just a hammer.

(rock music) Now some of the things that we make are heirloom quality.

We made a table here one time, I wanna say that thing was nearly nine feet long, two benches that went with it.

That to me says, there's gonna be a large family sitting around it.

That's cool.

Now I really like that.

Like, man, this is gonna have good times, you know, around it for its existence.

And when those people, you know, pass on or decide to downsize, somebody's gonna want that 'cause they're gonna see the same thing that I saw when I made it.

They're gonna see longer tables and (mumbles) good times.

The wine cellar gate that we made for the guy, it's an award-winning piece.

A great sense of... Good on you, man.

Everybody's capable of doing what it is they do.

I started this thing off when I was walking around.

(laughs) I had an idea, I just held onto the idea, you know.

(rock music) >> Announcer: Eye on the Arts is made possible in part by South Shore Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Further Support provided by the Legacy Foundation.

>> Announcer: Support for programming Lakeshore PBS comes in part from a generous but quest of the estate of Marjorie A.

Mills whose remarkable contribution will help us keep viewers like you informed, inspired, and entertained for years to come.

>> Dale: Doing as much as you can as quickly as you can is important to me.

Life is short, and the earlier we get started helping our community the better off our community will be.

>> Student: I have a very strong connection to other students.

Everyone makes an effort to help each other.

I remember the feeling of being here.

The feeling that I was a part of a family.

(lively music) (suspenseful music) >> Announcer] : Did you know that you can find all your favorite Lakeshore PBS shows online.

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>> To me it's always about the music.

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(lively music)