(gentle country music) - [Doug] We had two workshops last year, one in metalsmithing and one in sculpture, and the one in sculpture was leather working.

And there's a silversmith that came up worked at metalsmithing.

- The conversation went into like, what set his saddles apart from like the saddles you can buy in Murdoch's.

And he said, while he was growing up, when he would go to the convenience store, he would buy a bag of chips and like there was no air in it, it was just a bag full of chips.

And he's like, "Nowadays, when I go to the convenience store, only half the bag of chips is like, there's only half chips in the bag."

Like what the heck?

What is he paying for?

So, he said, "That's what I do.

That sets me apart from everyone else.

I don't cut any corners."

He said, his artworks are like bags of chips, except his bags of chips are just bursting with chips.

And that has just kind of changed my whole outlook on my artwork.

(mallet tapping) - I was not anticipating the material to be so much fun to work with.

So, I could have sat there for like two days straight, just hammering away.

I loved it.

- [Ashley] To connect these generations together for me is just so natural.

- Okay, now put this here to the side.

- And these aren't things that you can find in a book or even on YouTube.

It takes actually, working side by side with these artisans to figure out what they have figured out over their lifetime.

- [Matteo] I had a great conversation with Ernie and how he does mostly metalsmithing, but he works with foundries around the country to get his pieces cast, because he doesn't have the facilities there for like giant molten bronze stuff.

But while I was talking with him, he talked about just kind of the workforce today, how there's not enough young people wanting to do it, and how a lot of his connections around the country are closing down, because they're all too old and the work is backbreaking, literally.

(machine whirring) - Well, I used to be inspired mostly by the old timers, but you know, most of those guys have passed.

And now, I kind of find myself being the old timer in the trade and it's not as fun as I thought it was gonna be, but I get my inspiration now from the young people that come to me and wanna learn.

- The goal is to not let this knowledge die away, literally, or like in some sort of like possibility where all the knowledge and all the expertise that the By Western Hands Masterclass person has acquired, and they're not necessarily teachers.

How is that gonna be passed on to somebody else?

And so, what we're hoping for is to like pull students in, see who's interested, and then focus them so that maybe a few of them will be able to take on that knowledge and pass it on themselves.

(gentle upbeat music) - I gave him this weird answer about, oh, I don't know.

I think I'll get a job doing so and so, so I can like support my artwork on the side.

And he really like, he pulled from me what I genuinely wanted to do, which was like the dream is to make art and sell it for $30,000 and do only that.

That's the dream.

And that was kind of the first time I had said that out loud.

And he told me, he said, "If you just keep that in your mind and keep telling yourself that's what you want and remind yourself, it's gonna happen eventually.

- I do think that this could be a model for other universities to follow.

The higher education is changing in a number of different ways and I think we have to be open to thinking about education in new ways.

And so, us reaching out and making this collaboration is quite unique.

It's unique to our part of the country, it's unique to the artists who we're working with, but I think in general, higher education needs to think outside of the box for new ways to make connections for students in the 21st century.

(gentle upbeat music)