Still Standing Season 1 Marathon

from shoveling salt mounds under the mexican sun to scraping every last hair off a goat skin we got an inside look at the people keeping age-old traditions and businesses alive around the globe whether they are protecting traditional methods threatened by modernization or running centuries-old family businesses that have adapted to a changing world we set out to find out how and why they are still standing [Music] making phyllo by hand can take up to four hours the super thin layered dough is used in many dishes in greek cuisine like the famous baklava and at 86 years old yurios hatsaperaskos is one of the few bakers in greece that still makes it manually you should make her taste this way he started baking as a teenager and was able to buy his own workshop in the 1960s at one point bakeries like his were all over greece but the rise of cheap and efficient industrial baking meant that many mom and pop shops just couldn't stay afloat yurio's found a way to stay in business by focusing on the tourist trade and employing only his wife katarina and his son paris guevas we visited their half century old bakery to see how it is still standing every day around 8 am yoyos opens the doors to their workshop and katarina hangs signs to draw people in the 17th century venetian style house stands in the heart of the old town in rithimno on the greek island of crete [Music] to start the filo dough yuryos puts just three ingredients into a large mixer flour water and salt half an hour later he transfers the mixture to this roller machine to be flattened and stretched pereskevas portions out smaller pieces that need to be exactly 1 0 3 son knead the dough balls mother cooks lunch yoyos rolls each piece by hand shaping them into disks then it's time for the toss there is a reason behind this eye-catching technique the dough is stretched over and over again until the whole table is covered it becomes so thin you can read through it katarina covers each dough layer with linen to absorb moisture slowly without losing elasticity then the family repeats the process layer by layer until there's several tissue thin sheets stacked on each table going round and round the table is so physically demanding that yoyos has to rest in between turns in the police clear once the dough is slightly dry it's ready to be folded for the hatsa paraskuses it's almost like a dance with precisely coordinated movements including a dusting of flour to prevent the sheets from sticking together the phyllo leaves are then cut to size to be stored in the fridge until they're sold but all this work doesn't guarantee big sales so the family's profits rely mostly on the suites sold to tourists that come in curious to see how filo is hand made machine made phyllo is cheaper and faster efficient industrial production lines can churn out 100 to 300 kilograms of dough an hour the stiff competition doesn't deter yuryus he also makes katafi a shredded pastry that is even more taxing for the 86 year old it takes him three hours and it sells for even less than the traditional sheets of fillo photography competition [Music] [Music] is actually an engineer but he found himself without a job after the 2010 economic crisis in greece [Music] so he decided to help his parents with the family business just as yuryosa's business depends on tourism he too loves to travel when he can anglia austria vienna galilea hungarian morocco 19 pandemic he would have visited the netherlands to see friends he made when they visited his shop year after year greece was quick to control the spread of the virus from the spring through the summer the cases have spiked in the fall and brought the country to a nationwide second lockdown in november tourist traffic to the hatsuperazkas's workshop has dropped significantly in 2020. lines to get in weren't uncommon in better years but it still remains an important landmark for the community and locals will say it's the town's main attractions [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a 17th century inscription above the door has been there since long before the family moved in and it serves as a reminder of the importance of their work in virtue a house shines [Music] the palm of the hand is the essential tool for getting this painting technique just right rogan art is a centuries-old craft and it's been an abdul ga for katri's family for eight generations these designs were once popular throughout india but the rise of industrial textiles forced many artisans to leave the craft for more lucrative work today the khatri family members say they're the only rogan artists left in 19 pandemic is now threatening their business we take a look at how one family has left this tradition still standing [Music] it all starts with castor oil it's the base of the paint and it's what gives the art its name rogan means oil and farsi gufford's cousin muhammad heats the oil for two days until it becomes a honey-like texture it's a dangerous process only a few can handle usage it's the use of the hand that gives rogan art swirling the paint into his palm creates heat to thin it out then gafford floats the thread of paint over the fabric using a metal rod he runs his other hand underneath the cloth to guide the paint he has an idea of the final design in his mind but the painting process is completely freehand perfect what's up [Music] mirror image he can finish some pieces in five days while more complex designs can take him up to two years wall art pieces like this one can cost over a thousand dollars family normally sell their pieces to tourists but the pandemic put a strain on their peak season business tourism depends the struggle feels familiar the art is said to have come to india from persia 400 years ago and it was once popular on bedding and ceremonial clothing here in india but with the rise of mass-produced textiles in the 80s locals lost interest in these more expensive handmade pieces many artisans couldn't compete with mass manufacturers and dropped their crafts to find other work gaffurtu made the hard decision to leave the family business and look for work in mumbai since then gafford has brought rogan art to the international level he's earned over 10 awards for his work and india's prime minister gifted one of his pieces to president barack obama in 2014 and just as gafford learned from his elders now his nephew is determined to carry on the legacy ran workshops since 2010 they've trained around 300 women and 20 of them went on to work for the family but when coven 19 started to spread in march business slowed and got four couldn't afford to keep them employed still the family stays relevant with new products like face masks and they have big plans to expand the business those sales might be slow until tourists can start visiting again gufford believes he knows what it takes to be successful but is a form of metal working from india that hasn't changed in 600 years the eight step process involves molten metals hours of chiseling and an eye for detail the secret ingredient a special soil that can only be found inside a fort in the city of bidet but in an industry with already tight profit margins and expensive raw materials the art form may not be around for much longer we visited some of the last artisans who still know the craft to see how it's still standing biddy art begins with metal casting an artisan uses a finished piece to make the mold he piles sand on top and packs it as tightly as possible with the help of his body weight now the mold is ready to cast a new piece the worker melts pieces of zinc and copper over a small fire then he pours the molten metal into the mold it takes about five minutes for the metal to cool and solidify then it's time to reveal the final shape [Music] of it and polishing using one of the only pieces of modern equipment in the workshop then he covers the piece with a copper sulfate solution this creates a chalkboard-like surface for the artisans to sketch out a design [Music] they begin to chisel away at the metal following the sketch it's the most time consuming part of the process sometimes they spend an entire day chiseling next the artisan hammers a silver or gold wire into the engraving it's detailed work that takes patience and good eyesight that's why this glasses salesman comes by the workshop every month meanwhile another worker welds the pieces together to form a vase then it goes through a few rounds of buffing filing and cleaning finally workers boil together water soil and aluminum chloride they soak the piece in the hot mud to give it the signature black color the wire resists the coloration so the design stands out against the dark background the soil used in this process is what makes art unique it comes from a 600 year old fort which is just about three miles away from muhammad s workshop he says a chemical used in the fort's construction gives the soil a special quality whoop artisans have never been stopped by security but before taking the soil he checks the quality is the fort was built by the bahamani dynasty they're credited with bringing metal workers from iran and popularizing biddeware between the 14th and 15th centuries the art flourished through the 1800s when it was showcased at exhibitions in europe but a fall in demand towards the end of the 20th century and the rising cost of silver in the 2000s put a strain on artist's livelihoods the pandemic has also raised export costs and kept tourists from visiting bidet today muhammad says there are around 10 workshops in bidir but he worries they won't be around for much longer new generations muhammad has managed to stay in business by expanding his market with online sales he sells pieces at his brick and mortar shop too just a short walk from the artisans workshops a vase that takes up to three days to make goes for three thousand rupees or forty one dollars [Music] muhammad says he purposefully prices his goods to just about break even to keep turnover high okay the pieces that require more time and resources cost more like this bust it took twenty days to make and it's selling for sixty thousand rupees or just over eight hundred dollars and this plate that took nearly two months to make cost two hundred thousand rupees or about three thousand dollars hardships aside muhammad is happy so long as the whole industry works together like in my chat foreign potters in india are turning away from the craft to survive they turn out thousands of these lamps called d.a in the months leading up to the hindu festival of diwali but it's a hard life with small prophets and the once vibrant communities of artisans have been drying [Music] we went to delhi to see how the traditional diy makers are still [Music] standing ashok kumar uses a mixture of two different types of clay and cow dung as the base for making die he prepares it in bulk months in advance and keeps a large pile under a tarp in the corner of his home [Music] his nephew worked together on a potter's wheel to quickly turn a large chunk of wet clay into hundreds of small lamps [Music] each one is quickly shaped upward by hand pinched in to create the bowl and then cut off at the base with wire it's a rhythm they sustain until there's just enough clay left to shape one more piece by piece they lay the lamps out to air dry once they're completely dry ashok fires the d.a in large wood-burning kilns despite the kiln's large capacity many lamps get broken or discolored so after a week of the entire process ashok only ends up with about ten thousand his daughters and mother also help out by counting and sorting the fired lamps to get them ready to sell in bulk one thousand of them sell for 300 rupees that's only about four us dollars and is not enough to sustain his family and these low prices are a reflection of the disposable nature of clay da small ones this size burn for about an hour if they aren't refilled and most just get thrown away after one use so some consumers have switched over to reusable electric lights for their celebrations leds and battery-powered lights have become more popular as they're easier and cleaner to use on top of that the kovid 19 pandemic closed some local markets in 2020 and kept many vendors from selling on the street [Music] another problem for potters like ashok air pollution for the past few years the local government in delhi ordered wood burning kilns to be shut down for air quality and even with these risks other potters in the same area have boosted their businesses by making different products that aren't just da like flower pots [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] his own legacy he actually hopes for a brighter future for younger generations of this is one of the last places in the world that makes papyrus paper people in this small egyptian village reinvented the ancient process in the 1970s and the industry thrived selling papyrus art to tourists but today there's little demand for the paper and the plant is nearly extinct in egypt those that remain are determined to carry on this piece of egypt's history we visited el caramus to see how the ancient craft is still standing spends about two hours harvesting papyrus by hand from the single acre he owns it takes a year for a papyrus seedling to grow to this size after it's cut down it grows back in one or two months at one point the village's land was filled with the plant but today there are only 10 acres left atef carries the plant about a mile to his workshop where he employs seven people they chop the stalks based on the size they want the paper then workers spend the entire day cutting the papyrus into thin strips using a fishing line this method is more efficient than the ancient process the strips soak in hot water mixed with potassium hydrate for a couple days the chemicals speed up the fermentation process then they rinse the strips with water workers lay out the wet papyrus strip by strip each sheet of paper has two layers one vertical and one horizontal to strengthen it then the stack goes into the compressor after that the sheets are sandwiched between pieces of cardboard to soak up any leftover moisture from the paper to artists across the village including saeed tarahan he started out farming the plant and today he works as an artist [Music] the kovid 19 pandemic put a halt on tourism he struggled to find a market he had to close down his shop and lay off his workers just a couple weeks ago now he works out of his home include ancient egyptian motifs to pay homage to papyrus's origin egyptians invented papyrus paper at least 5 000 years ago replacing clay tablets and revolutionizing the written word they used it for things like marriage contracts and shopping lists they also turned the plant into a weaving material for sandals and baskets cheaper paper made from wood pulp or plant fibers eventually replaced papyrus paper and the plant became nearly extinct in egypt by the early 1800s until an art professor and an engineer brought back seeds from other african countries in the 1970s they set up plantations and workshops in el caramus and papyrus became the center of the local economy almost everyone in the village was involved with processing raw materials or making artwork to sell to tourists saeed got into papyrus because his cousin was the art professor who helped revive it he remembers it as a turning point for the village but after the arab spring uprisings in 2011 tourism in egypt crashed the country saw a 63 drop in visitors over the following years through 2016. and the market for papyrus paper nearly vanished a decade later the industry had just started to recover when the pandemic hit saeed has gotten just one order in the past week a painting like this normally sells to tourist shops for 50 egyptian pounds or three dollars bigger and more detailed pieces go for up to 500 egyptian pounds or 32 but with sales down syed has had to work another job to keep his business afloat and he says he'll do everything he can to save the artist from to keep egypt's history alive and with egypt's tourism industry expected to recover this year saeed is holding out hope for papyrus my [Applause] soaking yarn by hand is the ancient method this dye house has been using for over a century it's one of the last in egypt a country long known for its textile industry has been the one keeping the vats full and the fires burning since 1975. even as industrial competition and the global pandemic have threatened his livelihood we first visited the workshop in 2019 and came back to see how it's weathering the pandemic through it all one man's love for the craft has kept this tradition still standing prepping the yarn he separates the white threads into sections then his sons mix dye with water that's just the right temperature the hotter the water the brighter the color it takes two people to dunk the yarn into the 40 year old stone basin and drag it through the die once the threads are completely saturated it's time to ring them out using a spinning machine at about 15 years old it's the only modern piece of equipment in the workshop after a few minutes the yarn is hung out to dry on the roof of the workshop for about two hours then it's packaged and shipped to customers all over the world um it's a family operation that often involves 12 children and many of his more than 40 grandchildren um has tried out a handful of professions and he even served in the military for nine years before settling on dying now he's been running the die house for 45 years today business has been slower than usual since the spread of coven 19. but it doesn't stop solemna from putting in the work how the diverse way [Music] the workshop small scale operation has made it hard to keep up with mass manufacturers most textile dying in egypt and around the world today happens at larger industrial scale factories about 70 miles west of solomo's workshop chinese investors announced in 2019 the construction of what would be one of the largest textile zones in the country the kova 19 pandemic has slowed the project but once in full swing investors expected to bring in more than 8.5 billion dollars a year meanwhile solomon's sales have been dropping for more than a decade they fell nearly 60 in 2011 after the arab spring protests rocked the egyptian economy today fuel prices are still too high for saloma's margins so he cuts costs by using wood instead of gasoline to make fire and heat his divats though it might be more physically taxing he takes pride in this traditional method [Music] techniques are what keep many of his customers loyal to but his regular clients that usually put in orders every month have dropped off to every two or three months since the start of the pandemic still salama is determined to keep this business alive for as long as he possibly can [Music] fee indigenous people have been harvesting salt by hand in this part of mexico for over 2000 years but today half of these salt pools are abandoned unlike table salt this artisanal variety is unrefined and made in small batches but the work pays little and many producers can't afford to carry on the tradition those who do remain often work alone in a last effort to save this piece of their heritage to see how one salt producer's business is still standing juan diego hernandez cortez works on his land seven days a week all by himself the mountains here were once under a sea so they're full of salt deposits when it rains water carries that salt down to these natural wells then juan collects it juan carries about 40 pounds of salt water over the rocky hills barefoot for better traction he fills one of the man-made pools and cleans another to prepare for the filtration process then he pushes all the water into the clean pool little by little he transfers the water back into the empty pool through a mesh bag yes the liquid sits for at least five days evaporating under the sun [Music] a new layer crystallizes each day once there are enough juan shuffles the crystals into a mound he uses his feet to break down the big pieces which aren't too sharp when they're wet then he piles the salt into a basket which works like a colander draining out all the moisture it stays out in the sun to dry for four or five days after it's cleaned and packaged it sells to locals for around 10 pesos a liter or 50 cents he sells higher quality salt to restaurants and tourists for 30 pesos a liter or a little more than a dollar artisanal salt like this is sought after for its unique flavor and natural properties you can't find that in industrialized salt which is often mined from underground deposits and processed to remove other minerals and add preservatives juan makes salt for cattle to eat too it's drier and more bitter than human salt it also requires extra mixing and grinding using a stick made from an agave plant it can take two months to get the cattle salt to this stage but for all the salt juan makes consistent weather is crucial that's why he only harvests during the dry season between cattle salt and human salt juan sells about three tons every six weeks bringing in around 2500 pesos or 116 dollars per week juan learned the trade from his father who learned it from his father he's been spending long days here since he was just about six years old is located in puebla and it was engulfed in a sea 50 million years ago that sea left behind salt deposits that indigenous people started harvesting at least 2 000 years ago by heating salt water and clay pots by the 16th century solar evaporation became the more efficient and widely used approach salt production boomed along with zapotidlan's economy toward the end of the 19th century when travelers would pass through town along part of the historic trail el camino real but after the mexican revolution in the early 1900s the indigenous people of zappotidlan lost half of their land plus many young workers who went to fight never returned today around 60 salt producers are left and at 41 years old juan is one of the youngest he says nowadays zapotidlan salt is underappreciated many property owners can't afford to maintain the salt pools and local indigenous laws prevent them from selling to anyone outside the community so half the land sits unused is but juan plans to stay and build towards a better future he's banding together with 25 other producers to form a brand which will help them sell the salt at a higher price they've also learned how to deliver their products during the pandemic juan remains hopeful that the artisanal salt industry in zappotidlan will be a candle making has been in this family for over 300 years viviana alaves is one of the last people in her mexican village who still knows how to make these candles by hand they were commonly used in church services and proposal ceremonies and it was viviana's break from tradition that saved the family business and the art form we visited oaxaca to see how viviana's workshop is still standing [Music] making candles starts with the wax viviana's daughter-in-law guillermina breaks it up by hand then viviana melts it over a fire fueled by wood and corn cobs she learned the craft at around 8 years old her parents left her when she was a child and her grandma couldn't afford to send her to school she taught her to make candles instead [Music] 64 years later she runs the business with her family [Music] la manera de but a lot has changed they used to get the wax from local bee farmers but a changing climate has forced them to find another source over 200 miles away part of viviana uses a bowl as a mold and dips it first into the hot wax then into cold water to harden it she can make up to 40 pounds of these discs in a day viviana then lays them out on the roof of her house she lives in the small village of teotitlan de valle the zapotec indigenous people have been living here since the 15th century the disks sit for up to a month bleaching under the sun this purifies the wax and makes it a blank canvas so it can be melted down again and died then it's time to make the candlesticks these candles started out as bare wicks one layer at a time they pour wax over them and let them dry for 10 minutes before adding the next layer it takes an entire month to get them to this size the biggest candle viviana has ever made was nearly six feet tall and weighed 30 pounds finally they cut the bottoms to make the candlesticks even this week the family is filling an order of 48 candles for a proposal ceremony but business wasn't always like this up until the 1980s viviana and other candle makers didn't get paid for their work instead they offered the candles to the church in exchange for food eventually most candle makers couldn't afford to keep working and moved on to other trades but viviana didn't give up she came up with new designs like flowers made out of wax instead of paper regaledos [Music] then she broke tradition by selling her candles in order to save the business but her grandmother was not happy [Music] her creations eventually became so popular throughout town that she's now a local celebrity respected viviana and her family make hundreds of wax figurines each week by cutting shaping and molding viviana has preserved some of the original candle elements she still has the molds that have been passed down for three generations like this one that she uses to make an angel figurine and all the dyes are natural the red color comes from an insect she still uses paper flowers like her grandma did but it's the flowers made from wax that she's most proud of each ornament holds a certain significance [Music] viviana is the first candle maker to sell outside of her village she now gets business from couples all over oaxaca and from a jewelry store in new york city in mexico each one of her candles sells for 300 pesos or 15 and they're used for religious festivals too like the mayo dormia an annual celebration honoring the village's saint promise but business has been slow over the past year as the pandemic has halted the usual gatherings [Music] viviana has taught the craft to young women in the village so the tradition can live on after her oh and she's counting on her daughter-in-law to pass it on to her children too [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] is hats are actually made in ecuador here people call them sombreros they're hand woven from straw it takes an entire day for a weaver to make one in exchange for just five dollars the tedious trade has been the main source of income in this small ecuadorian village in the andes for over 100 years but now the money isn't enough to sustain these weavers as their cost of living has gone up many are losing interest in the craft and leaving the country to find more lucrative work we visited the weavers association of pugilio to see how one dwindling group of artisans is fighting for their livelihoods and still standing angelita espinoza learned how to weave hats at six years old she starts by stripping down the straw harvested from the tokya palm plant ankalita keeps the straw wet so it doesn't crack and uses her fingernails to split each piece one by one solo grocer she spends anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes on this part of the process going through seven stalks for one hat then it's time to weave each artisan crafts a hat from start to finish to keep the stitching even espalda weavers sell the hats unfinished to exporters they get five dollars for a thick straw hat that's made in a day finer straw hats sell for about four times more but since those take around five days to make they bring down their average income to four dollars a day to try and turn a bigger profit other workers at the association like ramiro guzman finish some hats in-house he tightens the stitches and then trims the excess straw spreading glue onto the hat gives it its flexibility panama hats are known to be malleable and durable after molding and ironing machines take over to press the hat into its final shape the signature black band is the finishing touch panama hats have been around for centuries indigenous people in south america were weaving hats long before the spaniards arrived in the 1500s they weren't popularized overseas until the 19th century when they started getting shipped and worn across the panama canal that's when the name panama hat caught on the hats went on to become a high-end fashion accessory throughout the us and europe today the craft is recognized by unesco and the hats are worn daily by locals across ecuador an authentic panama hat sold online in the u.s and europe goes for over 50 but the weavers association sells a hat and pushio for 14. most of the profit goes to the finishing process leaving weavers with barely enough to pay the bills six [Music] angelita now spends more time tending to her small farm selling tomatoes is her main source of income weaving and agriculture have been the mainstays of the peugeot economy for around 150 years but with higher costs of living today they're no longer sustainable cambiora as [Music] and this way of life doesn't appeal to younger generations [Music] the weavers themselves are abandoning the craft too many have left the country in search of a better life and some switched to agriculture and other work the association started out with 124 weavers back in 2005. but now just 25 remain is [Music] 19 pandemic has made things worse 30 miles west of pugillo juan jose paredes has seen a significant drop in visitors at his tokya hat museum in cuenca a city known for its straw hats personas he sells a range of hats all made by artisans in rural villages across the country but falling demand means less work for those weavers juan believes the key to preserving the craft is getting young ecuadorians to feel connected to it is hopes to bring more weavers into the association in the future and above all share the story of the original panama hat with people around the world [Music] this goatskin is about to be turned into parchment an old kind of paper made from animal skin it goes through a laborious process of having every last hair scraped off [Music] the craft dates back to 2500 bc and this is the last place in the u.s that still makes it [Music] every piece takes at least two weeks to make and only a handful of people in the entire world know how parchment as a product almost hasn't survived there was almost no need for it as a material but it was the centuries-old work that helped jessie meyer save his family tannery we visited their facility in montgomery new york to see how it's still standing [Music] making parchment is a messy craft [Music] it's cold and wet around the workshop but the lingering smell is something jessie's gotten used to it all starts with the skin deer goat calf and sheepskin are sent by slaughterhouses or local hunters jesse soaks it in a mixture of water and calcium hydroxide to break down the fibers loosen the hair and clean it [Music] this is the longest part of the process taking at least two weeks then it's time for de-herring [Music] jesse scrapes at the skin pushing the hair off [Music] he uses a makeshift tool a hundred-year-old piece of wood that has the perfect shape for the job even the hand tools that we use most people have never seen before and in some cases they don't exist and i've had to you know recreate these tools myself after dehairing he removes the extra meat layers on the other side they've installed machines to help speed this along but sometimes jesse prefers the traditional way the more involved you can be with your own hands the better and more control you have over the end product but there's a point where if you're doing this on a commercial scale to try to be efficient more economical you don't really have the ability to handle each one by hand [Music] the hides then go through a thorough rinse that adjusts the ph level after weeks of intense chemical treatment jessie selects some of the clean skins to be dyed in a large drum uses plant-based pigments and water to create a range of colors [Music] as the skins tumble they soak up the dye until they're saturated he hangs the skins to dry overnight so that the color spreads evenly throughout [Music] but most of the rinse skins are left their natural white color and sent up to the dry room jessie stretches the skin to keep it flat while it dries [Music] first he scrapes the hide while it's wet to remove excess moisture then when it's dry he shaves it to clear away tissue [Music] he made this medieval knife with a saw blade a threaded rod and leather its proper latin name is lanellum for its crescent moon shape sanding is the very last step jesse refines the surface smoothing it out until almost every blemish is undetectable [Music] finally the skin is now parchment [Music] the first record of parchment dates back to bc famous ancient documents like the dead sea scrolls and the magna carta were all written on it for its durability the use of parchment peaked in the middle ages in europe when it was mostly used for illuminated manuscripts and book bindings paper made from wood pulp or plant fibers was invented in china around 105 a.d it made its way across asia the middle east and europe through the centuries with the rise of literacy and the printed word it was faster and cheaper to make it quickly industrialized and rendered parchment virtually irrelevant by the 16th century early in the 20th century designers incorporated parchment into high-end furniture and decor and it is still used for that today preserving history is what saved parchment in this business conservators use the material to mend manuscripts make copies and restore missing pages it's been a very niche product it is something that happens alongside of leather production and that's how i kind of rediscovered and have been trying to sort of reapply it since then [Music] the rare craft saved his family's centuries-old tannery business which has been in the country since his ancestors moved here in 1820. by the time jesse took over demand for leather was on the decline and by 2005 keeping the business going was getting more difficult that's when jesse introduced parchment making but he struggled to find out about the process there are a handful of other companies around the world that do this sort of thing and they're far far away and they they've never told me how they do what they're doing so i've had to try to figure this out in a vacuum so it's me figuring it out as i go and what seems to work best for me because it's such an old medieval craft anytime i would try to go look up information a lot of times it was from medieval recipes that was written in latin from 13 1400. eventually parchment became such an important part of the business jesse changed the name from meyer and sons to pergamina which means parchment in latin and he found a niche of customers conservators and designers who use the material in lampshades upholstery headboards and even as wallpaper no two pieces of parchment look the same so which is a blessing and a curse that's part of the artistry a single sheet starts at a hundred dollars what started out feeling like an albatross around my neck ended up becoming a way to help revitalize the family industry i want to be proud of this and to be able to pass it on to my family and for people to know that skilled work like this is still being done in the world it's being made right here in the united states by a family that's been doing it for 450 years this is the last printing press in the us where books are handmade from start to finish every letter of an arion press book is created one by one together they make up a book that can take years to produce and cost up to ten thousand dollars to buy that's because this san francisco institution uses machines and techniques that date back to the 1800s printing presses like arion used to be common but with the advent of faster and cheaper printing this traditional method is fading away so now we're having to like learn as much as we can before it goes away it is a huge responsibility i think it kind of weighs on all of us but at arion press the team devotes their days to preserving this historic trade even in one of the tech capitals of the world we visited this 101 year old press to learn how and why it's still standing each book begins in the foundry where brian ferrett spends his day at a monotype machine from the 1890s making individual letters it can be very very difficult there could be days where nothing goes right there could be weeks where nothing goes right when i have three casters running and nothing's going wrong that that makes me just ridiculously happy he lights a fire under the machine melting the lead tin and antimony solution that is used to create the letters we have a pump here and a nozzle and the pump draws up the lead and then we'll shoot the lead out the nozzle from there the lead goes into a mold then a matte case with the chosen lettering pushes down on it he sends the finish type down the hall to the print room by the end of the day particularly when we're printing we're covered with ink and it's it's just fantastic it's kind of like a little kid again getting messy and getting dirty at this stage of the process the foundry has sent us galleys of type they usually come out about two pages per galley when we get those galleys we take a proof print of that jeff raymond arranges the type into a page layout letter by letter so on this one this is page 53 to keep the page together jeff wraps it in string then he brings it to the proofing press to check for any mistakes once the proof looks good it goes for the final print run on one of the larger presses the final stage of the bookmaking process is in the bindery this is where everything gets made into the book from scratch megan gibbous folds sews and glues each piece of the book together by hand the final product is a work of art i think there's nothing that can compare to physically holding a book in your hands feeling the piece of paper running your finger over it and feeling how the type is impressed into the page however modern technology has made this kind of letterpress printing nearly obsolete today top us printers use offset printing presses that can produce 120 000 pages per hour before working at arion brian spent three years at one of these commercial factories i had been working printing big runs of magazines 24 hour a day type of place 12 hour shifts there were so many people i couldn't even count how many people were there letterpress printing just can't compete with that kind of efficiency i mean there's a reason why this line of work isn't fiscally viable really anymore because it is very time intensive that all adds up while many other traditional presses have closed arion has stayed in business thanks to a group of loyal subscribers like book collectors institutions and libraries this broadside sheet of the preamble to the constitution is one of the most recent projects to come through the print room making only 350 copies this limited edition print sells for 50 arion also sells cases of type to order gives public tours and holds workshops at 45 brian is one of a dwindling number of people who make a living as a typecaster and with fewer people practicing this historic craft staff feel a personal responsibility to keep the knowledge alive when it comes to the casting part there are very few people who can do it there are so few machines around anymore and even when you do find them the knowledge that's out there is disappearing to pass on the knowledge to the next generation brian takes every chance he can get to share his skills he mentors apprentices during the four-year program at arion the first few weeks i was here i just felt i'm surrounded by these people who are making this stuff and they knew exactly what they're doing it's like oh my god you know it's almost impossible to find a place where you can learn these skills brian also shares the craft with his six-year-old daughter in his garage at home [Music] can i do that papa sure okay yeah yeah i normally do little dots [Music] it does feel different than newer books you know a mass-produced book there's a different touch to it that handmade touch is striking a cord even in the tech hub of san francisco you have all these tech people and they've been sitting at their computer all day doing non-tactile things and they come here and they're always crazily impressed this gives ariane hope that their business and this craft will continue to live on in an increasingly digital world you can get a book from 500 years ago and you can still open it and you can still enjoy that book i have files on my computer from 20 years ago that are gone because i have no idea how to open that anymore so i think it does really last a whole lot longer than the things that we have now the era that it was made in adds to its character and his beauty [Music] this is one of the oldest businesses in japan and aburri mochi is the only food on the menu for over a thousand years the restaurant has served worshipers who visit the shinto shrine next door to pray for good health many believe eating the roasted rice cakes will protect them from diseases too the shop has survived fires civil and world wars and even smallpox epidemics through it all 25 generations of one family kept it going blending food and faith but 19 has threatened the business more than anything else we visited ichimonjiawasuke in kyoto to see how it is still standing [Music] it all starts with the skewers owner naomi hasegawa cuts them from a special bamboo grown for ritual purposes around the shrine that's why they're considered sacred and treated with as much care as any ingredient [Music] the important job of sterilizing them is only for the okami the owner and manager next she makes the sweet miso dipping sauce naomi knows the recipe by heart she measures ingredients by eye and feels the mixture for consistency she learned it all from her aunt the former okami story is she combines today's batch with yesterday's leftovers for a richer flavor ichiba uses a machine to make the mochi dough instead of the traditional method of steaming and pounding with a mallet every day she makes the first mochi as an offering for the gods and her ancestors then it's time to put it all together naomi and her employees work on a woven mat covered in roasted soybean powder they cover the mochi in it then measure thumb-sized pieces to stick on a skewer to roast the mochi she shuffles them until they reach a consistent dark color it only takes about one minute but it requires close attention since the mochi could easily overcook or even worse the bamboo could burn she's even particular about the charcoal she uses this is binchotan a high quality oak charcoal that's much harder than regular falls means to roast so this is what makes the snack a burrito she dips the aburimuchi into the miso sauce while they're still warm 11 skewers and a cup of green tea costs 500 yen or just under 5 naomi and her predecessor have kept that price steady for over 30 years but have had to bring the number of skewers down from 15. [Music] was founded in 994 as kyoto was suffering from epidemics like smallpox locals worshipped shinto deities who were believed to cure diseases and grant long life naomi says ichiwa's original founders served the chief priest and then started the shop to serve worshipers as well they used to give unbury mochi away for free and only sometimes received a small gratuity from pilgrims from the beginning it's been traditional for women in the family to run the business naomi is the 25th okami to run ichiwa taking over for her aunt 13 years ago and she has made a few improvements to bring the business into the modern age like providing insurance to its employees and installing a time card system but she draws the line at using delivery although ichiwa was born from a time of plague nothing could have prepared the staff for the coronavirus pandemic the shop was forced to close for nearly two months in 2020 and it took on debt to ensure employees were still getting paid even while it was shut even the government's national tourism incentive program wasn't enough to bring many customers back naomi's hopes for the future lie in the next generation of her family she believes her children or nieces and nephews will take over for her but there's no set succession plan okay she says she'd enjoy retirement but until that day there are faithful visitors to feed [Music] my this is how olive oil soap is made in the west bank it's being poured on the floor to cool and solidify the palestinian tradition goes back over a thousand years but while the west bank once had nearly 40 soap factories nablus soap company is just one of two still operating and today a once thriving industry is struggling to stay afloat naples soap is made from just three ingredients olive oil baking soda and water [Music] the first step is to cook all three ingredients together in a huge stainless steel pot when it's ready workers carry out the boiling hot liquid one bucket at a time they pour the liquid soap onto the floor where it cools next they measure out and mark the soap with an outline of the distinctive nablus bars shaped workers use hammers to stamp the soap with the nablus soap company seal and it takes one or two days just to cut the soap and pile it up then it's left for 40 days to dry before it's packaged and sold while the nablus soap company carries on this tradition the soap making industry in the west bank has dwindled from nearly 40 factories at its height in the 19th century to just two working factories in nablus israeli restrictions in the west bank have made exporting so difficult plus demand for the soap among palestinians has dropped off with that's because many customers are choosing their soap based on price rather than quality despite the downturn the nablus soap company still employs 10 permanent workers and hires up to 10 more temporary employees as needed essential to keeping a thousand-year-old tradition alive why on [Music] red wooden horses run through the blood of the people in nusnus sweden dolo hasta or dolla horses are traditional handicrafts that have been around for centuries they are commonly known as children's toys or sometimes religious items they've also been used as a form of currency today they are a national symbol but only two main factories still make them by hand with local wood and the traditional falu red paint in early 2020 we visited one of the oldest dollar horse factories in sweden to see how it's kept this tradition still standing artisans here at niels olsen dolohaster start with locally sourced pine or alderwood they stamp the outline of the horse onto the planks carpenters roughly shape the figurine with a bandsaw this is the only part of the process that uses a machine and they want to keep it this way [Music] um olsen is the grandson of one of the factory's founding brothers who started it in 1928. today he does everything he can to stick to the century-old way of making dollar horses the finer details of each figure are done by hand roland preston's takes about 15 minutes to carve a horse depending on its size he's worked at niels olsen for about 40 years and is technically retired but he keeps working in his spare time because even at 75 years old he loves the craft then it goes for its first dip to get a solid base coat smaller horses are plunged into a bucket of paint to cover the whole figurine then they're set on a tray to drip off and any excess paint dribbles back down into the bucket to be reused and it's not just any old red used to paint them it's sweden's famous falu red a classic rusty red orange color that comes from the mines in the region of dholana after drying the pieces go through a series of quality checks with matias [Music] then they're dipped again to get one or two more coats to ensure an even color painters like shareston royteberg have it down to a science she lines up her brushes by color so she can work quickly and while all the horses are decorated in the traditional folk art style called kirbitz painting by hand means each one is unique and just like her colleagues shirstin is proud of the place dollar horses have in her heritage the artisans churn out about 500 horses a day of all shapes sizes and colors although red is the traditional and most popular choice americans and the world at large were first introduced to dollar horses at the 1939 world's fair in new york where a giant wooden dolo host greeted visitors to the swedish pavilion but today anyone looking for a classic dollar horse can buy one from niels olsen online or at the workshop the smallest horses sell for about 20 and the larger ones can cost about fifteen hundred this value is not from all symbols not the endless vans i'd get some peace corps but matthias is optimistic about the future for both the [Music] [Music] the last step of creating the perfect piano sounds like total chaos the basher machine breaks in every key thousands of times to ensure it all works perfectly it's the worst noise in the world adam cox runs the last piano factory in britain here artisans take months to thread steel strings and install felt hammers tuning and testing for quality at each step of the lengthy process a century ago the uk had hundreds of factories producing some of the best pianos in the world but a flood of cheaper foreign-built instruments forced all of them to close down that's why adam opened cavendish pianos in 2012 in an attempt to save the craft it is the sort of thing that if it gets lost for one generation that's it really it's the end it's the end of it we visited his shop in northern england to meet the last british piano makers still standing [Music] a cavendish piano build starts with a sound board a flexible sheet of wood that amplifies the sound of the strings it's a very thin very light piece of wood and it needs to be because it needs to vibrate a lot it's the most expensive component the wood only comes from spruce trees that grow at just the right altitude to produce a rich tone adam uses wooden sticks called gobars as temporary supports to set the glued wooden ribs on the soundboard's gentle curve the soundboard is not a flat assembly but it's actually got a crown and that is the all-important thing for producing the tone of the piano it's like a like uh the cone of a loudspeaker really and so that will go down onto this onto these back posts now factories in asia can quickly machine press the sound board but adam says his customers prefer the methods piano makers have used for over a hundred years a piano that's made slowly will be a better piano than a piano that's made fast adam and his team align the soundboard to the back post and then attach it to the heavy cast iron frame even adam's helping look yes the important thing is not to get your finger trapped the frame is cast as a single piece it has to be strong enough to withstand about 20 tons of pressure from all the strings about 230 strings are used to create the 88 tones on an average piano each one is painstakingly threaded through a tuning pin and then hammered into place it's the sort of work that makes your fingers soar the strings vary in length and thickness to create different tones longer thicker strings produce lower notes while shorter and thinner ones reach the higher end of the scale a technician tunes the newly strung piano and lets it rest several times so that the instrument can adjust to the new tension and hold a consistent sound then it's time to enclose it in the wooden case and give the piano its classic look if you can imagine that this was put upright like that this would be where the keys are to be played this is the leg of the piano and the caster would be on the bottom here adam works with a cabinet maker down the road to create both standard finishes and custom designs if someone comes along and says i want a blue piano which is what's just happened of course yeah it's really nice to be able to produce a one-off thing for people that they can't get anywhere else in the world it puts more pressure on the cavendish team though a scratched piece can't be easily replaced i don't like damaging them anywhere yeah but i will take a little extra care with this one in particular the final components are the keyboard and what's called the action this is the intricate wooden mechanism that pushes the hammers onto the strings when a key is pressed each of the 88 keys is placed in order and a technician must weight measure and adjust every single one several times the margins are so fine with everything it's fractions of a millimeter hammerheads are tightly wrapped felt layers that can withstand hitting the steel strings for years without wearing down heads are glued to a shank a wooden rod that allows the hammer to move but they're not one size fits all heavier shanks are paired with lower notes and the cavendish team tests this by ear a proper hand built action is individualized to each piano frame and once all the parts are in place the piano is thoroughly tested with the basher it takes about three months to finish a piano that's why cavendish only makes about 50 every year pianos were invented by bartolomeo christopher in italy in the early 1700s called forte pianos they were improvement on the harpsichord because the hammers responded to a hard or soft touch to create dynamic tones classical era composers like mozart and beethoven popularized piano music and during the industrial revolution piano making spread across europe britain touted its burgeoning piano industry at the great exhibition in 1851 by then london alone boasted around 200 manufacturers producing 23 000 pianos a year pianos became a must-have item in the country's households from working-class families to the upper crust for both decoration and entertainment but the 20th century brought new diversions into british homes radio in the the bbc home 1920s here is the news and then television in the 1950s the queen is now able to receive the emblems of majesty and in the past 40 some years consumers have preferred electronic keyboards which can synthesize a variety of sounds and take up less space the killer blow for britain's piano industry came from cheaper foreign imports mass-produced instruments made in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost today china japan and indonesia hold over 60 of the global piano market a cavendish piano starts at 7 500 and a full-size grand piano cost 30 000. that's double the price of adam's competitors and in the beginning that price point kept customers away our first year we we made two pianos then our second year we made around about six pianos and it's taken us a long time to get to get to the states we are now but the still fairly small scale of the business isn't the only hurdle adams had to overcome there are also scores of older used pianos that many people give away for free just to be rid of them or because they would be even costlier to restore to their former glory than buying new put it this way that the first half of a piano's life is a lot more more valuable than the last half of the piano's life i know it's all a bit sad isn't it and uh i'm getting old but uh um you know i can always look back fondly to when i was younger but they're not like violins you see violins improve with age so we have the best violins in the world were made hundreds of years ago that's not true with pianos so while the market may be smaller in the future adam wants cavendish to keep making high quality instruments well be nice if it carries on going after me that would be the main thing really he offers apprenticeships to a new generation of british artisans and partners with the only school in the country that offers technical piano making courses all to stay focused on what led him to start cavendish in the first place not letting the craft disappear [Music] so you

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Length: 100min 7sec (6007 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021