Making It Here; Lunt Silversmiths, Morrell Metalsmiths, Northampton Wools

A local broadcast of the following program is brought to you in part by the members of WG y in by the affiliated chambers of commerce are proud to work with the y in providing quality events and programs for our community and helping chamber members to broaden their strategic relationships to grow their business and meet the region's business leaders. This is dumping the wine into the TV wine. Springfield public television the western wing. Tonight it's all about good old wine one tradition from a blacksmith to someone that works with will to some of the finest show ever being made and you'll see how it's done. Coming up next making it here making it here is brought to you by the members of WG Y and by United Bank where every customer has a personal banker the personal banker concepts I'm an extremely successful for a customer to have one person that they can go to that knows

about them whether they're a $10 customer a $10000 customer or a hundred thousand dollar customer. They have a personal banker. We need something that's going to set us apart. And that's our customer service. We don't just talk about it. We actually do it. United Bank we take banking personally. Oh friends and welcome to another edition of making it here I'm your host George Murphy and we start out tonight in Greenfield Massachusetts and where are we were at the lunch silversmiths and standing over here protecting this valuable stuff. Is the president and CEO of Luntz silversmith your gym one correct. I am the chief guard as well. I don't blame me it was just magnificent looking stuff around how long you've been a business you know. We started in 19 0 2 of my great grandfather out of

him. And you were like the fifth or sixth generation. I am the fourth Sometimes it feels like fifth or sixth. My nephew Alex Alon who's our head of design is the fifth generation. So you obviously as I look around the room here make a lot more than these exquisite little I guess this is a teapot of some sort and it is in fact that's a coffee pot based on a Paul Revere design but we do indeed make a variety of products here. Perhaps I can show you absolutely you got platters down here and a little bit we do creamers and so on and my goodness look at this picture frame here. We make gift Ware and baby Ware and tableware and these picture frames as you can see are a good example. We have some Paul Revere bowls. This design a classic American design. Speaking of American tradition. And your name stamped right on the bottom. I don't use Hallmark's anymore is that indigenous to different countries primarily European. We do get our name on there but not the hall mark as you come to think of it from Great Britain thing where do the ideas come from to somebody coming somebody in

and request a certain item you say it's a good it's a good question that's one we ask ourselves every day we have to stay relevant current be in touch with the market and also try to lead it with design. So one of the classics that we do count on is our baby wear line here for over a century sterling silver baby wear has been a great American tradition and we're leaders in that field. Knives and spoons and forks and little people over here for the larger folks which obviously when I hear you got it why I'm writing I want to be here and explain a little bit about why or why they have so many of these. Each has a different design and in the middle of it we have Embassy scroll which manufactures and ships to all the United States embassies and consulates abroad. So George when you go to. Embassy for dinner tonight you'll be eating with love. I'm going to be in Moscow over the weekend you know look for the lunch movement name on an errand. Now you're going

to actually take me into your factory in the sprawling ground and show me how some of the ships with you CAN I am indeed it's a very interesting process I look forward to showing it to you. I want to see where they keep the silver in the meantime as we head back there to make nice forks but we're whatever we're going to see being made. We're going to send you to Colerain Massachusetts to meet another person that works with metal. This guy happens to be a blacksmith. He's already gone. The smell of the coal fired the you know the hammering the animal the hot steel the sparks flying. It's a lot of hot fire. But when you get that metal hide and see it move into the hammock it's it's a magical thing. I am a blacksmith. I'm a craftsman an artist designer a master blacksmith because of the number of years that I've been forging iron but the master says you know it all and I don't. Every day there's something new that comes along that I challenge

a challenge of technique a challenge of a joinery. With Ireland that I have to reexamine where I am with the with the trade. I love doing what I do. It's moving material under the under the hammer with you know the coal forge and the anvil. That's that's the glory of it. The best designing I do is at the forge with the hot iron and seeing it move under the hammer because you can change things so nicely and enhance the look of the piece as you go along. I started out in the early 70s shoeing horses. I was shoeing horses for about 10 years and my back went bad so I transferred my talents from four shoeing into forging iron ornamental and work. And it was primarily learn as you go. A lot of experimentation a lot of times which mistake in your I learned something. So a lot

of hands on a lot of late nights a lot of waking up in the middle of the night with the answer of how to or something to try and if it didn't work for me it goes to the scrap heap. When it does work there's that pride that wells up and say yeah I've learned something today. Or your family operation such as this. I'm blessed. Gives me a good sense of pride to have my children working with me. Kristen our oldest works here in the shop in the office. She handles all the day to day stuff. Justin next in line decided when he was 13 that this is what he wanted to do. So we tailored his education to pick up a lot of areas that I didn't have as a tradition in New England. If a town were to be founded the first thing the citizens would

do would be to put up a church. The second most necessary thing for a town to operate was a blacksmith. They would build the blacksmith the house and they would build him a shop because without the blacksmith they couldn't they couldn't operate as a town. The blacksmith would. Build their agricultural implements. Make all the nails for their housing. The kitchen implements the fire tools. The blacksmith was the inventor the blacksmith was the go to guy when somebody had a problem. Therefore you find a lot of the inventors in our nation started out either either as a blacksmith or an apprentice inventors such as Eli Whitney John Deere John Deere actually came from Vermont and moved out west he was a blacksmith. Cyrus McCormick I believe Thomas Edison apprenticed as a blacksmith wrought iron as a material is no longer

produced wrought iron was iron and silica. And now what we find is actually steel steel is iron and carbon. The more carbon is in the material the harder it is. We work with mild steel. It has a low carbon content so it's more malleable under the hammer with the heat of the forge. Most of the time what we're doing is either a coal forge or a gas forge. Coal is my preference because I can do pinpoint heating and work larger pieces. So with a coal forge the fire itself is we're operating anywhere from two thousand and twenty six hundred degrees and we are actually working the material in as probably 600 to 800 degrees range up above that we get into the forge welding or the burning stage material. Wrought is the past participle of the

verb to work. So anything that has been worked has been rough. So that's where the term wrought iron comes from. We do wrought iron because we have worked it but we do not use the material which is you know specifically wrought iron. We do hand forged interior and exterior ironwork we do anything from a small beam hooks plant hangers kitchen and bath accessories. We do furniture pieces fire screens fire tools all types of lighting interior and exterior railings and gates. I like to say it's house jewelry because it decorates what was already there. There have been customers of mine one in particular. They sold their house lock stock and barrel furnished but they took two pieces with them and they were in pieces that I made. I was honored very honored in Longfellow's poem. And you know the village blacksmith and you see a lot of different pictures of

Laxman shot. You generally see kids coming into THE WAR to watch the blacksmith at work. Why. Because it's a magical thing. Well welcome back to Greenville Massachusetts I'm at lunch silversmiths and we're about to find out where they keep the raw materials come on this way Georgia wants over here with the president and CEO and he's going to show us this is a magnificent ball the special dispensation to get to see this not everybody get to see this is the inner sanctums over as a precious metal. Yeah. Now and so we take care to lock it up pretty well tell you what we start with. Now I expect you to see all kinds of big in here Jim. Well we work primarily with what we call a stock room which is in a form like this. It's a little bit of flexibility

you know and it's it's I did almost looks like like a woman actually just working on a little bring up the unique color of the medal itself where I go everything probably starts out on a strip like this. But everything comes out flat where Thank you. So I'm here once that's patterns cut out that has to be done here somewhere. Exactly and I will show you just how we go about creating where you know people with sample size was a lot of our storage. We first came in here I kind of expected to see today our work. How are you when you take

that. We saw just a moment. Now you see this in pieces every last scrap. So we cut out that which has sacked counterpart White House which happens to be a turkey that Im going to have that time with my casting. Yeah they would start with the hand I was making. What are you doing. It's a

good thing there's no times we will them everything. That's why we're going to look at in a minute. Thank you so there was one step

at a time when we use a once in a while. This is my life was different with our world. This one no longer. So this is the final step. When you do this you're ready to go to Mars. Well Mauser we don't want a war or start with my old college let's go look at where we already saw

this is definitely the final step. Yes more than the other guy will. Well there are a number of lines in the piece. All right. John is losing her mind. There you see and I was looking at no great beautiful it really really is quite different from what percentage shoulders the sterling silver of ninety two point five percent pure silver with a number. Now why not a little ring. Why not use 100 percent. There would be too soft rock until you found your phone in your eyes you know white show going on here somewhere right. Something to do with making silver and white since we're holding things that I could use it in right here. Can we take a look at that a house only about 100 people that are you keep on trying to write while high. Yeah

I hear you. I think when you're in front of fathering ornament on the way through and feel this is beyond the camping thing that not only will shorten what when where this thing certainly. Now we wait three or four weeks were right where were you. We'll look at this thing for people to get things

wrong. You're right up there with a couple of are they all a fellow Where were you what would you sign. Wrong room and we're going to see a couple of designs maybe but as we head over there remember the show is all about knowing the traditions and another one of the traditions in New England is working with wool with the Northhampton about a lady that worked with my job this way this way. That's it. And if you're near the end just to the end and let's roll the road back. My name is Linda Daniels and I own North Hampton walls and North him to molest you in Northampton Mass. Both stores are yarn stores that sell yarn for him and we also sell a lot of ready made knitted items for both children and adults. One of the things that we have to offer is the service it's the number

one thing on our list. I love to teach. I love to help people I love. I really have a love of knitting and another standing of knitting and I love to help people progress in their knitting. I try to offer a wide range of yarns as well from very inexpensive yarns to very expensive yarns although we're so small we can't fit everything in here we do try and have a selection of natural fibers of cotton wool blends of things that people can really have fun with and end up making something that they are really proud of. I soon learned to knit when I was about 12 years old my mother taught me and I need a little bit through high school and college. Once I was married and had children and wasn't teaching anymore I still wanted to have something to do

at home and I so I answered an ad in the paper for a home car share and I started Chris sharing hats and sweaters and scarves for a production car share in Amherst. After a few years the original owner of North Hampton was open to the shop and I started to work for her. And in a very short period of time I realized that this was really the love of my life the passion the thing that I really really wanted to do and was very good at. So if you stand and watch what we're doing here because this is the one time when Cider House Rules first came to town they sent out a bunch of scouts I think looking for everything that they needed. And one of the costume scouts came to town first and called and asked if we did any custom knitting course we answered yes. When she took our name and number and then said that when the actual custom designers came that they would call and meet

with me and that is exactly what happened. They asked if I would do a sweater that they're on would wear and they came in and we chose the yarn and I sketched out a couple of designs for them and Renee finally chose one and I went to work. I finished that sweater within about a week. And the very next day they called and asked if I could get it again and I was like why what happened. What was wrong. And she said that they had had second thoughts about the jade green color that they had chosen and they had tried to dye it. And in the process had shrunk the sweater so I had to ring it the entire garment again within a week. In the meantime they finally cast Michael Caine in the role that he won the Oscar for. And I did the vests that he wears throughout the entire movie. So that was really a thrill to see him except the Oscar with a picture of him wearing the vest that I had made up on the screen behind him.

New England and knitting are synonymous. When people think of knitting they think of a snowy day and a fire in the fireplace and somebody curled up on the couch in a pair of hand socks working on the next gift item. It's very important I think for the next generation to learn to knit because it's a real hands on creative kind of process. It moves us away from the laptop or the keyboard or the plugged in kind of generation to much more of a community pulling together or sharing their love of an ancient craft and helping to continue it. And that's also what the book is about. I had a friend who is a literary agent Her name is Linda Moore Ghar from Amherst and she's also a knitter. And ever since I did the sweaters for Cider House Rules she's been after me to write a

proposal do a book. I've always written patterns for the store and by that time I felt I had enough. And so basically to get her off my back I sat down and wrote a proposal and gathered together the things that I had and then designed a few sweaters specifically for the book and turned it all over to Linda and lo and behold in a couple of weeks she sold it. So I ended up really having to do it. But I'm really really pleased with the final result. The book is beautiful I think and has a little something for everyone in it from beginners to more advanced knitters. There are so many things that I really love about the job. It's hard to pick just one. But I have to say that the reason I've been able to do this for 20 something years is because I love the people I love. Their sense of discovery when they come in the store I love their enjoyment of the yarns I love their satisfaction and pride

they take in the fact that at the end of many hours of work sometimes they have something that they can give with pride or wear with pride and show off. And to know that I've been a part of that. Even a small part of it really gives me an immense amount of satisfaction. Here we are back from North Hampton into Greenfield Massachusetts and we saw a little bit about well some very interesting things about well I'm back with Jim now in GREENFIELD AT LUNCH silversmithing and I've got some designing going on here indeed we are in the design wrong this is where it all starts. And this is Alex my nephew who besides being a very talented guy also represents the fifth generation of the lone family that contributed just keep going and going and going so what is he doing here exactly Jim he is. If we look at this screen he's laying out a prototype for a picture frame

for our rental home collection. It's a combination of wood and Sterling and represents that part of our product line which is in the gift area remember we have flat Ware gift wear baby wear. This is very much in the gift line. Everything's done on screen you know is there any more hard copy do you still use and there is indeed thank goodness Alex is a lot more talented than I was able for example. OK. Can tribute hard copy here you can see two flatware designs. These are interesting materials you have horn in here we actually have a product the Chevron style that's made out of bold. So very new. No materials for us to work with and they've been very well received. You have some things over here for example. Now I'm just curious about something you keep talking about this site isn't a fork is a fork obviously the shank is different and you've got some hallmarks I see on here and these are different but how is it the depth of the fork How do you design something like this.

Well it's again that's a piece of art itself. As I said earlier a functional piece of art so it adds to the overall dining experience and we call it the art of living well. Did you always want to be a silversmith and forget that it's been in your family for generations you always want to do this. Well I would say I've always been fascinated with it and very much enjoyed working with my father and seeing him work early on so I guess you could say I'm glad I did it because if you opted for someone else we'd be talking to someone else. And thank you for spending your time with somebody who was just a little bit about silverware and a lot of passion. I hope you've enjoyed tonight we're going to come back next week and do it all over again as we find a lot more interesting people just like Jim and all the other books who are making it here. You do good work you know. Thank you sir. Good work. Making it here is brought to you by the members of WG Y and by United Bank where every customer has a personal

banker the personal banker concepts I'm an extremely successful for a customer to have one person that they can go to that knows about them whether they're a $10 customer a $10000 customer or a hundred thousand dollar customer. They have a personal banker. We need something that's going to set us apart. And that's our customer service. We don't just talk about it. We actually do it. United Bank we take banking personally someone who is making it here would love to hear about it. You can reach us on our website or or send a letter to making it here. Forty four Hampton Street Springfield Mass 0 1 1 0 3. Watch making it here again on demand or tell your GP why I find out more in

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