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- [Jenna] This season of Travel Dares finds us on the road
to reconnect with the US and what makes it unique.
On this episode,
I'm visiting a place known as the country's oldest
native American artists' cooperative.
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Last episode,
I got a clue for where I'd end up on this episode.
"Use your fingers to handcraft
a piece of pre-Colonial history."
Which led me to Asheville,
a city nestled in North Carolina's famous
Great Smoky Mountains.
But I'll actually be traveling just outside the city
to the town of Cherokee.
Where I'll be visiting the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual.
So I'm going to wrap up breakfast now
and head on over there.
Thank you so much.
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Heading to the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual today,
I hear it's their 75th year anniversary.
I'm really excited.
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- Hi, nice to meet you. Jenna: Nice to meet you, I'm Jenna.
Tonya: I'm Tonya, welcome to Qualla Arts and Crafts.
Jenna: Thank you for having me.
I'd love to know a little more about why the cooperative
was founded and when it was founded.
Tonya: The cooperative was founded in 1946
by Cherokee artists,
and they wanted to have a place that they could sell their
artwork year round.
We have a lot of different mediums of artwork
at Qualla Arts and Crafts.
We have traditional Cherokee baskets,
stone carvings, wood carvings.
We also have contemporary work like bead work, drawings,
paintings, prints, and even some textiles.
The Qualla Arts and Crafts has over
250 artist members currently.
A lot of the artwork is passed down through family members
through the home,
but also our school system has adopted
Cherokee arts and crafts as a class.
So most schools have a STEM program,
our school system, we named it STEAM,
which adds the "A" in there for the arts.
So it's science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.
Jenna: I love that.
Tonya: So now we're going to give you a taste
of some of the arts and crafts we do here.
Are you ready Jenna?
Jenna: Oh, yeah.
I'm so ready.
Jenna: Hi. - Hi.
Jenna: What's your name?
Tara: I'm Tara.
Jenna: Tara, I'm Jenna.
It's very nice to meet you.
Tara: Nice to meet you.
Jenna: I am dying to know about pottery.
I'd love to know how you got into it,
how long you've been doing it?
Tara: I started when I was probably around seventh grade
and I stepped away from it when I went to college.
And then when I came back home,
I picked it back up and I've been doing it since 1999.
Jenna: That's a long time. Tara: Mm hm.
Jenna: I'm in good hands.
(both laugh)
Tara: Yes, I hope so.
All right, so you can get your clay,
I already cut you a ball clay out.
And so you just gonna pat it.
(clay patting)
So you just get it in a flat disc
and you're just gonna use your roller
and you're just gonna flatten it out.
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And then you're going to take this,
this is your base and all we're going to do is,
we're just gonna lay it around
and you're just going to press it down,
form it to the bowl or the base.
So now that our clay has dried,
we're gonna add some coils to it.
You're gonna take a ball of clay
and all you're gonna do is you're going to just start
squeezing it into like a snake.
And all I do is I lay it on top of my pot.
And at this stage I use my paddle
and all I'm doing is I'm gonna go around
and smack the clay with it.
And so if you notice, as you're smacking,
it's getting thinner, the clay is getting longer.
And then once you get to where you want to go,
once you get your decorations on and you like the shape,
then I would let it dry for about seven to 10 days.
And then you can put it in a kiln.
There's your pots.
Jenna: Thank you so much for teaching me.
A limited amount of time, but I feel like I absorbed
hopefully at least a little bit.
Tara: You should be able to go home and make a pot now.
(both laughing)
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Jenna: Hey.
- Hi.
Jenna: I'm Jenna.
Bill: I'm Bill.
Jenna: Hi Bill, what are you making?
Bill: A Turtle.
I'm curving a turtle out of soapstone.
Jenna: A turtle out of a soapstone?
Bill: Mm hm.
I tell kids my knife's magic, 'cause it'll cut a rock.
(Jenna laughing)
Jenna: How long have you been doing this?
Bill: Off and on since 1986.
Jenna: 1986?
Bill: Yeah
Jenna: Okay, a long time.
How'd you get started?
Bill: I got sick back in the '80s and it wasn't able to work
for a couple of years and I can't do very well at waiting
and sitting and stuff like that.
So I started doing something with my hands.
Jenna: How do you become a member here at the cooperative?
Bill: You have to show the board that you can do the work.
You have to present three to five pieces of your work,
and then we will call you in to demonstrate for us
so that we'll know you did the work.
And if the work is the quality that we want here,
then you can become a member.
Jenna: Well, now I'm really nervous
because I want you to show me a few skills,
but I do not want to be tested.
(Bill laughs)
Bill: Okay.
(Jenna laughs)
We can work with that.
Jenna: Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Bill: Choose your weapon.
I've got knives.
Jenna: I feel like this one looks like
I'll do the least damage on myself.
(both laughing)
Bill: Okay.
I'd just start trying to check it out first,
to cut that stone.
There's sometimes a little hard spots in it,
sometimes it's smooth.
Jenna: I'm just feeling hard spots in general.
What makes Qualla special in your opinion?
Bill: The fact that we are trying our best to keep
a tradition alive.
These walls right here around us,
have objects in them that were made,
some of them many years ago.
And you go out there and look at the shelves
at the new work,
And some of it's almost exactly the same.
I wouldn't say it's exactly because I can sit here
and carve hundreds of these turtles
and you could probably name them because
I doubt if I could carve two exactly alike.
In fact, I'm not sure I'd even want to.
It's really showing the past through the work we do today.
Bill: Can I take a look at it?
Oh my gosh, yeah it's coming to life right out of the...
Bill: Right out of that piece of rock.
Jenna: It's kind of amazing.
Bill: People think rock's dead, not to me.
Jenna: I love that.
Bill: Rocks live, and I try to bring them to life.
Jenna: Well, I feel so lucky to have met
your living rocks and you.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sit down
and chat with you and hear your stories.
Bill: You're welcome.
I'm glad you did.
Jenna: I had such an amazing time
meeting with the artists earlier
and seeing the level of expertise and skill that goes into
their respective crafts was such an eye opening experience.
The Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual
is such a beautiful location.
And the fact that they've been keeping the local Cherokee
traditional alive for the past 75 years is amazing.
I don't know about you,
but I think I'm ready for my next adventure.
And I think I see a clue.
"You'll have to go underground
to see this tall beauty in person."
Ooh, tall beauty in person.
I have no idea what that means,
but I'm very excited.
You'll have to tune in to the next episode
to find out where I'm going next.
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