- This week on "Wisconsin Life:"
Meet a pair of elves
crafting toys,
the builder of an instrument
called a handpan,
a basket weaver in the Northwoods,
a letter writer in Milwaukee
who spreads positivity,
and a treasure hunter
in search of his next big find.
It's all ahead on "Wisconsin Life!"
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- Funding for "Wisconsin Life"
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- Hear-yee! Hear-yee!
Welcome, ladies and lords, to "Wisconsin Life!"
I'm your host, Angela Fitzgerald.
I'm in Madison
where history has come to life
with Barony of Jararvellir,
a local chapter of The Society of Creative Anachronism.
Anachronists are enthusiasts
of bringing past culture into modern times.
In this case, pre-17th century cultures,
which brings me to the UW-Madison Stock Pavilion
where the group meets each week for weaponry practice.
I'll go and change into
something a bit more comfortable.
But before I do,
we head to La Crosse
to meet a pair of builders
who spread the holiday cheer
with each new toy they create.
[playful music]
- Wooden toys are a timeless classic.
- I think people like wooden toys.
There's something kind of earthy about them.
- I remember playing with--
Some of my favorite toys when I was a kid was wooden toys.
- For Scott Cooper and Kurt Grunwald,
woodworking is a family tradition.
- Kurt: I think 3-inch wheels would be too big, Scott.
- I think you're right. [chuckling]
- And now it's become a holiday tradition.
- My friend Kurt and I,
we were helping out at the Salvation Army
with their Thanksgiving drive.
- They'd be handing out food.
And there would be Christmas toys there
that people could pick something out for their children.
- Scott: We thought it'd be nice if they had a new toy.
- It just seemed natural that
two woodworkers would make wooden toys.
[circular saw buzzing]
[drill whirring]
[saw buzzing]
- And so it began.
The elves, as they call themselves,
started making wooden toys.
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- Scott: The first year we made little toy grasshoppers
that you could pull and their legs would move.
We found kids like things
they can kind of pull around and put stuff in.
Each year we do a different toy.
[propeller blades vibrate]
[saw buzzing]
- Twenty years later,
the elves are still at work
and the ideas keep coming.
- So, it's like a semi-truck with a flatbed trailer
that we can put six Matchbox cars onto.
And there'll be a ramp on the back
so they can drive up and onto it.
And then, the ramp flips up so when they drive away,
the cars don't all fly off the back.
[buzzing]
- Over the years, the elves have grown in number.
- Scott: So we now have five woodworking elves.
We have an accessorizing elf.
We make 50 of them.
So, we get little stations going and everybody, kind of,
gets their part of the job.
We could divide up the cabs,
if people want to take them back and sand them.
- I really enjoy working in the shop.
I really enjoy working with wood.
And I really enjoy getting together
with a group of fun guys
who like to do some work, too.
- We'll sand them all, polyurethane them,
and then, we'll drill all the holes.
- It's a kind-hearted tradition that's been extended
to the UW-La Crosse campus, where most of the elves work.
- All right, I'll see you guys.
I gotta run over to class.
- And where Scott teaches biology.
- NanoDrop is usually pretty accurate.
- When Scott's students learned about the project...
well, the holiday spirit spread.
- Now, it's kind of become a Christmas tradition.
Towards the end of the semester, they all help paint toys.
I think it helps them blow off steam around finals week, yeah.
- The "science of giving" is a lesson taught
right alongside medical research.
- We're going to be transforming
either the AXL plasmid or the AXL-KD plasmid
into your individual cancer cell line.
- Students and teachers working on life's problems
at opposite ends of the spectrum.
- You always think, nowadays, everybody wants electronics,
and, you know, plastic toys, and stuff like that.
But I think kids do gravitate towards wooden toys.
- So, as summer gives way to autumn
[saw buzzing]
the sounds of the season
already echo into the night
[nail impacts wood]
into the toys
and into the hearts of young children.
[sander whirring]
- Scott: We know it's making a difference.
- Well, I hope they're enjoying them,
as much as I did when I was a kid.
I just hope that they have a good Christmas, really.
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Now, we travel
back to Madison to catch up with
the maker of a musical instrument
known as the handpan.
[warm, full-bodied resonating sound]
- Well, a handpan is two sheets of steel
that have been parted in some way
either by heat treatment or hammering.
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It has notes on the top that are played with the hands.
The bottom is like a resonating cavity.
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It's a very unique sounding instrument.
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The handpan originated in the year 2000.
It was developed by two steel panned tuners in Switzerland.
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My first reaction was, "What the heck is that thing?"
When I heard the sound,
I knew that I had to bring that sound into my life in some way.
I actually knew that I... I had to build it.
I have a scrap pile of ones that didn't work out.
That's probably around 80.
I knew that
I wasn't going to stop until I got an instrument.
I'm one of a few women in the world
that is building handpans
and definitely the only one in Wisconsin.
So the first thing that we do,
when the steel arrives in the workshop,
is we will decide what scale we are about to build.
After we've made the layout,
we will put in the dimples
for all of the intended notes.
And we are ready to begin hammering
to prepare for the process of tuning.
[pounding on metal]
[playing a single note]
We do a rough tuning.
Take hammers and hammer on one side.
Flip it around, hammer on the other side.
And then, we begin the process
of forming the note into the proper shape.
After the rough tuning,
we take the instrument and attach it with glue.
From there the instrument cures for a number of days.
[repeating a single note]
And then we do a final tune with a small hammer
through the resonating hole.
I've shipped handpans all over the world.
We actually have a pair going to Japan,
to China, to Argentina.
I get as much interest in handpans
from outside of Wisconsin as I do in Madison.
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I think success is building a community
to connect people to instruments that they absolutely love.
That just makes me so happy
that people are loving the instruments
and just enjoying playing music
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People say that the handpan sounds a lot like water.
I like that when I think about being in Madison,
with the two halves of the shell joined together,
and we're on an isthmus surrounded by two lakes
and the sound of water.
I think it's a really nice way to think about it.
[warm, full music with well-tuned overtones]
- Angela: I'm at the Stock Pavilion in Madison
where we transport back in time
to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
[Medieval melody on recorder]
Each week, the Barony of Jararvellir,
a local chapter of The Society of Creative Anachronism.
brings that history to life.
[swords colliding]
Members of the Barony
recreate the lifestyle, arts, and weaponry
of this time period.
Almost everything the group uses is hand-made,
including the clothes and armor.
There's also royalty,
warriors,
and artisans.
Different baronies even hold battles and competitions.
At the annual border skirmish,
there was a "rapier," or slender sword fights,
weapon throws,
and archery.
[thud]
- Look at this!
Beautiful.
Doo, doo, doo, doo.
- Interested in archery?
At weekly practice,
anyone is welcome to try their hand at the sport.
And perhaps get a short lesson from Barony member
Deena Patterson.
So how do we get started?
- Well, just a couple pointers.
When we go up to the line to start shooting,
when you put this arrow on the string,
the back end, the nock,
you're going to want to make sure
you click this nock all the way onto the string.
The string gets to the bottom of it.
And when you put your arm up and you draw back to shoot,
you're going to want to make sure that when you do let go,
when you release, you just move your fingers,
and the string will move back to the center of the bow
and the arrow will fly off.
You want to make sure
you don't drop your arm or move your arm at all
that's holding that bow.
Just like baseball, with the follow through of the swing,
if you move your arm,
the arrow will end up going in that direction.
So if you drop your arm, the arrow will usually go low.
The bow you're using is a 22 pound pull bow.
It's all a matter of picking equipment
that fits with your body and your strengths.
And you can be fairly accurate with any weight bow
as long as it's something that you can
pull back and hold reasonably well.
- Thank you for that, Deena.
Let's give this a try.
[thud]
Oh!
It actually landed somewhere.
- You had a nice long draw.
You pulled your arm back very straight.
And when you released, you didn't let go--
you didn't move your body.
That was very good.
Do it again. You've got five more.
- Thank you.
- The Barony hits the mark when it comes to medieval merriment.
The archery, the clothes, the music.
It's a modern-day Renaissance revival
found right here in Wisconsin.
- All right, same plan, same plan.
- Perhaps after a few more rounds of archery,
I'll give this a try. [arrows thud in background]
We continue our exploration
of ancient traditions
as we head to Washburn
where a basket weaver
uses the landscape
in her constructions.
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- When Tina Fung Holder goes for a walk,
there's always a chance
some part of nature will come home with her.
- See, that's all the sweetgrass there.
It's just amazing to me that people would not be curious
when they walk along
because every single thing out there, I'm curious about.
This would be a beautiful red stroke,
just begging to have me put it into a work of art.
- Once inside her apartment,
dried sweetgrass is braided into cordage.
Red osier dogwood is bent into a frame.
And soon the most malleable parts of nature
take new shape and find new purpose.
- As I look around,
like, anything that bends to me,
that's going to end up in some kind of basketry thing,
you know? [chuckles]
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- Tina is a lot like her material:
flexible and open to new possibilities.
- Where I was born, when I was born,
everything had to be made by hand.
- Tina was born in what was then British Guiana,
a British colony in South America.
She was one of the youngest in a large family
and taught herself to sew her doll's clothes
and to make fish scale necklaces to sell to tourists.
- Stuff like that was always-- I was always making.
I think my Dad secretly, always admired it--
creative brain of a child-- [chuckles]
'cause he was a mechanical kind of person.
He was an engineer.
My mother was the type that said,
"Get educated so you can earn your living.
You don't have ask a man for money."
- By 1969, Guiana had declared its independence.
And most of Tina's siblings had moved to America or England.
Tina landed in Chicago, living with a sister.
- She said, "You know,
there's classes down at the art museum, I think."
This is where they say 'ignorance is bliss'
'cause I had no idea this was the top art school.
- She talked her way
into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Soon, she was working at the Field Museum,
doing repairs on artifacts
and putting on exhibits for the public.
- What I'm doing mostly has to do with going to art school
and going spending hours and hours at the Field Museum.
- It was there that Tina's openness
led her to a new purpose: working with children.
- You want to make another duck?
Ok, we'll make another duck.
Do you remember the over-the-finger knot?
- That's when I got a really understand
that ability I have to communicate with kids.
- Tina says adults can be quick to close off possibilities.
- All I'm hearing is, "Oh, this is so--
"I didn't know it was so hard.
I was never artistic."
- Tina says children are like her weaving material, malleable.
- When you throw it at them,
they don't know that it's a hard thing.
They do it. They follow you.
- Tina!
- Tina: I'm here.
- After art school, new opportunities kept finding her,
as photographers in the advertising business
hired her to make props for their photo shoots.
- He says, "Don't sell yourself short.
This is big-time."
Well, I didn't even have TV in the country when I left.
So, I have no idea what big-time means.
[chuckles]
- Tina worked on some of the most iconic advertising projects
of the 70s and 80s.
- So, I did his little shirt.
This is what you get.
Three o'clock in the morning,
I'm making stuff for Morris the Cat.
I made his little Valentine thing.
So, little by little, I built up this whole career.
Just freelancing in advertising.
So that's why sometimes-- I always say,
"I haven't any idea how I got here.
Why I got here."
But then I see how these things connect up.
You see something?
- Her advertising career indirectly led Tina
to northern Wisconsin and the City of Washburn.
- Well, I met this assistant photographer.
We traveled around the Great Lakes area
and ended up here in the Peninsula.
Oh yeah, this would work just fine.
This was perfect for me.
I grew up in our culture where a village raising a child.
I bet you know what to do 'cause, you know what?
I saw you got a little quack-quack beak there.
[child giggles]
- She's still shaping malleable things:
baskets and children.
- The satisfaction for me is to see the delight on their face.
Well, that's how you tie it all together.
This is something I have in me
to give to the next generations, you know?
And that's how the whole thing started.
- Our next story takes us to Milwaukee,
where a woman works
to spread positivity,
one hand-written letter at a time.
[gentle, happy music]
- I consider myself a cheerful person.
I think that my hobby alone kinda shows that.
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My name is Katrina Lord
and I created Milwaukee Love Letters.
Milwaukee Love Letters is a project
where I create little notes to stash around town.
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I create the love letters in my spare time.
It's a hobby.
And what I do is find quotes that inspire me:
positive quotes, sometimes silly quotes.
I like those, too.
And then I write them on a postcard,
and then I decorate it.
Write a little message from anonymously MKE Love Letter.
And then I put it in the envelope,
stash it away somewhere in the city for someone to find.
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[footsteps] C'mon, Emmie.
I leave the love letters around little free libraries
as I'm walking my dog around town.
We go on lots of walks.
And then, at coffee shops
or Milwaukee Public Market is another place
that I'll stash them around.
So I have an Instagram account, MKE Love Letter,
that I post the pictures of the cards
after I make 'em.
Then, sometimes after people find the letters,
they'll write on the comments section that they found it.
Or they'll send me a direct message on Instagram,
just letting me know that it brightened their day.
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[shutter clicks]
"Try to be rainbows in someone's cloud." - Maya Angelou.
[paper rubbing together]
It's just a fun hobby.
Simple as that.
I make one person smile, maybe they can make more people smile
and I think that, in itself, is priceless.
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Now, we meet
a treasure hunter
in Middleton
who searches for valuables
and sentimental items.
[leaves crunching, detector beeps occasionally]
- Marker there.
- Dan Roekle loves the thrill of the hunt.
Today's mission:
searching this yard
for a Madison man's lost wedding ring.
- He looked for it; couldn't find it.
Then he actually replaced it
'cause he'd kind of given up on it.
When I was talking with him before the search,
he said, "Man, I really hope you find that ring
"because this replacement doesn't fit right,
"doesn't feel right.
I've never liked it."
So, yeah, that was his wedding band.
- Dan has turned his metal detecting hobby
into a gig as a professional ring finder.
For a fee, he finds people's lost heirlooms.
- People call me, most commonly, for lost rings
because that has the most value and emotional attachment.
But we also get calls for phones, glasses,
earrings, pendants.
We've done searches for buried coins in the backyard.
[electronic beeping]
- Dan combs the area with a metal detector
and marks every spot where there's a good signal.
It sounds simple enough.
But a ring search takes three things:
patience, patience, and more patience.
- It's a mix between treasure hunting and "C-S-I."
[chuckles]
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We got nothing.
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[electronic beeping]
Junk. Half of a key.
All right.
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[laughs]
I don't know if this is even a beer can.
The two most popular things that we find
are pull tabs on the top of a soda can
and bottle caps.
The devil. [frustrated groan]
You get really excited on some of those signals
and then you dig trash and you're like,
Oh, that's-- you know, I'm never going to find it.
Same thing.
That's where the patience comes in.
It's not all glory every single time.
You have to enjoy the process more than the reward, I guess.
[electronic beeping]
Oh, I see it, yeah.
- After a couple hours of searching...
success.
This ring had eloped next to a tree.
- When we're able to find it and return it to the person
and that look on their face is just incredible.
[laughter]
- Wow, thank you. That is...
- Is that it? - His ring.
- I'm assuming that's it, right? - Yes, it is.
- Dan says he's found nearly 70 lost rings
in the last three years.
- Well, excellent.
I'm glad we were able to find one.
So that was number 65; 65th ring we found.
- Thanks a lot.
- They all have a different story but one thing in common:
a man using his hobby
to help others find their most cherished heirlooms.
And for Dan, that has a nice ring to it.
- I mean a lot of times people will call me in tears, you know.
They don't know what to do.
So to be able to go out and help
and return that to them is pretty incredible.
And I get to do something that I love doing at the same time
which is even better.
[beeping]
Penny. That's a good way to end.
Treasure. [chuckles]
- I've had a blast
learning about the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
I've even gotten to hone my fighting skills.
If you would like to learn more about the people and places
you've seen,
including the Barony of Jararvellir,
visit WisconsinLife@wpt.org.
While there, be sure to check out all our great content,
including new stories each week from Wisconsin Public Radio.
- It's time for "Wisconsin Life."
I'm executive producer, Maureen McCollum.
- Radio producer, Maureen McCollum,
works with a team of producers and writers
from around the state
to bring these engaging stories to life.
- "Wisconsin Life" started in 2010.
It was the idea of Anne Strainchamps.
She's the host of "To the Best of our Knowledge."
And she really wanted to bring more stories
about the people, places, culture, history of Wisconsin.
So, the stories are generally really fun,
or they touch on a deep human emotion.
We try to make the stories really sound rich
so we're taking listeners to the scene of the story.
I think stories on "Wisconsin Life" are really intimate,
where, generally, it's just the listener
and the people telling the story.
We're transporting them to these places through sounds
and through stories.
If I'm just there with my microphone and my recorder,
people kind of forget it's there
so they're maybe more prone to opening up.
- "Wisconsin Life" airs on WPR's "Morning Edition,"
"Central Time," and "The Morning Show."
Check our website for a detailed schedule
and a chance to dive in to all of the stories
on both TV and radio.
And as always, we want to hear from you.
So send us your ideas by emailing us at
WisconsinLife@wpt.org.
- I'm your medieval maiden and host, Angela Fitzgerald,
and this is our "Wisconsin Life."
Fare thee well!
[swords clanking]
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- Pew! Pew! [mimicking sounds of shooting]
- I know.
I was just about to-- [laughter]
I was just about to make fake shooting noises.
[laughter]
- Funding for "Wisconsin Life"
is provided in part
by Alliant Energy,
Lowell and Mary Peterson,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.