9 Comments

Thank you for sharing about this show! I'll definitely check it out. I too love watching artists at their craft.

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Wonderful, Ramona -- thank you!

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This fascination with process is something Don and I share. There are a bunch of YouTube channels where people take apart rusted, broken, dirty things down to the rivets. Piece by piece, they restore the thing not just to function but to beauty. Try "My Mechanics."

https://youtu.be/tllAaDaGShg?si=oLmOai1KdFXf0AY2

Similar: https://youtu.be/qcQZb1bjju8?si=dqzTZyG8OifLpVzm

https://youtu.be/laUiwqLV4l8?si=8HnuB91rgD3UTH1G

Then there's Baumgartner Restoration. We like the ASMR ones where he's silent as he stores artwork.

https://youtu.be/8qhy5Kt4nhA?si=AdtybYzxh3TXkPUP

The simplest things they work on are always astonishingly complex. We started watching these restoration videos when the covid lockdown began. The world was crazy, and these people were making junk new and beautiful.

We watch the PBS shows you mention, but our new favorite thing is The Repair Shop, a British show also on YouTube.

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I'd forgotten about The Repair Shop! My grandson turned me on to it a couple of years ago and we've watched many of them together.

I remember one in particular where a woman re-caned a chair. Amazing. And watching the ceramicists putting together a vase, creating new pieces if they have to--such exacting work. I think we watched them as far as we could and then I forgot about it. Now I can catch up! Thanks so much for the reminder! (I love the outside of the Repair Shop. I'd like to know more about the building.)

I'll look for the others you suggest, Mary. Thanks again.

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The Baumgartner restoration was unbelievable. I opted for the narration and I'm glad I did. I wanted to know exactly how he did it.

I couldn't believe he could remove the old wood from the back of the painting-on-paper and not have a disaster. That's confidence!

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One of my favorite shows on Netflix is Blown Away because I love glass artists. I even took a weekend glass beadmaking class because I wanted to know how it feels to work with molten glass!

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Now how on earth did I miss that one, too? Adding it to my growing list. I love stained glass, art glass, anything to do with glass, including watching them make it.

I don't think I'd want to try and blow glass myself--it looks dangerous, and it's hard, hard work!--but I could sit and watch them all day long. The process is amazing!

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His work is phenomenal. Some of the things he restores look completely hopeless, others are just brown with a century of tobacco smoke and plain dirt. Have fun!

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Thank you! I will!

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