(birds squawking) - Come on, let's go.

(dog panting) All right, everybody.

Yep, we're going.

(Christian laughing) Oh yes.

Oh my God, you are so much fun.

You are so much fun.

Oh my dear, you have a lot of milk this morning.

(Christian throat singing) Throat singing is really healing.

It has become this ritual for me that as I'm milking, I sing.

It's good vibration into their bodies.

Thank you, sweetheart.

I milk in the morning.

I make cheese.

It's fairly labor intensive.

And I maintain these cheeses and then I go in the shop.

Make some noise.

(gentle music) (machine whirs) My name is Christian Burchard and I am a sculptor in wood.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (machine whirs) I've learned how to step back, not control it too much.

This saw is from about 1890 and is a wonderful machine.

(machine whirs) (gentle music continues) And then into the microwave.

I get these old microwaves that people leave by the side of the road and I hope they're safe.

The microwave heats and pushes the water out of the wood.

Whoa.

And it is hot.

(wood clanks) (cat meows) This is my favorite part, you know, when it comes out steaming like that.

And then after a couple of days, they'll start moving.

(gentle music) It's like a flower opening.

The structure of the wood gets freed to actually move in its own ways.

(gentle music continues) I liked its unpredictability.

(drill whirs) It's like Lego.

I used to love Legos, obviously.

Oh yeah, look like right here.

How sweet is that?

You get into a zone where you don't think, you don't doubt, you don't question.

You just put things together that you know and you walk back and you don't know how you actually did that.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) I had them in a box and I just pushed the box over and dumped them on the ground and I go, "Whoa.

It looks like a pyre" And the title "Never Again" came from that.

The story of book burnings and book banning, not caring for the history, not caring for the love, the poems.

(gentle music) I was born in Hamburg, Germany, and I am from like an established family.

My dad's a lawyer and a banker.

I was expected to follow in the footsteps.

Handwork is judged as lowly.

(machine whirs) When I got into woodworking, I got kicked out of the family for that.

When I was sent out of the house, it was very painful.

I was always kind of a bit, you know, rebellious and I didn't want to be told what I was supposed to do.

(machine whirs) The thing that got me into becoming a timber framer and a furniture maker is that I could find, you know, work anywhere.

(traditional music) I traveled to Siberia a couple times.

I got into throat singing.

I got into instrument making.

(Christian throat singing) It was very different and I do love that.

There were wolves.

We lived in a yurt.

We made Tuvan style cheese.

I worked as a cowboy in Australia.

Met my first wife, came to Ashland where her parents had bought some land.

(gentle music) My dad loves me, and so he came around.

I have taken a lot of chances in my life.

(machine whirs) Failure is your biggest teacher.

You have to go to an edge.

You know, if you go safe, you make work that looks safe.

(machine screeches) I mean, you can make a thick bowl and it'll look like a thick bowl or you can make a beautiful one.

Let's see how much flex we got here.

And there's also a sound that it makes just before it blows up if you get too thin.

Ooh.

(machine scraping) So now more light is shining through the sides here.

And you can actually see my hand through.

But if it doesn't blow up, there's a satisfaction.

There's a pride.

Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.

(saw clanks) Voila.

(gentle music) So this has darkened over time, but that's the final result.

(gentle music continues) And something I do when there's an opening like this, I put a stitch in here and it adds to the story.

It's like it's not a defect anymore.

(gentle music continues) I gotta show you what I did today.

Come on.

Working together with your partner is like another set of eyes, another brain coming in.

- Oh, gorgeous.

- No cracks.

- I met Christian in 2019 and he was interesting.

- See, this one is still, this is still wet.

You can see how heavy it is.

- Right.

My partner became very sick suddenly from cancer and he passed away.

So it was very sudden and surprising and tragic.

Christian's wife had left.

I was just crushed, so sad that he was alone and that someone would choose to leave.

- This is my favorite here.

These two here, they're like a couple.

Look at them.

And then I think we just fell in love.

(cat meows) - Hi.

This is Kazan.

I'm Kristy Kún and I'm a feltmaker.

Come to work with me today?

My imagination is sparked by this incredible environment that I'm surrounded with.

(gentle music) Many of the pieces have a flow to them.

It might be the movement of water, the flow of a landscape.

(gentle music continues) Some people have an emotional response to the work.

It's an abstract piece, but it will jar a memory and it can be a beautiful experience and very touching.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (string scratches) I spend about four to six weeks working on a single piece.

(scissors squeak) The design that I laid out is taken from insect wings, little creatures that I've found in the studio.

And then I'm starting with colors that are around me on a daily basis, putting this place into the piece right at the beginning.

(gentle music) All of these wools, when they're felted, will mingle and migrate through the layers.

(machine whirs) I process those through the needle felting machine.

(gentle music continues) (machine whirs) I take those panels to the cutting table and I segment it into strips.

(machine whirs) And those strips, they're spaced evenly and covered with the cheesecloth fabric and needle felted so they become a single piece again.

This takes probably five to seven days and it's so very meditative.

I've traveled to several countries to teach techniques that I developed and it's so rewarding.

(machine whirs) (liquid sloshes) What I'm doing with the very hot water and soap solution is I'm agitating those wool fibers so they tangle and tangle and tangle as tight as they possibly can be.

(fabric thumps) The result that I want is a very dense felt.

That is a complete felt.

And my background is in furniture construction.

I became a single mother and I needed a material that I could work with in the home and be close to my daughter.

(water sloshes) My body with these materials expressed something I couldn't do through the wood shop.

(water sloshes) There's a sensuality in the material that I really love.

There's a feminine connection.

(machine purrs) This is a plate compactor.

You might use it for compacting the gravel under a patio.

And I'm interested in how something becomes better or stronger under stress.

When I'm putting my energy and my strength into it, I come out renewed.

I feel stronger.

(water dripping) I like having my body in the water with it and so connected to the piece.

It becomes a very intimate partnership.

I feel the release.

I feel the release for this textile that I've pushed and pounded and rolled.

I feel the release from my own body that I've pushed and pulled just as much.

It's just beautiful to set it free.

I'm observing these forms and I'll take that with me when I go back to shape it.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (material rustles) I'll come in on a Sunday morning when I have a clear head and a quiet day ahead to do the shaping.

I usually get it in one try because it's that initial instinct of what the material is saying and how I'm responding that's the right one.

If I take it apart after that first shaping, then I'll usually struggle for a while to get it back where I wanted it.

I think about the shadows and the light moving through it.

I'm looking for balance and energy.

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - This what I got.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

So they're all finished, they're all done.

No, I think this was good.

It's nestled.

It's like perfect.

- [Kristy] Okay.

- [Christian] Look at that.

- [Kristy] Yeah, I kind of like that, folded under a little more.

- Okay, where are we cutting?

A little here, right?

- Yeah, yeah, even like that.

It just seemed a little too square up there.

A sort of trapezoidal.

Less.

- I'm happy.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - He inspires me to trust myself and to go further with the work.

- Look at that.

And I go, "Don't touch it.

"Don't, don't touch it."

- Yeah, you do that, you do that.

- Don't, leave it.

This is perfect.

It was, okay.

- No, it was too flat.

And then what do I do?

- And then I get crushed because she completely takes it apart.

- Change it, I change it.

- And I'm like- - I can't always listen to you.

- Well - - I have to trust what I- - You could but you don't.

- Oh.

- Go to Kristy.

Come on, come on.

- [Kristy] Siggy.

- Come on, I know you want to play.

Ah, we played so much today.

(gate clanks) - The baby goat, Siggy, that lived in our bedroom in a box for her first weeks, she lost her mama in my arms, she was very sad.

- Kristy's a beautiful person and is a beautiful person to be with.

- We're done.

Come on.

- She's out of here whenever I get like that.

So she, there's differences.

You see here, we have a difference.

Oh my God.

One of the long lost Frisbees.

What you got?

- [Kristy] Come on, come on.

- Living here with all these animals, it's not stressless, but it's rich.

It's just, it feels complete.

It's what I always dreamt about.

Yeah, we are.

- [Kristy] Yeah.

- [Christian] Look at them.

They are so beautiful.

(birds chirp) (no audio)