Over 200 years ago, the early American settlers rode on vehicles and used items they made by hand. Wheelwrights and blacksmiths assembled wagons. Wooden dolls and toys bore the mark of their makers. These craftspeople used the materials that were available through nature--iron, copper, clay, stone and wood. Today, several North Carolinians continue the fine art of woodworking. Folkways' Workers in Wood introduces us to wheelwrights and wood carvers who craft intricate figurines or dolls.

The journey begins in Tyler, North Carolina, where Emmett Jones describes the complex process of making a wagon wheel. Wheelwrights not only have to have carpentry skills, but they must also know blacksmithing. Emmett shows how he painstakingly carves and saws the axle to prepare it for the spokes and how he must measure the distance between the spokes before he adds the tire frame. Making the tire hones his blacksmith skills as he heats and shapes the metal to fit around the rim. Moving to Brasstown, the home of the annual Fall Festival at the John C. Campbell Folk School, we will see Nolan Beaver's small intricately carved wooden figures. In Thomasville, home of furniture in North Carolina, George Servance makes dancing wooden dolls of all varieties. He explains his use of different types of wood for each piece of the doll and shows how his dolls can tap dance to David Holt's guitar music.

Folkways' Workers in Wood will give you a new appreciation for wood carved figures and for life before assembly lines. For Emmett, Nolan and George, carving by hand is their passion and their final products are stamped with their tender care and talent.