So Expensive Season 10 Marathon | So Expensive | Insider Business
from silk kimonos and South Sea pearls to handmade Globes and Moroccan rugs we traveled the world to uncover the stories behind some of the world's most valuable items our first stop is East Asia Scotland where a tiny Workshop has been making curling Stones since 1851. today caves of Scotland is the only company in the world trusted to produce Carling stones for the Winter Olympics mm-hmm using rare granite from just one island in the world experienced stonemasons turn these giant Boulders into hundreds of uniform curling stones but these aren't just any curling stones they're the only ones allowed in the Olympic Games a single Stone certified for the Olympics costs over six hundred dollars that makes a full set of 16 Stones worth ninety six hundred dollars so how are olympic curling stones made and why are they so expensive 2006 every curling Stone used in the Olympic Winter Games has come from here it's produced Stone since 1851 but today there are just 10 people in the world who make them they love what they do they're very passionate about it because they know that this particular block of granite they're working on that becomes a curling Stone could be the stone that's thrown for the gold medal at the Olympic Games it could be the stone that decides a world championship every Stone comes from one tiny island off the coast of Scotland for over a century Masons have ventured to Elsa Craig Island to harvest Granite for curling stones until its lease expires in 2050 case is the only company in the world with permission to harvest Granite here and for curling Elsa Craig's Granite structure is the gold standard but getting Granite to the mainland is far from simple with the harvesting processes it goes out as a logistical work of art I think there is nothing on the island as you say it's uninhabited there's no water supply other than some running water from from the the rivers and streams on the island there's no electricity Supply so we have to take absolutely everything with us case uses two types of granite from the island to produce curling stones first there's blue hone Granite which makes up the layer that runs along the ice then common green is used for the part that strikes other Stones this is Elsa Craig Coleman green granite so this makes up the full body of the stone you can also see this slightly lighter grayer color Granite inside and this is ilsecreg blue horn the rock is densely constructed thanks to how well its fine-grained crystals and the feldspar interlock this makes the stone resilient while other rocks might crack or splinter Elsa Craig granite stays intact amid cold temperatures and collisions most other rocks will have imperfections like veins that cut through the stone and while it's not free from weaknesses there aren't many throughout Elsa Craig Rock nesses make it more likely a stone will fracture upon hard impact something that would upend a curling game before case can begin making Stones each rock is cut into slabs but not all the granite the company harvests is suitable for a curling Stone sometimes areas of a slab have small imperfections that could cause it to erode or impact the game it's generally because there's a flaw or a fissure or a crack or something in it this is where the eye of the Masons comes in throughout the process this the granite and confirm it satisfies Olympic requirements the slob thickness we are looking for 145 millimeters you know 14.5 centimeters thick then that gives us the ideal depth for coring which then allows us to shape the stone while retaining the weight from the slab case marks only the best parts worth coring which are the areas it'll eventually shape into stones we'll go into a lot of time and effort to bring this resource from an island over to the mainland that we want to make the most effective use out of it we can get Boulders Off the island that can be in the region of five to seven tons they will yield way more than five or six cheeses per ton but if we average it out across a whole Harvest then if we get around six cheeses per time we're doing pretty well they call them cheeses for no clear reason other than I suppose in one respect they maybe look like a baby Bell cheese or something like that I've never really thought about it too deeply to be honest foreign depends on machines it needs experienced craftspeople to see each stage through The Cutting process or the coding process is a skill or an art in itself so while it's semi-automatic in terms of feeding itself in the speed is manually controlled and that's where the skill of the operator comes in after each cheese has been cored Masons chip away the excess Stone around the corners and prepare it for shaping the international Olympic Committee determines the size shape and weight of each stone for the games before the stone reaches its final shape Masons fit the blue home Granite into the common green body the stone itself weighs 40 pounds plus another pound for the handle after it reaches its final form it's time to polish it each Stone needs to be uniform in weight size and running surface the running surface on the bottom determines how much the stone curls to curl there needs to be friction between the ice and the stone that roughness is achieved by the experienced hand of a mason K is stores Granite over time returning to Elsa Craig about once a decade other producers Harvest Granite from the Trevor Quarry in Wales case once sourced Granite from Trevor too but Mark says quality control issues turned it away and it didn't hurt that the world curling Federation preferred Elsa Craig Stones they found that the cavestones with the insert the blue horn inset were the best because they also discovered that having a curling Stone that's not got a blue horn insect will pit it will has a certain porosity it will pull in water and water and ice will then freeze when water freezes expands leads to the the detriment of the damage to the stone while curling has recently skyrocketed in popularity demand for Stones has fluctuated since the game began curling is believed to have started in Scotland but today Canada is the most successful team in the history of curling curling here goes back to the late 19th century a curling Stone gets some last minute polishing when many of the Scots who immigrated to Canada brought the game with them by the 50s Canada was building hundreds of curling rings now we're tired Jimmy Wiley worked at K's during this period and saw the company Thrive before demand dropped again when all of these new ice rinks in Canada were satisfied the demand fell off dramatically so we went from 25 30 people down to about between five and ten people a major component that's kept the game and case alive today the Winter Olympics when Gurley was put back into the Olympics that was it was great it was a really it was a momentous moment in terms of curling Stone manufacture because it suddenly opened curling up to the world during 1990 there was only 25 countries in the world that were in in any way involved in curling and now 20 years later that's almost tripled as of 2022 67 countries compete in curling naturally that's created an uptake in demand for Stones which has carried over into their price we have increased our sales which is is really really good news and having said that we've also increased our cost because we'll have to go back for granted more frequently and to satisfy the demands in 2000 case harvested about 15 00 metric tons of common green and about 300 metric tons of blue home 13 years later it took 2500 metric tons of common green and 500 metric tons of blue home fortunately for the growing interest in the sport and for the only supplier of olympic curling Stones Supply isn't a problem the last harvest in November 2020 we took less than 0.01 of the island so we're we're
scratching the surface the whole island is made of granite we're not making that big a dent in it with a single tap tap Mike Dodson to turn a full y oboe into one of the world's most expensive instruments and then hopefully at the end we should achiever bottle tight joint when he's done with it this elbow will cost almost fourteen thousand dollars that's more than four times the price of some professional flutes we'd like to say You're only as good as your last elbow basically how good was your last over very good but before it reaches Mike's desk artisans and Whittle rare African Blackwood into an oboe base just millimeters thick this nearly endangered wood is just one of the factors limiting the production of quality elbows so what makes an oboe so difficult to make and is that why they're so expensive for high and over producers like coworth of London it takes five years to make an oboe from start to finish obos are one of the most complicated instruments to make and because they're prone to cracking high-end elbows have to be made of the best materials like this African Blackwood howith bar is only two square meters of African Blackwood a year which costs it twenty five thousand dollars and obtaining African Blackwood locally called them Pingo isn't easy it's harvested from Only The myumba Woodlands of Africa in countries like Tanzania and it's a threatened species and at risk of endangerment so loggers are only allowed to chop down trees that are over 60 years old they must submit a request acquire a permit and ultimately pay a fee of 151 dollars per cubic meter they export the scarcity of African Blackwood limbs large over the industry African Blackwood isn't typically formed it grows in the wild so to combat over harvesting conservationists in Kill work Tanzania have gone to Great Lengths to ensure these in-demand trees and manage sustainably Nissan foreign the most valuable part of a log is the heart which becomes the basis of the elbow the oboe is a complex woodwind that supports extensive mechanical key work it's subject to moisture generated by human breath making it prone to cracking when made with weaker Woods but the same properties that allow African Blackwood to support the complexity of an oboe are also what make it so difficult to work with the first step in construction is to shape the wood which requires metal working equipment Artisans start by hollowing out what will become the interior of the instrument then they sculpt the exterior and refine the shape this process is carried out carefully over a number of years and with remarkable precision the fact that we can turn a piece of wood to within two or three hundredths of a millimeter consistently is is just remarkable really I mean most engineering companies are using those tolerances to work with metal between each round of shaping the wood is stored for at least a year to mature aging the wood ensures it stays strong and doesn't crack during the day we're blowing warm dry air over the stock and then at night the compressors are turned off and so we're going from hot cold dry to damp so we're really treating that Woodstock as badly as we can because we want it to move and change and if it's going to crack let's get it out of the system early so we don't waste any time on it but the wood isn't the only thing that contributes to the overall price once the basic shape of the elbow is complete Artisans begin to create the oboe's complex mechanical key work after drilling the initial tone holes workers solder and foil the keys to shape by hand the keys are dipped in silver for protection and are then fitted to the oboe body [Music] a bit more movement this step alone can take up to 60 hours to complete according to how Earth the complexity of the key work determines the price the more keys in the elbow the more expensive it will be a clarinet has 17 Keys typically whereas an oboe has enormous double that as a student model and a professional oboe can have as many as 45 keys Haworth has invested close to one million pounds in Machinery to ensure each component is of the highest quality but Howarth says its biggest expense is the Crafts People the labor required to assemble the elbow accounts for 60 to 80 percent of how Earth's costs and it takes years of training to Perfect The Art of oboe making every Artisan hour boasts at least 20 years of experience in The Craft among these Artisans is Mike Dodson one of Howard's finishers he is tasked with fine-tuning the last few elements of the elbow one of his most important tasks is fitting cork pads under the keys Mike Sands down different sized corks until they're paper thin this step is essential because a single air leak will render the elbow useless my engineering needs to be very good on these because I'll be fitting them to the thinness of a very thin cigarette paper and then hopefully at the end we should achiever bottle tight join while making an oboe some of the keys and metal parts will inevitably get slightly bent and it's Mike's job to fix them if an oboe has a single imperfection it can't be sold for top dollar fixing bent Keys is a test of patience sometimes straightening out one key can bend another piece elsewhere I found the point where I perceived the bend to be so hopefully I'll just be able to Mike often takes over 3 days to fine-tune an oboe but all this patient work pays off the oboe is now ready to be sold but with a five year long production time and increasingly rare raw materials the number of oboes however can make and sell is limited its Workshop produces only 800 oboes a year and of those only 200 are professional grade limited production results in higher prices and makes quality instruments hard to come by I can imagine there are less than twenty thousand oboes being sold each year I know that Yamaha made twenty thousand flutes a month and that's just Yamaha so the difference in scale is is absolutely enormous oboz are also regarded as one of the most difficult instruments to master with such a steep learning curve there aren't enough oboe players to justify production on a scale that would keep prices low but professional oboe players like Emily palethorpe rely on the continued production of this centuries-old instrument I think it's my fifth hour and I haven't once had one crack for Emily the time and Care Howard puts into each oboe sings through in the end product so she doesn't mind the high cost there is no question in my mind that they're worth every penny to play on something that's so beautifully made that's such excellent quality you know means the world's to my professional career and allows me to just then relax and be the artist I want to be this is the most important moment in the process of creating a south sea pole the moment when Harry inserts the nucleus into an oyster around which a power will form and if he's imprecise the resulting power may come out misshapen the goal is this a near-perfect round pole with a large 20 millimeter diameter that's more than twice the size of the more common okoya Pearl and this single Pearl can sell for fifteen hundred dollars compared to 75 for a high grade equipo a necklace of near perfect South Sea pearls can cost over two hundred thousand dollars so why is making these piles so much more difficult and what makes them so expensive South Sea refers to the southern portion of the Pacific Ocean in these Waters just off the coast of lombok Indonesia Pearl Farms like aftol Pearl a growing cultured pearls these are pearls that require a human to put something inside an oyster instead of harvesting naturally occurring piles and south sea poles are the most expensive variety of cultured pearls that's in part because of how long it takes to make a south sea Pearl while some fresh water oysters can churn out dozens of smaller pearls within three months it takes about five years to cultivate a single South Sea Pearl the oyster it comes from the pink powder Maxima can only make one at a time and only a fourth of these oysters survive cultivation that's why the Pearl Farmers have to go to Great Lengths to keep the oysters alive it starts in this highly controlled laboratory where lab technicians must create the perfect conditions for oyster larvae to grow into healthy Pearl producing adults they have to maintain a room temperature of exactly 20 degrees Celsius and feeds the larvae the phytoplankton they need to grow to do this they combine salt water from the south sea and sodium hydroxide and store it for five days until there's enough plankton lab techs feed the Plankton to Nets of baby oysters and monitor their growth for about 45 days that's around the time they reach at least one millimeter in diameter and are old enough to be transferred to Sea the oysters are transferred to save on the costs of rearing figure oysters which can get expensive [Music] in the south sea the oysters get the warm Waters and food they need to mature this is also where most of them will die without producing a single Pearl again [Music] that's why Pearl Farmers have to check on the oysters monthly to ensure they're still growing eating and healthy they pull the Nets of oysters up from the sea and clean the shells this helps prevent Predators from feeding off the oysters and eventually killing them [Music] after up to two years of nursing when the oysters are large enough implantation can begin for cultured pearls implantation is the most important step when a nucleus is implanted the oyster sees it as an irritant and reacts by building protective layers of nature around it this becomes the power [Music] is demonstrating where the nucleus is implanted on an opened oyster foreign [Music] and injects the nucleus in the middle he then adds sibo under the nucleus saipo is a mantle tissue cut from another oyster that surrounds the implanted nucleus it's essential to the Pearl quality and without it the oyster won't produce any Pearls at all Harry is the only person after all trusts with this step that's because the nuclei don't come cheap Mahmoud buys the nuclei from Japan and their cost in addition to import taxes takes 20 percent of his profits and he says getting import permits for these nuclei is difficult preventing him from buying enough to expand his business after the nucleus is implanted special attention is paid to how the naked grows around it to avoid a misshapen Pearl they're working towards a large almost perfectly round Pearl workers invert the oysters and put them in their protective Nets to bring back to Sea the South Sea pearls unique soft satiny luster and thick maker are a result of the warm Waters it grows in and a thick maker means a large Pole Harry says they must flip them regularly so the naked grows evenly is after 40 days workers remove the oysters from the sea and clean them weekly Harry checks the implanted oysters monthly to see how the Pearl is developing this is done for up to two years before the first pile can be harvested [Music] that is Harry implants the same oyster two more times each time the Pearl after harvest is bigger by the third harvest the Pearl can reach over 20 millimeters in diameter and over 8 grams in weight but as much as Pearl Farmers like Mahmoud invest in the intense care needed to raise the oysters the outcome is never guaranteed Mahmoud says only 20 of the oysters that survive make the most valuable kind of pearl almost perfectly round lustrous and large Mahmoud grades the pearls based on size luster shape and color the larger round of shinier minimally blemished pearls get the highest grade that can be Triple A or quadruple a depending on the producer Mahmoud then sells them to Jewelers like Rihanna Melia who Fashions the pearls into necklaces earrings and rings Rihanna seeks out the highest grade she can find but it isn't easy it is lower grades are more available but they're rougher asymmetrical and lack shine and in the jewelry World those are the least desirable but even the highest grade pearls are not perfectly round that's because even though they're farmed they're still natural pearls so finding a near-perfect pearl let alone enough to make a string necklace is extremely rare it took nine years for Rihanna to find enough AAA grade pearls to make this necklace she is finally able to sell it this year for 36 000 to a local buyer that makes sourcing these expensive pearls worth it for Rihanna who relies on Farmers to continue to produce high quality pearls but Mahmoud says Pearl Farmers need more support from the government specifically around making nuclei readily available with this kind of support Pearl Farmers say they could increase their production and make Indonesian South Sea pearls more readily available internationally [Music] this is Kenji he's using a centuries-old technique to dye silk for a kimono it's physically demanding but that's not the only challenge he has to match this color exactly making adjustments by eye and it's essential that the fabric inside this Barrel remains White Kenji won't know if he's successful until he opens the lid this is one of over 20 steps required to make a kimono you can buy a cotton kimono for three hundred dollars but a handmade chiso kimono can cost over ten thousand dollars and the company's most expensive kimonos cost 10 times that we followed 10 Artisans step by step to find out what makes these kimonos so expensive versions of the kimono have been worn for centuries today the kimono is viewed as formal wear worn on special occasions like weddings or coming of age ceremonies part of the reason why chiso's kimonos is so expensive is that they're made entirely out of silk it takes around 12 meters of silk to make a single kimono chiso collaborates with a network of Highly skilled artisans each step is done by hand and can take weeks to complete this intricate design starts out as a simple sketch is [Music] foreign Hiroshi transfers it to the silk this step is called Drafting and it can take up to two weeks Hiroshi ensures that the design looks good when the kimono is worn not just on a flat surface these lines are critical to the design process but you won't see them on the finished kimono this paint is washed away after acting as a guide for other artisans Hiroshi has 37 years of experience but he's still very critical of his work there is are known for their complex patterns painted using a technique called using Artisans trace the design with a glue-like paste that separates colors when the silk is painted it also gives a characteristic white outline to parts of the design s it's patient's work but I says it's all worth it when she sees the finished kimono foreign foreign [Music] pieces of the kimono are sent off to different Artisans across Kyoto each Artisan must perfect their section while keeping in mind the final design at yoko's Workshop she dies the base of the kimono with these large brushes [Music] Yoko and her assistant blend the edges working around the design but this isn't the only way kimonos had died some are dyed using a technique called shibori creates bold colors and distinct shapes but it's very tedious work before Kenji starts working Artisans sew up the silk and bind this Barrel yeah [Music] the same hiromi is sewing forms the edge of the design then Matsuyama wraps the silk along this wooden tub and tacks it into place before he attaches the lid this step is key to preventing dye from bleeding inside [Music] now it's time for Kenji to dip the silk [Music] he works quickly but constantly monitors the silk to ensure it's dyed correctly if the barrel remains in the die for too long the colors will start to bleed Kenji cuts a strip of fabric Compares it to the Swatch and adjusts its die accordingly [Applause] after the dyeing is complete Kenji lifts the lid and examines his work all of these steps combine to tell a story through the design of the kimono themes of nature or the seasons are common while some designs reference poems or plays one of the most skilled and delicate steps is the use end dying tomoko has 25 years of experience making kimonos [Music] on it is using dying has been practiced for centuries and has become an iconic feature of high-end kimonos the technique is more expensive and time consuming than screen printing but chiso's customers are willing to pay a premium for the result long-sleeved kimonos with complicated designs can take two to three weeks to paint on them all right [Music] [Music] so come on [Music] the final step in the process is for Artisans to apply gold leaf and embroider complex designs embroidery alone can take weeks to months depending on the design the more embroidery a kimono has the more expensive it will be when all the pieces fall into place the finished kimono is a work of art a testament to the skill of each Artisan who has worked on the silk um foreign takes 6 to 12 months to make and those hundreds of hours of Labor are reflected in the price most range from seven thousand dollars to fourteen thousand dollars some of chiso's elaborate designs cost over one hundred thousand dollars and the accessories traditionally worn with a kimono increase the price even more [Music] um foreign customers looking for less expensive kimonos might choose to rent or to buy refurbished ones which usually cost a few hundred dollars but still provide good quality buying a cotton kimono or one without complex using is much more affordable these kimonos are often worn for Less formal events but current demand for expensive complex kimonos is low kimono sales declined dramatically in the 90s during Japan's economic crash and the industry has continued to shrink today it's around 14 of the size it was in 1975. she so sells around 4 000 kimonos each year but the relevance of the Garment in Modern Life is limited um further complicating matters The Artisans it relies upon to maintain production a getting older foreign [Music] [Music] foreign the future of this Century's old clothing tradition depends on the skill of The Artisans who practice it [Music] it's a rule is carving out the final details of this mere Sean pipe and when he's done a pipe like this can cost over three hundred dollars it's made of merchant a mineral rock often found in underground mines in turkey that reach 137 meters deep the most intricate pipes can take up to two months to complete those can go for over seven thousand dollars but masham is fragile which means after all can lose all his work at the last minute foreign [Music] pipes apart from the rest and why are they so expensive um Turkish people have been making on pipes since the early 1600s mershon also known as sapulote is a clay-like mineral it's lightweight porous and heat resistant making it ideal for pipe smoking its porousness allows it to absorb tart and nicotine reducing how much is inhaled which some pipe smokers prefer the ashram is found all over the world but the most commercially important mioshon is near escashier in Turkey it's locally referred to as white gold for its economic and cultural value to make me a Sean pipes after Zan's first seek the highest quality mere Sean known as the right grade the higher the grade the less Pro and the meat charm is to cracking so they're willing to pay more than double the price of the lower Sandy grade the right grade of meertram is rare and difficult to obtain mirchom is located in underground quarries and here in Gosley Bell miners have found high grade mershon Emery now carves pipes but he got his start in the industry as a minor he is taking us 44 meters below ground where he'll chisel at surrounding rocks to find suitable Meer charm foreign [Music] miners make educated guesses as to where to start typically near deposits they've already mined the work is physically demanding and even the strongest laborers can take an hour to remove just one stone but that's only if they find it um the goal is to find larger mere charm rocks that are at least the size of a fist oh very nice [Music] this Stone can sell for at least 38 dollars Emery says larger mesham has high heat resistance up to 4 000 degrees Fahrenheit the bigger the mesh arm Stone the more elaborate and eventually the more expensive the pipe will be but Artisans like Emery can only make as many pipes as the mesharm supply allows is though Emery can spend up to 2 200 at a time on Raw mershon still not enough to meet the demand for the finished pipes foreign [Music] Carvers in all of turkey he's been making near Sean pipes for over 50 years aside from the cost of the mere charm itself the final price of these pipes comes down to skill and craftsmanship to start making the pipe ethereal removes any dirt from the stone and cuts around fault lines that may later cause it to break this sometimes means lopping off three quarters of the Mirch arm Stone he then carves out the rough shape of the pipe he air dries the pipe to strengthen it then drills in guide holes for the mouth and body after all refines the pipe again with four different sandpapers to remove any floors and to ensure a smooth surface [Music] simpler pipes like these can sell for over one hundred dollars but complex pipes like this ottoman Sultan head require further handiwork which can triple the price at the rule doesn't plan the design for his pieces he works from memory and feel so each of his pipes is a unique work of art [Music] after hand carving every minor detail after all starts shaping the stem [Music] the stem's materials can vary Ebonite is used for more expensive pipes while acrylic is used for more affordable ones the stem is polished then fits into the mouth of the pipe next Adderall dips the pipes in beeswax which adds a Sheen and further hardens the mershon prolonging its durability but even when worked by skilled hands like Earth rules the meershamp is liable to break unexpectedly at any point in the process Ary the risk of this happening especially with complex pipes that can take up to two months to complete I mean sometimes at the Rule's work is all for nothing but when he can finish a pipe it can be sold for top dollar s mershon pipes at this price point are typically large intricate Collectibles that are also functional is today mershon pipes are in high demand by collectors and smokers alike but that hasn't always been the case around the turn of the Millennium a rise in anti-smoking laws and the availability of alternative materials created the market for mere Sean popes things took a turn in 2011 with the rise of tourism in Turkey after the Arab Spring as tourism continued to increase emo saw mioshan pipes regain popularity and the global pipe industry is set to grow even further at a rate of 4.5 percent by 2031. yet as demand for measure on pipes increases after all fears the profession can't keep up YouTube it is foreign it can take 30 kilos of raw wool to make a single Moroccan rug women tie each knot by hand one row at a time instead of using guides they work from their imagination when sold online authentic rugs can cost over two thousand dollars but the women who make them often receive the least profit the most Fatma has sold a rug for six hundred dollars most of the profits are taken by middlemen who buy the works from Artisans and sell them for several times more in big markets authentic rugs also compete with knockoffs made outside of Morocco um [Music] today dozens of cooperatives are working together to fight for a fair wage we went to Morocco to find out why these Artisans struggle to earn a profit while the rugs are so expensive deep in the Atlas Mountains there are thousands of Artisans weaving rugs like this they've been woven throughout Morocco for Centuries by Amazon tribes [Music] Fatma has been making rugs her whole life she says weaving is much more than just a job foreign besides weaving the women here are responsible for child care and household chores Artisans use wool from local sheep but there's a lot of work to do before this wall is ready to weave raw wall starts out like this Artisans carry the wall to a nearby River to wash it removing any dirt or debris once the wool dries Artisans spin it into yarn these large Combs untangle the fibers in a process called carding Artisans spin the wall two times combining threads for a sturdier result it's patient work but Fatma says working together makes it more enjoyable [Music] um [Music] let me detriminated [Music] these women are part of the Caspar does not Cooperative one of around 50 in the region their aim is to help each other weave and to sell Works directly cutting out the middlemen [Music] having several Artisans is especially useful when weaving a large rug they measure out the length and Hammer two stakes into the ground Artisans walk the yarn back and forth dozens of times to start the rug the rest of the rug is woven into this base from here Artisans unravel the yarn and attach it to the loom [Music] this marks the start of weeks of work Moroccan rugs are thick soft and durable thanks to the wool from local mountain sheep The Buck has around 300 sheep and goats he shares them in March and sells most of the wool to Weavers um foreign per kilogram I mean uh foreign [Music] back at the Cooperative Artisans are busy dying the wool they use natural ingredients that create rich and varied colors [Music] Artisans mix Alum stones in boiling water to help the yarn absorb the dye fudma uses ingredients like Rosemary and henna she uses pomegranate peel to make yellow keeping track of what the raw materials cost and factoring that into the price of a rug is another challenge Artisans who use natural dyes instead of chemical dyes need more raw materials and some of these ingredients like matter a root used for red dye are expensive when bought in large amounts this dyed yarn forms Fatima's palette of colors that she weaves into the base to form a design when all the materials are ready Fatima starts to weave each knot is tied individually one row at a time after Decades of practice fodmar is able to quickly weave Dodge yawn through the base [Music] is each region of Morocco has its own designs and motifs like beneal Ryan from the middle Atlas nachtworks from Northwestern Africa which used several weaving techniques to create complex patterns on large rugs Artisans work side by side the more complicated the pattern the harder it is to weave large rugs can take months to make and the bigger the rug the more expensive it becomes Memphis and for Hope because [Music] unfortunately weaving a beautiful rug doesn't guarantee a profit most Weavers live and work in rural areas with limited access to Transportation they don't have access to the markets and are exploited by middlemen these obstacles make it challenging for women to sell their rugs directly internet [Music] online [Music] [Music] sure it's a black man she she was silently and Beyond field um several direct trade companies partnered with Weavers and pay a higher price for their rugs after shipping costs and import taxes the final price of a large rug can easily exceed one thousand dollars but the pay Artisans received from these companies varies it can range from only 20 percent to over 60 percent of the price you see online within Morocco rugs are sold in markets like this that can be found across the country has sold rugs for 30 years he says his customers are around 60 locals and 40 tourists um foreign foreign but the further a rug gets from the Weaver the more expensive it becomes and while joining a Cooperative can help increase pay it doesn't guarantee it is [Music] actor [Music] [Music] authentic wall rocks also compete with rugs made outside of Morocco the timothate traditional designs some of these are made of wool but many use cotton or polyester [Music] like many traditional crafts passing on rug making has been a challenge [Music] foreign [Music] but these Artisans say it's important to preserve this tradition s [Music] is [Music] foreign if these Artisans make a single mistake laying a flat map over this giant custom sphere they'll have to start the entire process over the slightest twitch of the finger can cause a rip a costly hiccup of Bella being co-globe makers were the world's most expensive Globes are made a 22 centimeter mass-produced glow can cost about 25 while a bellaby globe of the same size can sell for over three thousand eight hundred dollars and prices can reach six figures for bellerby's largest Globes that's partly because Artisans customize these Globes entirely in-house including hand painting the globe and crafting the base it sits on so what makes these Globes worth waiting up to two years to get and why are they so expensive if someone asks um why it's so expensive I invite them along to the studio and show them around and show them the processes we go through at every single level when they leave they fully understand why it takes so long Peter bellabee founded London's bellabee and Co Globe makers in 2008 and today it's one of the only studios in the world making Globes by hand the smallest Globe it sells the 12 centimeter diameter pocket Globe can set you back almost two thousand dollars its largest The Churchill has a 127 centimeter diameter and costs over 94 000.
since 2008 bellaby has sold around 5 000 Globes ranging from maps of the Earth to the constellations and even the Moon three of those were featured in Morton scorsese's Hugo including a 40 centimeter Celestial Globe production is limited because making a globe from scratch entirely by hand is no easy feat at bellaby it requires cartographers glow makers painters and Woodworkers [Music] and the price of these Globes is largely a reflection of how many the team can make without compromising quality the attention to detail starts with the Spheres most sizes are made from fiberglass for its strength and durability but what's most important is that it's a perfect sphere any deformation can result in uneven weight distribution which affects how the globe spins if that happens bellaby has to fix it by attaching a counterweight then there are the maps themselves the cartography Department focuses on accuracy and fulfilling the customer's imagination like adding the Silk Road or the spice roots they highlight the places where they came from and where they might have immigrated to and where they got married and where their ancestors are from but Bellamy doesn't just customize its maps for Creative or sentimental reasons the details also affect where the company can sell its globes for instance in India I can actually go to prison for six months if I ship a globe to India that doesn't have the correct border between India and Pakistan and if any territories shift or new borders are drawn bellabee's newer iterations will reflect that when the cartographers are done with all the necessary specifications they print the map onto oblong strips called gauze now it can be handed off to Globe makers like Eddie so with globe making it's all about applying 12 or 24 gauze onto the sphere so it all starts with cutting those gauze very very precisely with a scalpel makers have to cut the gauze to within 0.1 of a millimeter so there are no gaps or overlaps when they're applied very easily cover an entire country based on the amount that you've extra overlapped because you've cut a little bit too much excess Eddie traces the last attitude and longitude lines onto the sphere as guides then he wets the gauze and glues them onto the surface gently flattening them by hand even the slightest tension or miscalculated movement can cause a rip or wrinkle when glow makers do make mistakes they have to scrape off and replace the offending Gore if they're lucky they'll only need to remove one but sometimes the team has to redo the entire Globe including the cartography a lot of the times it does result in the globe being restarted and that can even be at the final stage just before it's been packaged while that doesn't happen often when it does you know everybody's upset but um it's just the only way that we can maintain a really high quality standard correctly setting a single Gore onto the massive Churchill Globe can take an hour aside from size factors like the temperature in the room or the consistency of the glue affect application time the globe maker has to account for all of this including their own breathing I found that cold showers actually help a lot with controlling breath and that's really improved my making actually it takes up to 18 months for trainees to learn the most basic aspects of globe making and much longer to master it Eddie has been on the job for six years when the goals are finally set the globe is ready for the painters like Isis she can bring the Earth the moon or the constellations to life she Shades in the coastlines mountain ranges political borders and any illustrations or customizations the difficulty on this stage is actually making all these scores same color and consistent it's almost like if you're making a painting but you have 12 different canvases and there has to be a continuation some Globes highlight different ocean depths so Isis has to paint in ocean trenches in their exact location [Music] she works deliberately being careful not to paint neighboring countries the same Shades or let any watercolor run from one Gore to the next that's another mistake that risks having to start the whole globe all over again [Music] at the wood shop Artisans are working on a base for the nearly complete Churchill globe it's all done in-house by a dedicated team of four they engrave chisel and stain the wood based on customer specifications at every stage of the globe making process Peter encourages his team to take as long as they need it's very important that we spend the time that is required to make every single Globe as best as it can be it's finished when it's finished and when it's ready the cost of Labor accounts for most of the price since it usually takes four to six months to complete a globe and ship it out but bellaby also pays attention to the materials it uses the inks it uses for printing can last between 80 and 200 years in gallery conditions the origin story of bellabee globes is just as peculiar as the Globes themselves in 2008 Peter decided to make a globe for his father's 80th birthday he went through hundreds of globes and thousands of pounds before he was happy with the result in about 2011-12 I sold my house to fund because this is a bottomless pit of money I used to go down to the municipal dump every two weeks with a with an estate car full of trial Globes and once he got it right he wanted to keep making them but Peter didn't expect the warm reception these Boutique Globes received the company was recently commissioned to work on a globe for the Louvre and its largest Globe has a wait list of two years Peter attributes this demand to the rise of consumer interest in handmade products the global handicraft Market size reached 680 billion dollars in 2021 and is expected to exceed a trillion dollars by 2027. bellaby and CO2 has seen this consistent rise in demand for its handmade Globes the company says it turns multi-million dollar revenues year after year and it expects us to continue even at high price points for its Niche products what I love so much about what we do is that it is so deeply personal you can tell someone's whole life story in a making fungi Yugi starts here with molten bronze and after hundreds of hammer strikes it's transformed into some of Korea's most expensive tableware Artisans work with fires over 1300 degrees Celsius carefully reheating the metal between rounds of hammering too hot and it will melt too cold and it'll shatter no molds are used in this process only skill and an experienced eye when it's done this rice pot can sell locally for over 350 dollars so what makes bonjour Yugi so labor intensive and is that why it's so expensive refers to Korean Hand Forged bronzeware it can take many forms from pots to gongs while bang jayuki production has largely been modernized Li bung Joo is one of few Yugi Masters who continue to produce certain pieces using traditional methods who is 96 has been making traditional Korean bronzeware for over 70 years foreign the South Korean government declared him a living National Treasure a single spoon fully handcrafted by bonju's team costs 70 dollars a set of seven bowls costs over eighteen hundred dollars bong 2 starts off by measuring the ingredients the perfect bronze alloy for banjo Yugi is in the details an exact ratio of 78 copper and 22 tin the metals are heated to over 1300 degrees Celsius in order to melt and boil although the alloy will melt at a lower temperature bongju says that heating it to 1300 degrees ensures it can stretch without cracking once cooled they then bore the molten alloy into a heated stone with a round cutout once the alloy cools it becomes a bronze plate with a rounded bottom referred to as a bad dog bonju's team heats the cold bedrocks again so they can Hammer them without risking breakage one person cannot Hammer the bronze alone as they won't be able to move fast enough before the metal cools working quickly in a circle Artisans strike the red hot bedok stretching it until it's the desired size each careful blow of the hammer plays an essential role in shaping valuable Yugi this also means one misplaced hit could cause irreparable damage and it's not just the hammering that can ruin the Baddock every step of the traditional process is manual down to Fanning the fire Thanos push and pull the Bellows creating wind to keep the fire going they depend on experience to determine how hot the fire is and if they allow it to get too hot the prawns melts this particular Banner is still in training [Music] is any defects and the bronze can't be sold it has to be taken out of circulation re-melted and processed all over again after another round of hammering bongju cuts the bedok into a circle to the desired diameter the paduk is then heated back up to working temperature and The Artisans begin another cycle of carefully hammering and shaping [Music] Artisans stack the products on top of each other to shape multiple pieces simultaneously this is efficient but it's also safer than working them one at a time stacked bronze plates don't cool this quickly so they're less likely to break and broken metal doesn't just ruin the product it can also be dangerous foreign [Music] Ty went back to work [Music] once the pot takes form bongchu can separate the layers revealing multiple roughly shaped pots foreign then refines their shapes individually [Music] the pot is repeatedly shaped trimmed and shaped again all free hand under the skilled and watchful eye of Master bongju bronzeworking arrived in Korea around 1300 BC the art form peaked starting in the 9th Century A.D when it began to be exported to neighboring countries like China and Japan the demand for Banja Yugi fluctuated over time but in the 1980s producers saw interest in the bronzeware pickup s [Music] that's bongju's son he's been making Banja Yugi for 40 years he says Banja is still popular in Korea part of its appeal is its antibacterial and antiseptic properties particularly against bacteria like E coli but this demand created the necessity to modernize to supply more banjay Yugi while cutting down production costs foreign [Music] [Music] back at the workshop bongju's team is almost done making a rice pot once the pot is in its near final shape they quench it by dunking it in water this removes some of the oxidized layers and prepares the pots for the last stage shaving off the surface to reveal the soft toned bronze underneath um due to the high demand for quality bungier and the need to sustain his business bongju 2 has mechanized some of the process even then it requires highly skilled labor as many stages are still performed by hand but for bongju it's not about how much bonja Yugi can make or how much he can sell it for eign foreign designed head and customizing the shaft there's still one step that could make the work on these hanma golf clubs all for nothing if they make a mistake during assembly the instant adhesive will immediately dry meaning countless hours of work and thousands of dollars will be wasted on a single Golf Club a full set can retail for more than fifty thousand dollars compared to the estimated 4 400 it would cost to buy a set to match Tiger Woods so all the small custom details enough to enhance a golfer's game and is that why these golf clubs are so expensive at Honda's Factory in saketa Japan there are roughly 200 specialized Crafts People but the most skilled are called may show or Master Craftsmen and there are only 33 with this title to earn it a craftsperson has to train for five years then pass an exam a may show has the ability to create nuanced elements of a golf club that can be customized down to the finest details [Music] foreign [Music] clubs includes materials like platinum and 24 karat gold but before those luxury flourishes are ever added honma sets itself apart in its modeling process all golf clubs are split into three main parts the head the shaft and the grip creating a Master model is the first and most important step in producing a club's head saturu hatanaka is using a more traditional material to create the template for a driver while historically drivers were made of Persimmon wood today they're made with lightweight carbon and titanium but at honma the model the driver is based on is still made from persimmon why so Craftsmen like satoru who has been making driver models for 35 years can sculpt the head of the club by hand foreign [Music] needs a different process Master Craftsman takumi Sato is making the model for a Baris Series 7 iron when complete this iron can cost over one thousand dollars on its own um his model will be used to manufacture the final irons which are crafted from top of the line carbon steel satoru and takumi are able to visualize what the shape of the final Club will look like but they can't see everything for this honman needs to bring in a different kind of experts um CAD or computer-aided design allows Specialists to design the parts of a club that a human cannot see on the outside cat creates a 3D scan of the head of the club then Specialists will determine the thickness of carbon and titanium needed and run simulations to test the club's integrity [Music] is meanwhile in a different part of the Sakura Factory craftspeople create the club's shafts and while other Golf Club manufacturers often Outsource the shaft hornman makes every one of theirs in-house the shafts of the Barris clubs are designed to recover as quickly as possible to their original shape after swinging the shaft begins with a strong material called high modulus carb and fiber this is the highest grade of carbon fiber often used to make professional racing bicycles this is cut and wrapped around a metal rod called a mandrel into um [Music] foreign even at this stage of the process the handmade elements of design are highly customizable [Music] foreign human eye is required for every Last Detail including the paint foreign [Music] people to have total control over the outcome of the shaft appearance foreign foreign this method isn't all about looks either once every last detail of the club is perfected there is one more step that must be done just right if the assembly goes wrong the work of the previous Master Craftsman could be for nothing [Music] is when a shaft is complete it is balanced and tested to make sure that the spine or stiff inner core is set to a six o'clock angle on every Club but there's still room for customization up until the very end [Music] foreign to make sure the measurement exactly right honma uses a robotic arm to test out their clubs honma golf started in 1958 as a driving range in tsurumi Yokohama at that time most of the golf clubs sold in Japan were foreign clubs in 1982 they started manufacturing their own clubs at the Sacramento Factory in response to domestic demand foreign [Music] made a push for popularity in the North American Market but the company's clientele in Japan will always have the added advantage of customizing clubs at the saketa factory and Japan's pro golfers know it well foreign [Music] [Music] the buttons on this accordion are made from mother of pearl the inner lining of certain seashells for a full-sized accordion with more than 100 buttons the genie spends about 600 euros on this part alone that's four times the cost of acrylic buttons on standard accordions this attention to materials is why Virginia accordions can sell for nearly 40 000 Euros but duper Genie accordions sound any different and why else are they so expensive [Music] the Italian town of cast alfredardo is known as the accordion capital of the world and here Virginia makes some of the world's most expensive accordions like the one played by ludovico borsati who swears by Virginia accordions for their sound really mechanically they are perfect and they are really really really complex while all accordions have three basic components keys are buttons on the right and left sides and bellows in the middle most Virginia accordions have a lot of individual Parts over twelve thousand each one is necessary for creating a richer sound according to the Italian brand and they're made with high quality and expensive materials [Music] material s [Music] is [Music] take those expensive buttons for example according to Adriano a master Craftsman at pagini for over 50 years the company uses mother of pearl because it doesn't get sticky or slippery and it stays cool even after hours of playing while the buttons improve the playing experience the wood used on a pagini is what impacts the sound is to achieve this pujini uses a secret combination of wood and though the company won't reveal the exact blend it includes mahogany Maple and Cedar but these don't come cheap ini says a square meter of Cedar alone costs almost 5 000 Euros and it's not just about the right blend of woods but how the wood is curved if it's not as straight as possible and the grains are interrupted the sound it produces isn't as rich when it comes to the 12 000 different parts pgni is meticulous even down to the glue that holds it all together the company prefers not to use generic vinyl glues because they're water-based and rubbery which would dampen the accordion sound continuous higher quality materials come at a higher cost but this isn't the only reason Virginia accordions are expensive Adriano says it's the cost of Labor that UPS the price from the mother of power buttons to the Reeds and levers the thousands of pieces in each accordion are carefully installed by hand each slat is made by hand shaved by hand and nailed by hand the wood and leather skin are glued by hand mechanism the metal Parts on the left side alone take over 60 hours to install correctly that's at least a week of work for a single element that's why completing an accordion like the beginning Nova takes over a year and only 20 are made each year [Music] but according to pgni tuning is one of the hardest parts tuning a smaller accordion can take only a few hours but larger more complex models take up to 30 hours for the weeds alone it starts with this robot on bikini bought and reprogrammed to test the tongues on these metal reeds the accordion produces sound when air passes through the thin tongues of the reeds and there are over 500 reads in a free basic audience that's over 1 000 notes that have to be tuned to perfection the reeds are then installed and the notes are retuned by hand by one of four expert tuners like Lorenzo he lifts each tongue to make sure air can move around it freely when it's played he also adjusts both sides of each Reed to ensure they're on key and once the accordion is fully assembled re-tuning can take up to a month that's intensive compared to the couple of hours it takes to be tuna piano another reason these accordions cost so much is because of the Brand's historic reputation as an innovator is [Music] meaning most of its accordions are built to play both based bass net melodies the more common stradella based system plays bass notes with only a few chord options for melodies the Freebase accordion on the other hand can play various Melodies In the right and left hands along with bass notes pagini achieved this by developing a more complex model for a converter in 1961. its converter expanded the
accordion's sound capabilities but didn't make the instrument any heavier [Music] foreign [Music] s the converter along with the cost of installing it accounts for almost a third of an accordion's price other companies have tried replicating its mechanics because in the accordion world the light to an instrument the better it is for musicians and the more notes an accordion can play the more valuable it is that goes a long way for advanced accordionists like ludovico who believe the accordionist is only as good as the instrument they play I chose pugini also for another reason maybe the most important one and because of it's b
2023-01-13 14:45
