00:00It takes half a day and a solid block of wood
00:04to carve just one pair of traditional Dutch clogs,
00:07or klompen.
00:09Farmers and factory workers across the Netherlands
00:11have worn these wooden shoes for over 800 years.
00:15Every village has a clog maker,
00:17like a bakery or butcher.
00:21But today, there are only 10 left in the whole country.
00:26In the early 1900s,
00:27machines largely replaced hand carvers,
00:31and then wearing wooden clogs fell out of style.
00:34Today, klompen are mostly sold as souvenirs.
00:38That's left clog makers and painters
00:40juggling multiple businesses,
00:42or inventing an entirely new kind of art to stay afloat.
00:46Maarten Dijkman recreated this Dutch masterpiece
00:49with more than 13,000 mini clogs.
00:53We visited the Netherlands
00:54to see how one of the oldest klompen businesses
00:56is still standing.
01:01A pair of clogs starts with a fresh block of wood
01:03from a willow or poplar tree.
01:06It doesn't weigh much when it dries.
01:09When you have a hard wood, it's also heavy.
01:12So when it's finished,
01:13it should be you have a lot of kilos on your foot.
01:18Maarten makes sure to avoid any knots in the wood,
01:20like this new branch forming.
01:22So it's not good.
01:23Get a hole in the shoe afterwards.
01:27He then chops out the rough shape of a shoe.
01:30Maarten is a fourth-generation clog maker,
01:32and he still uses the axe his father gave him
01:35when he was 12.
01:37The blade's handle is curved to help protect his hand.
01:40When it's straight, it will cut your fingers.
01:45But he still has to be careful.
01:47If he cuts too much, then he has to start all over again.
01:51Has that ever happened to you before?
01:52Yeah, many times.
01:54So you have to practice a lot.
01:56Earlier days, there were schools.
01:59It take you seven years to learn it.
02:02Klompen schools don't exist anymore.
02:05So Maarten learned everything from his father.
02:08The Dijkman family has been carving clogs
02:11in the town of Luttenberg for over 100 years.
02:14Maarten took over the family business in 1997.
02:18Today, he lives behind his workshop,
02:20and he has clogs, well, everywhere.
02:25You need three, four pairs in one year.
02:29Maarten shapes the shoe on a wooden bench
02:31his father built over 50 years ago.
02:34The long blade on top is called a palmus,
02:36and it's also about a half-century old.
02:40He starts by carving the outside of the clog,
02:42peeling off slice after slice.
02:48The two pieces have to be even.
02:51Oh, this one is too high.
02:52This one is a little bit, yeah, this is more pointed.
02:57I have to start again.
02:58Yeah.
03:03Maarten can now begin digging out the inside of the shoe,
03:06starting with two holes.
03:08All these spoon drills he inherited
03:10are more than 80 years old.
03:14This one is called a lepelboer
03:16and works like an ice cream scoop.
03:20He uses this larger lepelboer
03:22to carve out the space between the two starter holes.
03:27You can see it's very intensive.
03:31Slowly, he works his way down to the toe box,
03:34removing rosettes of wood with each turn.
03:39He checks the length every step of the way
03:41with this old-school ruler.
03:44Maarten says shoemakers used to measure clogs
03:47with their thumbs.
03:48But Napoleon invented the centimeters,
03:52and the wooden shoe at that time,
03:54and they have to go over two centimeters.
04:00Today, he's working on a pair for a child.
04:03The size must be 20, 20 centimeters.
04:09Next up, he carves out the toe box and the arch.
04:13This step, he says, takes the longest.
04:16When you have a little stone in your shoes,
04:19you feel that.
04:20So, yeah, you have to make it smooth.
04:24Lastly, he forms the heel.
04:27It's about 3 1⁄2 centimeters tall.
04:31One final measurement,
04:32and he can begin smoothing the outside of the shoe.
04:37So this is the nicest part.
04:39Maarten says 65% of the original wood piece is cut away.
04:45He burns the scraps to dry out his newly carved clogs.
04:52Each master clog maker etches in a design,
04:54sort of like a signature.
05:00This is my grandfather's design.
05:02Yeah, I keep this alive.
05:04It's hard to follow the exact history of wooden clogs
05:06because most rotted away or were used as firewood.
05:10The oldest wooden shoe found in the Netherlands
05:12dates back to the 13th century,
05:15and iterations were found across Europe.
05:17But their popularity in the Netherlands
05:19was the longest-lasting.
05:21Wood was cheap and easy to find,
05:23and it protected workers' feet from sharp objects
05:26or from a stomping cow.
05:27It was also the most popular piece of clothing
05:30in the world.
05:31Clogs were also water-resistant,
05:33important for a shoe used to trudge
05:34across the Netherlands' wet and muddy landscape.
05:38By the 16th century, everyone from farmers and fishermen
05:41to factory workers were wearing them.
05:43But come the early 20th century,
05:45leather became more affordable for the working class,
05:47and machines started replacing local clog makers.
05:51Clogs had a small resurgence during World War II
05:53when leather was rationed.
05:55But soon after, Klompen got a reputation
05:57for being the most popular piece of clothing.
06:01It became known as a shoe of the poor
06:03and fell out of fashion.
06:07And as clog-making dies, so too does this art form.
06:12One of the last clog painters in the country
06:15lives about 70 miles away
06:17in the picturesque fishing town of Hindelopen.
06:20Pieter Boutsma has been painting clogs
06:22for almost four decades.
06:25I wasn't a person to study.
06:29When I was 15, I knew already
06:32I have to work every day with my hands.
06:37He starts with the base coat,
06:38either hand-painted or sprayed on.
06:41It smells a little bit.
06:43Between drying, applying a second coat of paint,
06:46and sanding, it takes Pieter two days
06:48to complete just the base color.
06:50It paints easier.
06:51That's also for the protection.
06:56Then he brushes on local flowers,
06:58like daisies and tulips, and a bird.
07:01And we call them the lucky bird, the garuda.
07:05He adds shadows in gray or brown
07:07and white for highlights.
07:09I'm painting now the typical Hindeloper flowers.
07:13We call that the Hulperschilderwerk,
07:17and it's from Scandinavia.
07:19It's very old.
07:21We paint like it's in the nature,
07:23and in the nature, nothing is perfect.
07:27The flowers and the trees.
07:29So when you do it too big, too small,
07:32that's not a problem.
07:35Pieter learned everything he knows from his father,
07:37who ditched fishing for painting in the 1970s.
07:40My father was not good for fishermen,
07:44but he was always sick on sea.
07:48In 2016, he and his two sisters
07:50took over the family business.
07:52Nowadays, Pieter still makes the designs
07:54his dad taught him.
07:56And I paint every day the same flower, this one,
07:58and again, and again, and again.
08:01And my father said, no, that's not good.
08:04Again.
08:06Wow, again, for two years.
08:08It goes better, easier, like dancing.
08:13Below his workstation,
08:14paint has built up for generations.
08:17And when there is a finish,
08:19if there is too much on the,
08:21then we do it like this.
08:25Because my father paint on this table many, many years.
08:31It takes Pieter about two hours
08:32to paint one pair of clocks
08:34that he then sells for 50 euros.
08:36I cannot live for 25 euro in one hour,
08:41for always, because I have three children,
08:45I have a wife, she needs a lot of money, my wife.
08:49So I have to think other things.
08:53He says customers wouldn't buy his clogs
08:55if they were more expensive.
08:57To boost business, he sells small souvenir klompen
09:00for just a few euros.
09:02These blue ones are actually painted in China
09:04and shipped back to the Netherlands.
09:07He also paints custom orders,
09:09like rocking horses and chairs.
09:12And he runs a gift shop, a skating museum,
09:15and even a restaurant.
09:17So you have to try to do five things at once.
09:24All around him are reminders
09:25of the painters that came before him,
09:27a living museum.
09:29This is one of the painting palettes of my father.
09:34Pieter estimates fewer than 10
09:36professional Hindelopen-style painters
09:38are left in the country.
09:39The quality of the hand-painting style,
09:43I think it's gone.
09:45Just like Pieter, Martin can't make a living
09:47just from his handmade wooden clogs.
09:50He says hardly anyone wears them anymore.
09:53In the countryside where I live, in Luttenberg,
09:57people use it to let the dog out in the evening,
10:01do something in the garden.
10:04So he had to find a way
10:05to keep his family's heritage alive.
10:08In 2007, he started a new kind of mosaic,
10:11replications of famous masterpieces
10:14like Vermeer's Milkmaid from thousands of tiny clogs.
10:18His night watch by Rembrandt took 30,000 shoes
10:22and three years to complete.
10:24My father said as a joke,
10:25maybe we can make the night watch from Rembrandt.
10:28So I said to him, yeah, it's too difficult.
10:31But a week later, I was thinking, yeah, why not?
10:34He started with a pixelated version of the piece
10:37and then hand-painted each mini shoe
10:39one or two different colors
10:41before gluing it into place.
10:44Oil paint, you have to paint two, three times
10:46for the best results.
10:47So I had some help from volunteers
10:50who are living here in the area.
10:53For tourists in the Netherlands,
10:54wooden clogs make great souvenirs,
10:56as much a symbol of the country
10:58as tulips, windmills, and cheese.
11:01Martin charges over $260 for a handmade pair.
11:05At that price point, he sells only five a year.
11:09Most of what's on sale in his shop are machine-made ones
11:12that go for around $30.
11:14You can see this one is made by hand.
11:19And this is polished, sandpapered by machine, yeah.
11:24Which do you prefer?
11:26Of course.
11:27Why? Handmade, huh?
11:29Yeah, you can see the art in it.
11:32The footage you make can make three pairs in one day.
11:34And now we have factories.
11:36Quickest one can make 30 pairs in one hour.
11:40To keep the business going,
11:41he also hosts tour groups with his wife, Marijke,
11:44and holds demonstrations of hand-carving clogs.
11:50With their many hustles,
11:51both Pieter and Martin have managed
11:53to keep their crafts alive.
11:55But most clog artisans like them are close to retirement,
11:58so the future of their art forms is uncertain.
12:02My son is not to take over,
12:04so I think I'm the last wooden showmaker from my family.
12:09That is what it is.
12:12Pieter could be looking at the same fate.
12:14None of his children plan to take on the family business.
12:17I'm now 50 years.
12:1952.
12:21And I think maybe we finished by 65.
12:26And then it's over.
12:29That's the way it goes.
12:33Sport shoe, the Nike Air.
12:35Oh, high heels.
12:37And this one, the Armani.
12:39Yeah, I think this one is a nice one.
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