Tradition, Revival & Revitalization: An Indiana Bowl Hewer's Legacy

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]welcome to the next unit of F 360 Indiana folklore and folk life in this unit we talk about bull makers in Indiana as we continue our conversation about tradition revival and revitalization bull making is both old and new traditional and innovative woodturning while an ancient craft is flourished since world war ii especially in the making of vessels basically turned vases and bowls this craft is popular in the wood rich region in the western edge of our state several years ago I conducted a survey of traditional arts in the area and talked with a few Turner's we'll talk about them in a bit more detail when I discuss folklore field work however now I want to turn our attention to a different kind of bowl making that happens in that same region this is an older tradition of making bowls and a newer one it requires the chopping out of excess wood with a tool called the bowl ads which is a kind of curved hatchet like tool where the blade has turned sideways after looking at AB antique Bowl that his wife advanced build a decided to make one himself he said I was curious about how they chopped them out but no one knew anything so I just started chopping when you work on a farm you have to figure out how to do things yourself through trial and error he learned the old forgotten craft which would become his retirement career in his Chop Shop as he called it a small brick storefront in downtown West Lebanon Indiana bill hewed bowls out of cherry tulip poplar and sassafras wood he demonstrated annually at the Indiana State Fair and even took his revived craft to Washington DC where his art was showcased at the Smithsonian he soon became a master bowl Heuer and freely shared his knowledge and techniques with others bill explained i've taught lots of people I don't charge them other craftsmen tell me I'm silly for not showing them the things that took me years to learn but if I can help someone get started and they enjoy it as much as I do maybe I've accomplished something in my life tragically bill was killed in a tractor accident in 1999 while working on his small fountain county farm his legacy however continues to the work of the many bull cures he taught over the years including Glenn summers of Park County and Keith ruble of Vigo County fourth-generation woodworker Glenn summers discovered bull hewing while watching bill days demonstration at the 1982 Indiana State Fair he describes bill became a kind of icon at the State Fair I saw him making bulls I was pretty intrigued by that and I sat and I watched him all day really all day sat by his side and just watched him and talked to him shortly after that I started doing it myself for decades now Glenn has made Bulls and demonstrated the craft he learned from Bill at area museums and events the Bulls Glenn makes however are flat and rustic artfully highlighting the knots and imperfections in the wood split out with afro and chopped out with a hand ads and then smoothed with a spokeshave Glenn reflects on the legacy of build a he notes that there was a kind of Renaissance of bold making that came from Bill because of all the people that saw him and then those people trained other people and we've had workshops training other people to make bowls so now there's quite a few makers in Indiana then there's Keith Rubin Keith is perhaps the leader of that renaissance of bowl making that came from Bill Keith met the elder Bowl maker at the Indiana State Fair in the 1970s while keith was building a log cabin on site from bill and Keith shared passion for wood the two developed a lifelong friendship and often taught each other woodworking techniques today Keith Hughes a variety of bull shapes from traditional rectangles and ovals to special and shaped like animals and even the state of Indiana in many ways keith has perfected the craft that he picked up from his old friend all those years ago Keith's bulls are lighter thinner and the decorative hewing marks of the ads are deeper and cleaner after Bill's death Keith took over demonstrating bull hewing at the State Fair and it he's taught the tray to both of his sons who share his passion for wood finally Indiana's bull hewing reflects the dynamic process of tradition revival and revitalization as the cyclical process that it is the build day sees this bull is intrigued by its form and nature and decides to make one himself he enjoys the process and soon opens a workshop where I can make show and sell his bulls this is the revival stage something that had fallen out of practice is picked up and made new again the process of tradition is the transmission of cultural knowledge but each of Bill's students had to make the craft their own bringing their own background and skills to the tradition Glenn's bowls and Keith's bowls don't look anything alike Keith's son's bowls are similar to his but their distinctive as well once those students the bill took on took on students of their own the tradition starts to flourish the craft has been revitalized at this point Bill's knowledge has passed to the fourth and fifth generation of bowl makers moreover there's emerge a codified and distinctive aesthetic form in the past folklorist often thought of folk traditions as unbroken as if something physical was passed from one generation to the next like a family heirloom but in reality tradition is a construct rooted in the past constructed in the present with hopes and aspirations for the future in fact tradition is a complex and dynamic system of cultural transmission they hinges on access to people artifacts interest skill and time and it's always amazing to me how these creative practices meander in and out of time touching people and then igniting a whole new movement so that's my rant about Indiana bull cueing but the main thing I want you to get from this is not necessarily about bulls but about thinking through this idea of what it means to be traditional the idea that all tradition is revival no revival hopes for revitalization