The Tappels

Members of the Missouri Community Scholars Network recently visited the home and workshop of Patti and Bernie Tappel to document their traditions with photographs and audio recordings. Later, they took time to quickly draft a blog post about the morning at Osage Bluff. Here's another version of the visit.

Bernie and Patti Tappel are a couple of whole brainers who almost seem to live in a different world. He is a blacksmith, and she is a quilter. That would be quite simplistic if that were all they did. But it’s not. They are also soap makers, canners, collectors, and the most gracious of hosts.

Patti showed us a collection of quilts that carry on their family traditions. She related several family stories as she turned each quilt that she had laid out on a guest bed. Patti also has a collection of vintage sewing machines to die for.

Bernie is a soft-spoken man whose explanations and demonstrations captivated us as an audience. He showed us gigs, pokers, strikers, and other tools that he has made over the years. You might want to know just how long Bernie’s been at his craft. Well, it’s been since the 1970s! He and twelve other interested men got together and founded BAM, the Blacksmith Association of Missouri.

We learned that Bernie doesn’t consider himself artist; he does consider himself to be a craftsman. He says, “I make functional pieces." He doesn’t make knives either, “I am a 'heat it and beat it' guy”

Bernie and Patti's art work is individualized, yet they are connected to community in a big way, meeting on monthly at a member's workshop to learn from each other and to share fellowship. For instance, on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, Bernie and several other blacksmiths head to a "hammer in" at Moscow Mills. The Tappels host a similar event at their Osage Bluff Blacksmith Shop each July.