

As the Potters Wheel Turns
Season 1 Episode 106 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
The team takes a couple to a pottery studio to create a special family keepsake.
Pottery is an important part of the culture in Mat’s hometown in Slovakia, so the BABY MAKES 3 team takes the couple to a local pottery studio to create a special family keepsake. They add some painted fairies to the walls and finish the amazing illuminated ceiling. Finally, a child safety walk-through ensures everything is ready for the new arrival.
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Baby Makes 3 is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television

As the Potters Wheel Turns
Season 1 Episode 106 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Pottery is an important part of the culture in Mat’s hometown in Slovakia, so the BABY MAKES 3 team takes the couple to a local pottery studio to create a special family keepsake. They add some painted fairies to the walls and finish the amazing illuminated ceiling. Finally, a child safety walk-through ensures everything is ready for the new arrival.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.
To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.
There's still so much to do -- a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.
I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?
I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.
I'll see you soon.
Love, mom.
-And by... ♪ -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.
Food News Media -- supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby for life.
-Amber and Mat married in their 30s and put off having a family for school, travel, and work.
After nearly a decade, they were surprised to learn they were expecting a baby girl.
So now we're taking their bungalow for two and making room for three.
We still have much to do.
Today on "Baby Makes 3"... -[ Laughs ] This is amazing.
-That moment when you go from couple to family, everything changes.
When you bring the baby home, you want to create a warm, comfortable, and safe environment for them.
Step one -- the nursery.
-We are Amber and Mat, and we are expecting our first baby in October.
-It's a girl.
At 42 and 40 years old, we've been independent.
You know, we've traveled the world, we've just done what we want to do when we want to do it.
And now with baby, that will change.
Now that I'm pregnant, I think, what would I have missed?
You know, what would we have missed in our lives?
When we get older, we wouldn't have had family.
It's definitely a really good thing.
So, yeah, so now we have to make room for the baby, and so it's, you know, quite a few adjustments to make that happen.
We have thought about the nursery.
-I have thought about it as, like, "Oh, my God."
[ Both laugh ] -We have a lot of work to do.
-Yeah.
-You know, because we live in the woods and we love just, like, a sense of magic and wonder and curiosity, we thought, like, a fairy garden theme.
-Definitely.
-Enchanted garden.
Something a little bit magical, but a little elegant.
In Slovakia in my small town, there's a very long -- hundreds of hundreds of years long tradition of pottery making.
-Just the festivals that they have are different than here.
You know, they have ceramics festivals.
We collect -- we have tons of pottery and, you know, interesting pieces of art that were made over there because there are so many potters and sculptors and... -Friends who do it.
-...you know, ceramics people, and yeah, and everyone has, like, a craft, kind of.
It's interesting designing a nursery, you know, because we have very eclectic tastes.
I don't know that anyone would ever feel prepared to be a parent.
It'll be an adjustment, but I think we'll do great.
-Yeah.
-Be good.
-When life hands you babies, make people.
-[ Laughs ] -Last time on "Baby Makes 3," we began work on our enchanted garden-themed nursery.
We kept storage in mind to create a space that fit our couple's bungalow for two.
Our designer, Lauren, showed us how to measure a bedroom in detail.
We went over the design plan and picked out some other elements like wallpaper that ties our space together.
With some help, Jonathan got started converting the storage under the stairs into a cozy reading nook, and he showed Mat how to plot the stars for the starry night ceiling.
Lastly, Amber and I created an adorable Slovakian maple mobile.
You guys ready to have some fun?
-Totally.
-Yes.
-Yes?
Well, we're here at Janet Resnik's pottery studio, and I know that pottery is a big form of art from your hometown.
-Mm-hmm.
-We're gonna maybe make some interesting things.
-Very cool.
-That sounds good.
-Oh, my gosh.
-Oh, wow.
-She's amazing.
-Yeah, this reminds me of home.
-Totally.
-Pottery.
-I love the nature themes that she's got going on.
-Hi, Melissa.
How are you doing?
-Janet!
-Good to see you.
-You, too.
I would like you to meet Amber.
-Hi, Amber.
How are you?
-And her husband, Mat.
-Hi, Mat.
-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you.
I'm a potter and I've been doing this for about 40 years.
I expect to keep making it until I can't do it anymore, but I love doing it.
I can't think of anything I'd rather do.
I mean, some people say to me, "Don't you want to retire?"
My husband kept saying to me, "When are you gonna retire?
When are you gonna retire?"
and I said, "Well, I don't really plan on it."
-Very excited.
-We really enjoy the place, though.
-Oh, thank you.
-Beautiful stuff here.
-I hope you'll enjoy making something.
I make all sorts of functional pieces -- plates, bowls, mugs.
I make a lot of platters.
I make about 100 different pieces.
-Oh, so that's the clay?
-So that's the clay.
-Uh-huh.
-You're gonna roll this out, yeah.
-Okay.
-Okay.
-And you can roll this if you want to, Mat, since you've done clay before.
-Yeah, I've played with clay.
-That's right.
-Wow.
-Oh, my gosh.
-This is fairly easy to crank.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-Came out.
-Nice.
-Okay, now let's see how this is gonna fit.
Plenty big enough.
-Perfect.
-Unless you put it all the way upside down.
Okay, now plop it down in that.
Now you can gently take the cloth off.
What you need to do next is take this sponge and smooth it out and press it gently down into the form.
-Okay.
-That's good, Amber.
Here's what we're gonna do next.
You're gonna take this knife and just go like this.
-Okay.
Around the edge.
-Hold it straight.
-Being in a pottery studio, does that bring back memories?
You feel at home?
-Very much so.
-Yeah?
-I grew up across the street from a pottery maker.
-Oh, really?
-And, you know, he would have me over and he did a lot of things for us, for our family.
So, yeah.
His name was Ferdo.
-Ferdo?
-Ferdo.
-Ferdo.
-Yeah.
-Amber, if you made any mistakes, you're gonna be able to fix it up.
-Okay, good.
-Because you're gonna go around it with the sponge now.
-Okay, perfect.
-Okay?
Here, I'm gonna get this out of your way.
-Looks pretty good.
-Oh, that's looking good, Amber.
-Good.
-It's hard to believe that's the first one you've made.
-Really?
-I mean, yeah, you're really doing great.
I love doing all of it.
I never know how it's gonna come out.
Even after all these years, I have surprises.
Okay, let's go out here.
I've got one fired exactly like the one you were making.
Out of the same mold, and you can take that out now.
-This one?
-And then we can glaze that.
-Sure.
-Oh, wow.
-You can draw your design lightly, and this will rub out.
This is a special, special pencil that fires high.
I know this is your traditional pottery from home, so you want to do something sort of along those lines, maybe.
And think you'll be able to with my glazes.
This is cobalt, and that's a very strong, powerful glaze.
Now, anything that you want to be thicker, you're gonna do with this cobalt here.
And I'm sure that you can do your dots with this.
Well, see, I can tell you've done this kind of thing, Amber.
-Yeah.
Yeah, my mom's super crafty.
-What do you think?
-It looks great!
I can't believe you did that.
-I just can't wait to see it fired.
-I know.
I can't, either.
-Bravo.
-Thank you.
-So, I'm gonna fire this for you.
-Okay.
-And then -- -Great.
I'll come pick it up.
-And you'll come pick it up, Melissa?
Wonderful.
It'll be coming out this Sunday.
-Lauren and I wanted to jazz up the dresser changing table, so I bought these pre-made trim pieces.
We're gonna add them to the front of the dresser drawers.
But first I want to paint them with this metallic champagne color that matches the leaves in the wallpaper.
This is a really inexpensive and easy way to change the look of your furniture.
Whenever you're working with spray paint, you want to make sure that you're clean and you're safe, so I always use gloves so I don't get any of the paint on my fingers, and then I wear a dust mask so I don't inhale any of the fumes.
-Kind of heavy.
[ Both chuckle ] -I've done this so many times.
-All right, so there's your dresser.
-Thank you.
Fantastic.
This is gonna look awesome.
-What we're gonna have to do is we're gonna take the top off, all right, in order to fit it into the closet.
-Sure.
Yeah.
-There we go.
-Excellent.
-Perfect.
And then we're gonna come down here and we're gonna cut these legs down to size to get it a little bit lower profile.
-Understand.
Nice.
-All right.
All right, so let's turn this over on the side.
-All right.
-Try to maybe do it like this.
All right.
-Okay.
-Cool.
-So, how do you kind of tell that it's square?
I know I tried this, and each leg kind of ended up slightly off.
-You know, one thing is, is that we measure.
We have a couple different tools that you can use.
Probably you can obviously use a tape measure or a speed square as a great way to do that.
One thing that we're going to do as we're cutting these legs, we're going to make sure that we match up the height to the baseboard, so what we'd like to do is cut off about an inch on each leg... -Sounds good.
-...in order to make sure that it's gonna be level and is solid for a baby changing table.
-Mark an inch.
-Mark an inch.
So, Mat, we're about to cut these legs off.
Safety glasses first.
-All right.
-All right.
All right.
-Are we ready?
-Yeah, we're ready.
-Okay.
-Just keep it level.
[ Saw buzzing ] Nice.
-Not bad.
-Nice.
-Not bad.
-All right.
All right.
-Check it out.
-Good deal.
Our base molding should cover that perfectly.
-Super.
-And then we'll wind up putting our countertop here that will fit and be flush with the rest of those walls.
Good job, man.
-High five.
-So, Amber, because you chose the enchanted garden theme, I wanted to bring some whimsy to your walls by putting these little fairies around the room.
And so we're using this fairy stencil and we're using a color that's a little bit darker than your wall color so they'll look like shadows.
-I love it.
Super subtle but very, very cute.
-So, what I do is I just take a little bit.
Remember, less is more.
That's important.
So, you just dab a tiny, tiny bit onto your brush, and then you want to hold it at a 90-degree angle so you can dab.
You don't want to drag, okay?
And I'm going from the outside in, so just very lightly.
Painting stencils like fairies or birds on your wall is a really fun way to bring some playfulness into your nursery.
-And I love how she's sitting on the light switch.
-Yes, isn't that cute?
-Yeah.
It's adorable.
One last little dab, and I think our fairy is done.
-Beautiful.
Perfect.
-All right.
-All right, we're gonna take it off the wall, but you want to be very careful when you pull it off so the edges don't touch the walls.
-Oh, it's so cute!
-Isn't that beautiful?
-Yes.
-It took three minutes.
-Three minutes, yeah.
That's perfect.
Oh, that's so adorable.
-So, once your decorative pieces dry, it's time to put it on the drawer front.
So, what I'm gonna use is some non-toxic wood glue.
You want to use just a little bit, and you're just gonna drag it right in the middle.
Just follow the decorative piece.
Okay, so now that we've done that, I'm just gonna take a little brush and I'm going to spread out the glue.
All right.
So once we have spread the glue around, I'm gonna flip it around and I'm gonna put it on our drawer front.
Want to just eye it from both sides to make sure that they're even.
And then you place it down.
Okay, so once your piece is dry, then you can just take a wet paper towel and you can start to wipe around any of the edges that do have excess glue, and it will come right off.
Our dresser didn't come with any drawer pulls, so Lauren picked out these really interesting moss-green-colored ones.
We're gonna use these.
Today we're back with our safety expert for a walk through of Amber and Mat's home.
For a baby, safety is paramount now and beyond.
-Hi!
-Hi!
-How are you?
-Good.
I have someone exciting for you to meet.
-All right.
-Hi.
Kimberlee.
-Hi, I'm Amber.
-Nice to meet you.
-Very nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you.
I'm Mat.
-This is Kimberlee Mitchell.
She's our child safety expert.
She's gonna walk you through your house.
She's gonna give you a lot of tips and make sure that this place is really safe for your baby.
-Beautiful.
That's great.
-I have got a lot of work still to do, so I'm gonna leave the three of you, and go have fun.
Learn a lot.
Okay?
-I'm gonna sneak by you.
-Thank you.
-Yes, thank you.
-Well, welcome to our house.
-Well, thank you.
I hear you guys have a beautiful nursery under construction.
-Yes.
-What's your baby's name?
-Tilly.
-Tilly.
You're having a girl.
-A girl, yep.
A girl.
-That's so wonderful.
So, I'm ready to go if you guys are.
We'll just go room-to-room, and pretty much it is kind of like a pie shape.
You've got what you know about safety, what you don't know about safety, and then what you don't know is that big piece of the pie, and hopefully today, we're gonna take that piece and make it a lot smaller so that you have peace of mind.
-Perfect.
-Sure.
-I know one thing.
I know the blinds -- the cords on our blinds, we need to replace those.
-I noticed already that you have a few around the room.
-Yeah, they're pretty much around the house.
And we were thinking the roller shades?
-You know what?
You're dead on.
Cordless is the way to go.
So, let's go ahead and move through.
I do see something out here on the deck.
-Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
-[ Laughs ] The creaky door.
-Squeaky, squeaky.
-This is wonderful!
-Thank you.
We love it out here.
-I imagine you will be spending quite a bit of time out here as a family.
I loved gardening with my kids so much.
This is so special.
I have to bring this up because these slats are obviously not to code, and, you know, the little one could fall through, so a really quick and easy fix is installing Plexiglass sheets.
So, once you've installed the Plexiglass... -Mm-hmm.
-...you can put a gate up out here so that the baby's not falling and so that you can be out here without having this fall hazard.
There are gates that you can use outside.
So, let's go inside and talk about a few more safety hazards that we can fix.
-All right, let's do it.
-So, your kitchen is doubling as a laundry room and a kitchen, and I would love to make a point here about the front-load dryers.
This is a wonderful hiding spot for a creative child.
It's a very unsafe and lethal hiding spot, actually.
So, you have to make sure that this is locked.
There are locks on some of these.
There's also a lock that you can get at the store that will lock this off, and it's stainless and it looks nice.
-Great.
-But it keeps the little one out.
-Good to know.
-Here's another one right here.
Another hazard.
This is the outlet cover.
These stainless covers are gorgeous and they look nice.
There are sliding outlet covers that you can replace.
For the areas where she's gonna have access, it's important to swap those out.
The push plugs are tiny.
They're about this big, and they can be choking hazards.
They can also be -- you can forget to put them back in.
The sliding outlet covers, once you pull something out, it just shuts.
See this dish towel here?
-Yes.
-Very common place for a dish towel to dry out.
A little one's gonna grab and go, "Ooh, look at this," and she can pull it down into the bridge of her nose.
So, you want to make sure that you don't dry these on the oven anymore, okay?
-So, it seems like there's a lot of different things that we need to do, so you were talking about some stages.
Do you think that it should be done, like, at once and then be done with it, or -- what's the priority?
-Priority initially for the homecoming are smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, those types of things.
Make sure that everything that's in her environment, that's in her eye line, make sure that that's done by the time she's perhaps 4 months old.
-Okay.
-So, you've got a window.
Don't be overwhelmed.
It's doable.
-Well, Kimberlee, we can't thank you enough.
-Thank you so much.
-Yeah, this has been invaluable.
-I'm so happy to hear that.
-Appreciate it a lot.
-Well, congratulations to you guys.
I know you're gonna be great parents.
-Thanks so much.
-Safety savvy already.
-Yes, ma'am.
-Thank you.
-Good luck with everything, and you call me if you need any help.
-Right now, Steve and Jonathan are building the frame for the starry night ceiling.
Next, we're going to hang the frame from the existing ceiling.
-Any time you cannot find a joist in the ceiling or a stud in the wall and you need to secure something, a good option is a toggle bolt.
You attach the bolt to the flare.
That then folds down, deploys through your pre-drilled hole.
Then you have a nice, safe, secure attachment point.
-Wow, what is happening in here?
-Hi, ladies.
-Hi.
-How are y'all today?
-This looks crazy.
-Yeah.
-It's a little crazy.
-You guys have been busy.
-We have.
We are doing the next step of the starry night fiber optic ceiling install.
Would you like to join us?
-Yeah, please tell us, how do we help?
-So, we found it's easier to work in teams.
-Okay.
-Mat is separating our individual strands for us, and then Jonathan and I and you ladies will take a strand.
You pick a hole.
We feed that strand gently down through the hole, because these are a little fragile.
Not too bad.
Feed through until we get most of our slack down the hole.
-Mm-hmm.
-We're gonna tear off a little piece of tape, and that just holds everything in place while we're working.
And once this is done, everything will lift up into the ceiling.
We'll attach it around the perimeter of our framing, and it is going to look amazing.
-This ceiling has more than 200 fiber optic threads that feed into the light source.
The light source comes with a remote control so our parents to be can turn it on, off, and adjust the brightness.
We've converted our existing ceiling light with a dual outlet adapter.
This allows us to plug in the power source for the starry ceiling, as well as a new ceiling light fixture.
With some extra help from the "Baby Makes 3" crew, we're lifting the starry night ceiling into position, where it will be affixed to our previously installed frame.
-Steve and Mat are finishing up construction as our nursery nears completion.
-Well, have you got the threshold for our play nook?
-Yes, I actually finished this with, like, a walnut stain.
-I think it's gonna go nicely with the rest of the house.
-That will go nicely.
So, let's go ahead and place her in.
Get our position.
-Mm-hmm.
[ Nail gun firing ] -Good job.
-Wow!
Steve, this looks incredible.
-We have completed under the stairwell.
We do have our nice trimmed-out play nook under the stairs now, and then we'll carry over to the diaper-changing station.
We've got a shelf in here, and then Mat and I just installed the clothes hanging rack.
-Yeah.
-So, then we have our starlight ceiling, as well.
-Wow.
I can't wait to see this at night.
-Likewise.
-Steven is securely fastening our curtain rod to the wall.
Construction is completed, and now it's time for the final touches.
That's it.
Let's go get Amber and Mat.
-You excited?
-I'm very excited.
-Yeah.
-I'm very excited.
-It's been quite an adventure.
-And we also learned that we can do a lot of things on our own.
Quite a ride.
We're ready to just live in it.
-Oh, yeah, definitely.
-Are you ready to see the nursery?
-Oh, yes.
Totally.
-Yes.
-[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.
This is amazing.
-Okay, look around.
Check it out.
-This is amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
Look at that mirror.
-Yes.
-Wow.
It's absolutely beautiful.
Totally enchanted garden.
The fairies on the wall.
-Wherever you look, there's -- -Ah, there's our platter.
-Yes.
-The platter that we made.
Amazing.
-I'm loving this little nook here.
-I know.
-Check it out.
Go on in.
-Okay, okay.
-Yeah, go on in, daddy.
You're in.
-I'm in.
-Totally in.
-And I'm turning around and I'm coming out.
[ Laughter ] -Wow, and the curtains are beautiful.
Perfect.
Oh, my gosh, look at the knobs.
-It is exactly like the design.
-It is just like the design plan.
Look at that wallpaper.
-It's unbelievable.
-I love the metallic.
It just kind of sparkles.
And the monogram.
-So, I guess she's gonna be really distracted.
-Oh, yeah, totally.
Look at the sparkles.
-Beautiful.
-Fun.
-He made it really feel like it's built into the wall.
-Totally.
-You don't see a closet anymore.
-No.
-Feels like part of the room.
-Yeah, we were so worried about storage, but I don't think we need to worry anymore.
-No, it's perfect.
-Yeah.
-And you can store extra toys in the little nook, as well.
-Oh, yeah.
Perfect.
-Absolutely amazing.
You guys really outdid yourselves.
-It feels seriously like you're on a different planet.
-[ Laughs ] It's definitely a transformation from what it was.
-It's not really overly girly.
It seems like a teenager could -- -She can grow into this room.
-She's gonna grow into this room.
She's gonna love this room forever.
Just incredible.
-Quite a transformation.
-Yeah.
-Quite a transformation.
-I think we are totally ready now.
-Well, I had so much fun working on your nursery.
Thank you.
-Same here.
-It was a really great experience.
-Thank you for the experience.
-Yeah, and for everything.
-Mm-hmm.
-I'm Melissa Lozoff with "Baby Makes 3," and it's time to put this one to bed.
-Did you see these pictures over here?
-Yeah, come look at those.
-Yeah, that's so pretty.
-Closed captioning is brought to you by... Snuggle Me Organic -- organic cotton and wool loungers and bed sharing cushions for baby.
-"Baby Makes 3" is funded in part by... -Dear baby, if you can't tell by the bump, you'll be here soon.
To be honest, I'm freaking out a bit.
There's still so much to do -- a lot of organizing, name picking, decorating, and cleaning, all while lugging around 25 or so extra pounds.
I guess I'm feeling a little bit crazy, but I'm allowed to be, right?
I'm your mom, and I want everything to be perfect for you.
I'll see you soon.
Love, mom.
-And by... ♪ -When it comes to baby's health, clean water is at the top of the list.
Food News Media -- supporting clean water for America's restaurant industry and for baby for life.
-Safety first.
"Baby Makes 3" nurseries are created for newborns.
Some projects may not be suitable for older children.
When in doubt, seek the help of a licensed contractor.
For more information, visit us on the web at babymakes3.tv.
-The "Baby Makes 3" DVD set helps make those first parenting decisions the right decisions.
Discover more than 50 nursery projects, including a starlight ceiling and nursery accent wall.
Create a fun, adorable, and safe space for your baby.
Available for $19.95 including shipping and handling.
Order online at babymakes3.tv.
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