History, Function and Beauty

Thomas and Patricia Hooper practice pewterwork in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

Walking into Thomas (Tom) and Patricia (Pat) Hooper’s shop, ASL Pewter in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, feels like a historic homeware lover’s dream: pewter plates, glasses and silverware sit on shelves alongside crucifixes, Christmas ornaments and measuring cups, all made from molds that date to the 1600s.

A cast to make crucifixes made of pewter is seen in the workshop of ASL Pewter in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Tyler Graef ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Along the left wall are the melt pots and centrifugal rubber mold casting machines the Hoopers use to cast the pewter. Along the right wall is the lathe from 1873 Tom uses to create tumblers and other types of dishware from flat metal circles, shaping it with wooden sticks and lubricating it with dry bar soap.

Today, Tom is making a set of four goblet tops on the lathe as a customer comes over to watch.

“Does it ever break on you?” the customer asks. He picks up the newly-made goblet top Tom sits on the railing, to feel it in his hands.

A freshly-cast pewter crucifix is seen in the workshop of ASL Pewter in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.Tyler Graef ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

“Well, yes, many thousands of pieces ago,” Tom says. He started doing metal spinning in 1998. “This is one of those things where the first 100 pieces of metal that I started with, I got seven or eight pieces that were sellable.”

Interactions like this are the reason Tom and Pat have the Ste. Genevieve storefront, rather than exclusively selling their products online or at festivals and shows. They both enjoy teaching through pre-planned tours and casual interactions with curious customers. They give approximately 15 to 20 scheduled tours each year, in addition to the casual teaching demonstrations they give when they are working on pieces while customers are in the store.

“I like that we’re keeping alive a craft that would otherwise be dying,” Pat says.

Tom and Pat Hooper pose for a photo in their Saint Genevieve, Missouri ASL Pewter shop.Tyler Graef ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

The Hoopers didn’t start their business working with pewter, however. Tom’s interest in making a living from working with his hands first began when he was laid off from his job making scientific glassware due to the digital age in California in the early 1980s. Since the State of California paid for tuition, books and unemployment for workers displaced by technology, Tom decided to earn his Master of Business Administration degree. Already in the early stages of opening his own business to supplement his income, he raised rabbits and tanned the hides, selling them at flea markets on the weekends.

Tom’s next business endeavor came from the necessity of covering up the stench of the hides. Tom says his great-uncle was the chief perfumer and formulary person for Max Factor and Revlon, making the first hypoallergenic products for Tom’s mom, who had sensitive skin. Through reading his uncle’s books and talking with him, Tom began making incense from old recipes. While burning this incense at a craft show, someone asked him where he had gotten the incense, and approximately one year later, Tom began working with incense full-time, researching medieval recipes and selling them at Renaissance fairs as well as to retailers such as Hot Topic and Whole Foods. Pat married into the fragrance business in 1990.

Soon, the businesses Tom and Pat sold their fragrances to began asking to buy American-made accessories such as incense holders. After partnering with other artists who could not keep up with the demand for the orders, Tom and Pat decided they wanted to create their own. In 1993, they began designing pewter pieces and having someone else cast them. They say they chose pewter because of their love for history and the practicality of being able to work with incense around pewter. In 1995, they moved to Salem, Missouri, to be more centrally located for shipping within the U.S. and began casting all of their own pieces. For two years, the Hoopers taught themselves how to work with pewter and worked to get good at producing the molds and casting them.

“You have to pour that perfectly in one pour, so learning the temperature, learning the timing, learning how to surface condition the mold, it’s like having a cast-iron frying pan,” Tom says. “Those have to be taken care of.”

In 2000, the couple bought a foundry and moved the shop to Louisiana, Missouri. With the foundry, they acquired approximately 60 antique and original molds that dated from 1800 to 1820, with a few pieces dating from before. In January 2015, the Hoopers moved to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and opened their current storefront. They now sell to 250 stores; in the U.S., the Hoopers say there are only a dozen shops their size or bigger.

The building ASL Pewter is housed in is historic, too: it was once the Vorst Livery Stable, built in 1820. The tunnel, built in 1904, connects the old livery stable to the Thomure Ice House in back, built in 1800. The second floor was used for hay storage, and then became a dance hall around 1904.

In the building, Pat hosts an event each year that features the Midwestern artists who appear in The Directory of Traditional American Crafts in Early American Life magazine. To be included in the directory, artists must pass through a juried application process, guaranteeing they are practicing their craft using traditional methods and producing museum-quality work. This summer’s event will be the 14th year Pat hosts it and will take place July 20 and 21.

Tom and Pat also feature other traditional American artisans’ work in their shop year-round, including towels designed in Missouri, wood products made in West Virginia and blown glass created in Virginia. Functional, beautiful pieces sold at a median price are key to doing business in the Midwest, Tom says.

Tom and Pat hope to encourage the next generation of craftspeople to take up trades in which they can work with their hands and express themselves.

“The next generation of hand artisans hasn’t been discovered yet, or they haven’t discovered the art or craft that’s inside of them,” Tom says. “That’s what we really want to do by being here and having the storefront and people coming in.”

Tom has made a living working with his hands for 39 years; with pewter, he enjoys the challenge of creating designs others say are impossible to create.

“We’re manipulating things, we’re playing at finding the edge of the natural physical laws of the universe in relationship to this material,” he says.

Reflecting on his own growth process as a craftsman, he adds, “It’s always an evolution. It’s always a growth and change in the process.”

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How does pewter work?

The Hoopers make all of the rubber and silicone molds they use in-house, starting with a sculpture they create out of bone, antler, pewter, clay or other metal. Rubber molds are vulcanized — literally cooked — at 350 degrees for an hour per one inch of mold. They are then loaded into a centrifugal rubber mold casting machine. When the lid on the machine is closed, the mold is under 15 to 60 pounds of pressure. The mold spins under pressure at 400 RPM for 60 seconds, and metal is poured down the center of the top of the machine into the mold.