Dutch clog-makers hoping to put a stamp on the future

AARLE-RIXTEL, Netherlands - Just decades ago there were thousands. Now only about 30 Dutch clog-makers remain, fighting to save a dying craft with the wooden shoes more often found today as fridge-magnets rather than footwear.

Expertly wielding a long metal spoon-like tool, Nicole van Aarle rhythmically hewed away at a piece of willow, the shavings falling at her feet, the walls of her workshop in the southern Dutch town of Aarle-Rixtel adorned with clogs of all shapes and sizes.

"I work when I can. In the evenings, or after dropping the kids off at school, at weekends. But I can't make a living just from making clogs," said the former soldier, who is proud of being a fifth-generation clog-maker.