About Kayden: I'm Kayden! I'm a coffee-fueled and dad-joke-filled creative. I'm a fan of spreadsheets, climbing the occasional mountain, iced coffee (year round!), anything wood-related, and don't even get me STARTED on sushi. I graduated from the nationally accredited Graphic Design program at the College of Saint Rose with a BFA. Throughout my career as a Graphic Designer, I worked in an agency, a newsroom, and on marketing teams for global companies, which gives me a strong sense of designi...
Aug 08, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 288
About Leah Houghtaling My woodworking and art have always grown out of functional needs combined with my desire to be in motion. Each piece I create explores the natural lines and contours of the wood, allowing it to come alive with textures, lines, colors, and shadows. I use sustainably harvested local wood and non-toxic finishes to make art and custom furniture for homes and businesses. You may find her on her Website and on Instagram ....
Jul 24, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 287
About Joy: I am honored to participate in the long history of creativity in the community of Santa Ana, California. From my shop downtown, I make commissioned pieces for my clients and forge objects that are entirely my own. While blacksmithing is my foundational practice, I also incorporate other mediums. Film photography, cinefilm, and stained glass, are all mediums I have explored to complement and support my work at the forge. I am also a teacher and consider that part of my work as an artis...
Jul 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 286
Laura Kishimoto is a designer/maker living in Denver and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She was initially drawn to furniture design because it occupies a unique position between the fields of fine art and design. Furniture can both exist as a product, addressing a specific need, or as a stand alone sculptural object. And in both cases, a user/viewer is necessary to complete the piece of furniture: whether to give it function by physically engaging with it or to give it meaning ...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 8 min
TINA TANG, CO-FOUNDER & CEO Tina is a systems engineer with graduate training in machine learning and computer vision from the University of Virginia. Prior to graduate school, she was an associate manager at Accenture focused on software product design and delivery. She has a background in art and generally loves visualization - from data viz to design to drawing and painting. ABOUT US Bristles, Inc. is a startup based in Durham, North Carolina. Our mission is to build creativity-enabling p...
Jun 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 284
Born and raised in Tennessee, Elizabeth showed great promise in both the arts and mathematics. She first specialized in engineering, earning an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and working in several engineering jobs. In 2012, she moved to Seattle, WA, and in 2015 decided to nurture her artistic side through woodworking. Her first creations included several pieces of furniture in the Arts & Crafts style, but she eventually turned to smaller objects and ...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 283
Tanya Nixon-Silberg (she/her) is a Black mother, native Bostonian, educator, puppeteer and founder of Little Uprisings- an organization focused on centering artivism, racial justice, and liberation with kids. Her primary artistic identities lie in puppetry and storytelling and her work moves through the lens of liberation in Black identities focusing on body remembrances of childhood and joy. Her puppetry productions and creative research have been funded by The Jim Henson Foundation, National E...
Jun 09, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 282
Katrice Kelly is an interdisciplinary artist, MFA Painting and Drawing student attending the University of Iowa. She has been making art her entire life. Katrice’s more realistic works have been influenced by dream studies and rest ministries. Fibers are the main materials used to create tactile and comforting paintings. Her goal is to create work that feels familiar for everyone. You can follow Katrice and her work on Instagram . You can follow along with the podcast on Instagram ....
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr•Season 2023Ep. 5
Olivia Jade Juarez is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and fabricator located in Chicago. She recently managed the Metalworking and Forging Department at Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center in Rogers Park, with past experience at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado and Vivian Beer Studio Works in New Hampshire. Juarez attended high school at the Waldorf School in Rogers Park, and earned her BFA from Alfred University in New York. Her current studio practice ranges from digit...
Jan 29, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 2023Ep. 4
Gabs Conway is a sculptural ceramic artist based in Missoula Montana. Having grown up in Missoula, she was excited to return - as she relentlessly considers it home - after earning her BFA at the University of Wisconsin – Stout. Her work stems from the playful, mundane experiences of living. She explores relationships, such as that of siblings, friends, and lovers. Interested in creating forms for the reflection of human experience; asking the viewer to consider their appreciation of life, and t...
Jan 29, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 2023Ep. 3
Ellie Richards is a furniture designer and sculptor interested in the role the furniture and domestic objects play in creating opportunities for a deeper connection between people and their sense of place. Ellie looks to the tradition of both woodworking and the readymade to create eclectic assemblage, installation, and objects exploring intersections of labor, leisure, community, and culture. She has traveled extensively to investigate the role play and improvisation have on the artistic proces...
Jan 28, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2023Ep. 2
Chelsea Van Voorhis is a woodworker, designer, and veneer artist focused on creating fashion forward pieces with social and political commentary. She uses traditional woodworking materials and techniques to make non-traditional pieces. You can follow along with Chelsea on her Instagram and her website . Follow along with the podcast on Instagram ....
Jan 28, 2023•57 min•Season 2023Ep. 1
Ashley is the furniture maker behind Shallow Creek Woodcraft, based in Southern PA. Ashley is a wife and Mom of four, balancing a passionate pursuit of the craft with family time. A self-professed woodworking book nerd, lover of laughter, and deep appreciator of her maker/woodworking/artist peers. She is currently enrolled in the Northwest Woodworking Studio Online Mastery program and takes private commissions. You can follow her growth into the fine side of woodworking on Instagram ....
Nov 05, 2022•53 min•Ep. 276
Estrapala Woodworking is owned by wife and wife team, Sara & Marika. Sara has a position as a research faculty at Mizzou and Marika currently stays at home with their toddler. When they are not occupied with life they love to spend their time in the woodshop. While they both have separate interests in different types of woodworking their styles compliment each other when they chose to work together on projects. Sara is fascinated with the beauty of natural wood specifically burls. Sara also ...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 274
Based in Canada, Pooja Pawaskar is the Indian-born artist behind Whirl & Whittle. Crafting wooden and ceramic pieces which celebrate the inherent beauty in each object’s peculiarities, Pooja chooses to embrace blemish in her works and herself in a world which relies heavily on flawlessness and statics. Her work is grounded in the belief that the world around us and the things within it are unique rather than imperfect. Growing up in a multigenerational home in Mumbai, India, Pawaskar was int...
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 273
Des is a wife, Mom of two, and sports masseuse as well as woodworker. She was introduced to woodworking by her father at a young age. She learned the value of being able to make something you needed or wanted with your own hands and that was carried into adulthood. Now she makes a wide variety of things from signs to furniture. Follow Des on Instagram . Follow guest host Bonnie on Instagram ....
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 272
Andrea Gordon, MFA is a categorical career leaping nerd that has gone from aspiring musician, to sound design, to kitchen work, and settled on woodworking and art in the last 3 years. She has been wood turning for the last year and started a tiny business in April 2022 selling pens and other little wood trinkets. She is 1st generation USA born Colombian on one side and 3rd generation Jewish from Brooklyn on the other. She married Carla, a Puerto Rican zaddy two years ago and they have Stella, a ...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 271
Monique Livingston is a wife, mom, and artist creating works of art and food from her home in Utica, New York. Monique has a degree in fine art and is using what she learned in school to create her own art business. As she creates and builds up skills she also ventures into new crafts, such as woodworking. You can follow along with Monique on Instagram .
Sep 16, 2022•57 min•Ep. 270
Soo Joo is an artist and designer currently based out of Seoul, Korea. She is a bright, emerging voice in craft and works in a variety of mediums from wood to ceramics. Her strong, minimalist forms honor Korean aesthetics and evoke a sense of calm and purposeful movement. She is a graduate of RISD and has completed residencies at Anderson Ranch and Penland, and recently had her work featured in the RISD Korea Alumni Exhibition. You can follow Soo on Instagram at @soo_joo_studio and visit her web...
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 269
Tyler Hill started crafting her first project in 2010 when she was pregnant with her daughter. A few paints, brushes and wooden letters later she was home crafting a sign for her nursery. It was after completing the sign to match her Hello Kitty nursery that she decided she loved it and wanted to do more. Friends who came over to her home and saw her handmade sign wanted to know where they could get one, so she started making signs for their babies as well. In 2013, Tyler decided to create an on...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 268
Boun Loun is a Cambodian woodworker based out of San Diego, who has been woodworking since 2021. She specializes in epoxy & live edge projects, and looking forward to growing & learning all skills related to woodworking, especially joinery and CNC fabrication. Boun enjoys working on a variety of projects that allows her to gain knowledge & skills, especially with tools. Boun is also looking to learn and add welding to her resume. You can follow along with Boun on Instagram ....
Aug 26, 2022•59 min•Ep. 267
One thing that Rebecca De Groot loves about life is having limitless opportunities to create. She works with many different materials including graphite, colored pencil, paint, metal, ceramic, paper, plastic, cloth, and wood. And while she believes that all of these materials are wonderful in their own respect, it is working with the natural beauty of wood, which gives her the creative outlet that she thrives on. Rebecca’s recent wooden pieces primarily consist of lathe work and box making, but ...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 266
Laura Mays has a degree in Architecture from University College Dublin and a Higher Certificate in Furniture Design and Manufacture from GMIT Letterfrack. She followed that with two years on the Fine Woodworking program in College of the Redwoods in California. Laura completed an MA in Industrial Design at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2010. Since 2011 Laura has been the Program Director of the Fine Woodworking program at The Krenov School in northern California. She is the...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 265
Chelsea Cates is an upholsterer and furniture maker in Austin, TX. Chelsea was an upholsterer first, then found a love for woodworking when she became interested in constructing the pieces she was upholstering. In this episode Chelsea shares perspectives on access and experiences as a minority in the field, and also as a maker on a sort of personal “pit stop” on her journey, and why those moments are so important to the process. For more from Chelsea you can follow her on Instagram at @ladygarag...
Jul 28, 2022•45 min•Ep. 264
Mia Anika is a visual artist, cartographer, and mental health advocate based in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her Bachelor of Art in Visual Arts from Agnes Scott College in 2014. Her work centers around discovering and exploring inner worlds, the intersections of color theory and mindfulness, drawing inspiration from Julie Mehretu, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Michi Meko, Radcliffe Bailey and Sam Gilliam. She advocates for holistic approaches to mental health and wellness and invites others to facilitat...
Jul 22, 2022•54 min•Ep. 263
Emily Joyce creates nostalgic and sentimental works of wearable art and sculpture about her love of all things related to the school experience. Her pieces are unique, one of a kind, and all made by Emily in her home studio. Many sources of inspiration are from visiting playgrounds, reminiscing about teaching and learning, and found tools and documents at Antique stores. She gets warm and fuzzy over "kid writing." She collects tools, and school supplies. Emily realizes that her work is different...
Jul 20, 2022•55 min•Ep. 262
A was taught at a young age how to work with tools and how to think creatively as well as resourcefully. While they decided to foster their passion for photography and the arts throughout college and into a career, the 2020 pandemic led to a revived passion for woodworking. Thus started Slightly Acute. The name Slightly Acute stems from the idea that the goal is not absolute perfection but to honor and enjoy the process of making and embracing the mistakes. A is now based in Columbia, SC with th...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 261
Meera is a wife, mother, and former opera singer turned woodworker. Meera's first passion was singing and opera. However, after becoming a mother she realized that the life of an opera singer and one of a mom do not always fit well together. After leaving opera, she soon discovered woodworking after tackling her first project doing an ikea hack. She found a woman owned workshop in Los Angeles and started taking classes, and the rest as they say is HERstory. You can follow along with Meera on Ins...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 260
Daej knew from a young age that she wanted to make things. After watching her mom study Interior Design, Daej was completely intrigued by furniture. From the grain on table tops, to how a chair can be the center of attention in any room, she was mesmerized. She started woodworking in the sixth grade, then continued her education in woodworking throughout the rest of middle school and all four years of high school. Daej’s first year of post-secondary education began at Sheridan College in their C...
Jul 06, 2022•59 min•Ep. 259
Jenna Pilant is a rainbow-obsessed designer in Southern California; doing her part to spread happiness into the world one colorful interior project at a time. Jenna has an unusual design style = “polychromatic whimsy,” and over the past few years, her work has been featured in Darling Magazine, San Diego Home & Garden Lifestyle and Origin Magazine. She was born and raised in Nebraska and believes that through hard work and determination, anything is possible . . . even “banning the beige” in...
Jul 01, 2022•59 min•Ep. 258
