On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about creating a craft kit and workshop business with my guest Morgan Spenla. Morgan is the founder & CEO of Crafter and The Crafter's Box. Crafter.com is an online home for makers offering educational videos, kits, patterns and community, The Crafter's Box is a monthly subscription exploring new crafting mediums such as printmaking, fiber arts, woodworking -- even a series of workshops in basket weaving. Today, Crafter...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 171
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about owning a local yarn shop with my guest, Ana Campos. Ana is a Brazilian knitting instructor, fiber witch, and designer with over 20 years of knitting experience. She currently makes her home by the sea in Salem, Massachusetts, known as the Witch City. As a Latina and an immigrant, she values the opportunities for connection, community, and common ground that knitting creates. Ana’s love for the knitting community led h...
Jul 18, 2022•49 min•Ep. 170
Today we’re excited to bring you the State of the Industry Panel discussion that took place at h+h americas , a new trade show for crafts industry that took place in Chicago June 22-24, 2022. h+h americas is presented by Koelnmesse Inc., one of the world’s largest trade show organizations, as you’ll hear me mention in the opening remarks. For the first time, this show came to North America and Craft Industry Alliance was the strategic partner. What you’re about to listen to was the kickoff event...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 169
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a craft kit business with my guest Stephanie Carswell. Stephanie is the Founder and Creative Director of Hawthorn Handmade , a textile craft kit design company based in Dorset in Southern England. Hawthorn Handmade began in 2013 with a small range of needle felting kits, and over the last 9 years has developed from a small side business started in the back room of Stephanie’s previous business, a gallery and ...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 168
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about owning a local yarn shop with my guest Rachel Bratcher, owner of Ritual Dyes . Ritual Dyes was created in 2017, by Rachel Bratcher an avid maker and true Libra. Ritual Dyes was born in Rachel’s kitchen out of a love (obsession) with knitting and creative control over all the things. Later Rachel and team moved out of the kitchen and established a neighborhood LYS and dye studio in Southeast Portland. Drawing inspirati...
Jun 20, 2022•53 min•Ep. 167
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a yarn company with my guest Nicole Snow of Darn Good Yarn . United States Air Force Veteran, Entrepreneur, Mom to a five-year-old, Wife, Founder & CEO, Nicole Snow is the ‘Jane of all trades. In 2008, out of the desire to create a business focused on social consciousness through crafting and design, Nicole founded Darn Good Yarn. Over the past 13 years, Darn Good Yarn has saved over 2,000,000 pounds of m...
Jun 06, 2022•59 min•Ep. 166
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about running a brick-and-mortar stationery store with my guest Kristina Burkey of Calliope Paperie in Natick, Massachusetts. Kristina owns Calliope , a fun and quirky stationery and gift shop in Natick, MA. Calliope started as an online shop in 2014, opened as a brick-and-mortar location in 2016, and just recently moved into a new and bigger location in downtown Natick. Kristina has loved paper and pens and stickers for ab...
May 16, 2022•57 min•Ep. 165
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about fashion design with my guest Whitney Manney . A Kansas City, Missouri native, Whitney Manney graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2012 with a BFA in Fibers. With a desire to create art in a wearable format, Manney creates garments and textile designs under her independent label WHITNEYMANNEY. Manney's work has been featured in major press outlets and numerous art and fashion blogs. She is featured in the PB...
May 02, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 164
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about yarn bombing with my guest London Kaye . Born in Los Angeles, California, London received her BFA in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating London realized that her love for crochet, and unexpected joy, came together harmoniously when she began using crochet to interact with the environment and surrounding community. She began installing art daily on the streets of Brooklyn and New...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 163
In this special episode of the podcast, we are focusing on the Etsy strike. I sit down with Kristi Cassidy, one of the organizers, in order to learn how it came to be and the impact it might have. If you haven’t heard about the Etsy strike yet, it’s a petition created by a group of Etsy sellers with a list of demands they want Etsy to meet. These include canceling the latest fee increase which brought transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%. Other demands include cracking down on resellers, improving s...
Apr 13, 2022•24 min•Ep. 162
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about creating craft media with my guest Anne Merrow. Anne Merrow started off as a book editor but has turned a series of hobbies—knitting, spinning, and weaving—into a beloved career. She is a founder and partner of Long Thread Media , which publishes Handwoven, Spin Off, PieceWork, Little Looms , and other content related to fiber arts. She serves as the company’s editorial director and host of the Long Thread Podcast. An...
Apr 04, 2022•56 min•Ep. 161
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a community through knitting with my guest Jewell Washington. Jewell Washington is the Chicago-based maker and entrepreneurial designer of Northknits . She learned to knit in college and launched Northknits in 2014. Jewell pursues simple living through her passion for DIY, pattern design, stacking her yarn shelf, and providing business and entrepreneurial advice to fellow crafters. As the founder of Our Maker...
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 160
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about online learning with my guest Craig Swanson. At the age of 18, Craig founded Swanson Tech Support and worked as a tech consultant for 6 years before founding CreativeTechs which lead to over a million dollars in sales. Soon after Craig co-founded the creative online learning platform CreativeLive , an idea that was birthed from a failed video training program for his IT business. CreativeLive would grow from a small s...
Mar 07, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 159
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about blurring the lines between art, craft, design, and poetry with my guest e Bond . e makes digital spaces by day, handmade books by night, hangs out with trees on weekends, and writes something close to poems in the spaces between. Under the studio name roughdrAftbooks—created in 2003—she makes one-of-a-kind artist books, printed pieces, and abstract drawings that merge and blur the boundaries of art, craft, design, and...
Feb 21, 2022•57 min•Ep. 158
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about quilting as an art practice with my guest Heidi Parkes. Heidi Parkes was born into this world the proud recipient of a collaborative family quilt, organized by her grandmother. Now, Heidi lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and works within the quilt world, the art world, and the maker's movement. Hand piecing and hand quilting imbue her work with the personal, and contribute to her themes of diary, self-help, materiality,...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 157
Today on the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a knitting business with my guest Safiyyah Talley. Safiyyah is the creator of the popular blog thedrunkknitter.com. She has an independent Ravelry store, hosts a podcast, and her design work has been featured in online publications such as The Bobble Club, The Fiber Company, LoveKnitting, and Darn Good Yarn—and in Warm Hands , a book of knitting patterns. She teaches knitting classes virtually and at knitting shows includ...
Jan 17, 2022•45 min•Ep. 156
Today we are replaying an episode that originally aired a few years ago. We learned this evening about the passing of Melanie Ham. Melanie was truly a bright light in the craft world. Her warm, smile welcomed everyone to learn from her craft videos, whether it was crochet, sewing, or quilting. Melanie was also a wife and mother. I was lucky enough to interview Melanie in February of 2018 and wanted to replay that interview today as a way to celebrate her life. Listeners may note that the podcast...
Jan 13, 2022•51 min•Ep. 155
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about h+h americas , a brand new trade show for the crafts industry, with my guest Darrin Stern. Darrin Stern has worked for Koelnmesse (Cologne International Trade Fairs) Inc for 18 years. In that time, he has supported hundreds of clients from more than ten unique industries to grow their business worldwide. One of the industries Darrin supports is fiber arts. Since 2015 Darrin has helped companies from North America exhi...
Dec 29, 2021•52 min•Ep. 154
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about creating craft studios for kids with my guest Nicola Day, owner of the kids' crafts studios, HipStitch . Nicola has been sewing since she was 11 years old when she learned to sew at school. Sewing has always been part of her life. In college, sewing for people helped her to make money to support herself. After college, she designed a line of pocketbooks and sold them all over the US in boutiques. When her daughter was...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 153
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about beading with my guest Jill Wiseman. Jill Wiseman lived a traditional, “8-to-5” corporate existence until a chance encounter with beads in 2001 changed everything. She was mesmerized. She found her local bead store and started taking every class offered to learn new skills, including stringing, wirework, and her later specialty, beadweaving. Before long, Jill couldn’t contain her beady joy another moment and had to sha...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 152
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about tech editing and mentoring with my guest Tian Connaughton . Tian is a Massachusetts-based knit and crochet designer, a technical editor working with magazines and major brands, and a business coach for handmade and fiber artists. She lives by the motto, " a rising tide lifts all boats, " and this is evident in all that she does, from writing books to creating online courses and coaching programs. Her work prioritizes ...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 151
In our final episode, we talk with three key players at Spoonflower to find out how they do their jobs. First up is Sarah Ward, Senior Vice President of Marketing. Then, we chat with Alyssa McNamara, a research and development engineer at Spoonflower. And finally, we talk to Anitha Kothandaraman, the Sewing Operations Manager. These three interviews together shine a light on different aspects of Spoonflower as a business. + To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Allianc...
Nov 08, 2021•37 min•Ep. 149
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about quilting as creative expression with my guest Zak Foster . Raised in rural North Carolina and now living in Brooklyn, New York, Zak is a self-taught artist whose work draws on Southern textile traditions while incorporating found fabrics and natural dyes with an eye for sustainability. He practices an approach to design that is intuitive and improvisational and he is drawn to preserving the stories of quilts and specia...
Oct 29, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 150
In this conversation, we’re taking a deep dive into clothing design with our guest, Andrea Greer . Andrea is a Rochester, New York-based fashion and clothing designer. She creates original artwork through painting, photography, and digital drawing then has those designs printed on a large scale. She and her team take those fabrics and create a line of women’s clothing that is carried by boutiques all over the country. + To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Alliance wh...
Oct 29, 2021•32 min•Ep. 145
In this conversation, we’re taking a deep dive into creative embroidery with our guest, Robert Mahar . Robert Mahar is an artist and designer who teaches imaginative do-it-yourself projects through high-quality video tutorials. Robert is also a proud season one alumni of NBC’s crafting competition show Making It ! Co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. + To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supporti...
Oct 28, 2021•33 min•Ep. 145
Oct 27, 2021•32 min•Ep. 145
In this conversation, we’re taking a deep dive into surface design with our guest, Jo Kalute . Jo works lives and plays in Clovelly, a small idyllic coastal suburb of Sydney, Australia. She is a surface pattern designer and illustrator and her work is inspired by her Kenyan heritage. + To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on...
Oct 26, 2021•32 min•Ep. 145
In this interview, we’re taking a deep dive into creative embroidery with our guest, Nancy Mac. Nancy is the founder and owner of Freon Collective , an eco-conscious, minimalistic beauty and lifestyle brand. “Freon” comes from old English, meaning “friends or friendship and she’s incorporated all facets of her interests in beauty, design, and art into this label. + To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our su...
Oct 25, 2021•30 min•Ep. 145
Today on the show we’re talking about building a quilting empire with my guest Jenny Doan. Jenny Doan is the smiling face of Missouri Star Quilt Company . Stitching together simplified quilts full of love and laughter, she makes quilting easier, more accessible, and friendlier than ever before. Watching her tutorials feels like coming home again. With over 750,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 230 million views to date, Jenny has sparked enthusiasm for quilting and warmed her viewer’s hearts...
Oct 18, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 148
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about sustainability and sewing with my guest Wendy Ward . Wendy is a writer, designer, maker, and educator. She has worked as a designer in fast fashion and for a small sustainable brand. For her master’s degree in 2004, she explored novel ways to recycle textiles and in 2007 she moved into education and has taught numerous garment-making, textile recycling, and garment alterations classes with adults. Wendy has her own li...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 147
