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 …

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 c…

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 gl…

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 c…

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 d…

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 w…

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 focusi…

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 …

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…

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, fri…

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 intersecti…

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.…

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 Woodwork…

Erin Irber and Hanneke Lourens of Coast Collective join co-host Katie Thompson for a chat about their new business, their experiences as individual artists and business owners, and much more. Coast launched in July 2022, representing 12 Artisans with a collection of finely crafted furniture. Ready to ship at the click of a button. Collection No2 la…

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 com…

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 wo…

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 Instag…

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 Colo…

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 Insta…

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…

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 h…

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, …

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…

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 …

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…

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’N…

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 docum…

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 th…

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. Sh…

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 thro…

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.…

In this episode co-hosts Katie Freeman and Katie Thomspon discuss the current state of equity within the craft and art profession. Talking specifically about organizations that are working hard to bring positive change and grow equity across the country.By Katie Freeman

Ava Foster grew up in rural Manitoba and started carving when she got her first jackknife sometime before the age of 10. Two of the first things she can remember carving were a candle stick with a flame on top and a shrew sized canoe that she later sent down the brook at her aunt’s farm. Ava has carved on and off since then but only started pursuin…

Anne Taggart is originally from the Northeast US and the mountains of Vermont. She currently calls the mountains of West Virgina Home. Anne loves to make and fix things. She studied the traditional Japanese Kintsugi with a third-generation urushi lacquer artist from Kyoto, Japan. The traditional Japanese ceramics repair practice of kintsugi is asso…

SaraBeth Post just completed her time at Penland School of Craft in the Core Fellowship program. Therefore, she is in a big transition! It’s exciting to venture back out into the world and she is looking very forward to the opportunities ahead. SaraBeth's primary medium is Glass but she is a bit of a metalsmith, and is quite interested in printmaki…

D'ondra creates custom designs for your space so that you can enjoy what you envisioned for your home. She always had a passion for flipping furniture but was afraid of the power tools needed to really get into it. One evening she was watching someone on Instagram share about how they were self-taught, and she thought if they can do it, so can she.…

Lee is queer, nonbinary woodworker and digital promoter from the UK. Lee has been on a journey with their woodworking for many years now. They started with a workshop, being able to make larger things, and then when they lost their workshop someone suggested carving since not much space is needed for that. Now Lee is a master carver of especially s…

A Tribe Called Queer is a Los Angeles based multidisciplinary community organization dedicated to the everlasting empowering of BIPOC & LGBTQIA2S+ communities through mental health, wellness, art, education and more! We provide accessible community programs, incredible resources, free virtual offerings, an archival podcast, gender neutral clothing …

Carla Mendoza, also known as Untidy Maker on social media, is a jane of all trades. Growing up she was introduced to making through sewing and cooking. As an adult, she got into making with power tools, starting with concrete projects and working her way into welding. Pinterest and YouTube have opened the world of makers and her desire to continue …

Hello fellow makers, artists, and craftspeople. Today I should be releasing episode 248 of the podcast. Yet, I cannot. On May 2nd of this week, we found out, through a leaked draft from the Supreme Court, that it is every intention of that Supreme Court to overrule Roe V. Wade. Roe V. Wade, which was decided on January 22, 1973 is the decision that…

Cristina Cordova received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Puerto Rico and continued to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. In 2002 she entered a three-year artists residency program at Penland School of Crafts where she later served on the board of trustees from 2006 to …

Join us for an exciting discussion with Leah Woods who is an artist, woodworker, sculptor, educator and community organizer in New Hampshire. She is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of New Hampshire where she teaches woodworking, and also works with the Women’s POP program teaching incarcerated women the craft of woodworking. Leah al…

Sarah is the creator, author, and voice of Ugly Duckling House™. She started blogging in 2010 with a few crazy stories about what she found as she was renovating her home (the press-on fingernails she found in the fridge still give her chills). She went from your typical 9-6 software job to a full career that is never the same and reaches millions …

Illustrator Jacqui C. Smith creates unique artwork that showcases diversity amongst women of color. After graduating from Columbia College of Chicago with a B.A. in Traditional Animation, Jacqui headed to Burbank California to begin her journey as a freelance artist. In the last ten years, Jacqui’s created children’s books and illustrations for sel…

Sondra Elder is a self-taught artist, who was not able to truly devote time to her creative journey until after retiring from her life in the business world. With pottery, Sondra’s chosen medium is porcelain because its strength and delicacy learn to live in harmony. It is the perfect canvas to display the beautiful zinc-silicate crystals that can …

Rogelio Rendon is a nonbinary maker that does woodcarving, furniture making, and all sorts of other woodworking. Perhaps the deepest love though is for carving characters that are influenced by Native American and Japanese cultures in addition to Rogelio’s lived experiences. In addition to carving characters for themselves and occasionally selling …

Robyn’s woodworking journey began in 2017, soon after stepping foot into his first wood shop. Since then, they have spent countless hours of hard work following his woodworking and artistic passions. He is a self-taught woodwork and exploring different mediums has helped him develop his creativity and craftsmanship skills. Since starting their smal…

Thelma is a lover of all projects. She is a self-described small town, part-time woodworker that hates sanding and is always looking for ways to improve her skillset. It all started with a needed drawer which turned into what I will call power tool creep instead of project creep. Now she takes on commission work to fit into her day job schedule and…

Valerie Berlage is a woodworker, artist, and owner of Lauraine Lillie Studios based out of Western North Carolina. She developed her craft and business name from her grandparents who taught her how to make. Tune in as we discuss the early days in the woodshop with her grandfather, to what is inspiring Valerie to create her contemporary jewelry desi…