Craft Industry Alliance

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower: Behind-the-Scenes

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.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Episode #204: Zak Foster

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 specializes in memory quilts and burial quilts. His work has been featured in various magazines, websites, and galleries. His online community, The Quilty Nook, connects and inspires quilters all over the world.

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This episode is sponsored by the Academy for Virtual Teaching, a vibrant community of aspiring and experienced creative arts teachers. There you’ll find virtual teachers hosting practice teaching sessions and gaining valuable feedback from their peers, monthly live open-topic roundtables, guest seminars, professional development courses, and other activities designed to help you be a more proficient, profitable, and professional online teacher. Join our community to learn how you can increase your income without increasing your workload. Craft Industry Alliance members can use this link for a permanent 20% discount on Academy membership.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower:Andrea Geer

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.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower: Robert Mahar

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.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower: Melissa Quaal

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower: Jo Kalute

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.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Powering the Creative Economy with Spoonflower: Nancy Mac

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.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Episode #203: Jenny Doan

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 across the globe.

When she moved with her growing family to Missouri over 20 years ago, she never imagined that someday they’d have a successful quilting business. Like many small towns across America, employment was scarce, so in November 2008, on a modest budget, the Doan family bought a building in Hamilton and started Missouri Star Quilt Company. At first they offered basic quilting supplies and machine quilting services, but business picked up when they started posting videos of Jenny teaching quilting tutorials online. From that time on her life changed forever.

Almost 13 years later, Jenny now teaches quilting tutorials on YouTube once a week and continues to share her story everywhere she goes. It’s a labor of love and a dream come true for her. Hamilton, Missouri, has become a quilter’s paradise, attracting visitors from around the world. With the help of Jenny’s husband, Ron, her seven children, and 25 grandchildren, this family business has grown to include an entire community.

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This episode is sponsored by Divine Social. Divine Social is a marketing agency that helps eCommerce stores who sell to makers, creators, crafters, artists & DIY enthusiasts.  They are behind some of the biggest brands in the creative industry, responsible for strategies to move your online traffic from prospects to buyers to raving fans.  Just in time for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush, the team at Divine Social is offering a customized review of your shop to help you uncover what’s keeping you from selling more. Go to divinesocial.com/cia for more details. 

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Episode #202: Wendy Ward

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 line of sewing patterns called MIY Collection and has written five best-selling sewing books including her most recent, How to Sew Sustainably which was published in June.

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This episode is sponsored by

Bungalow Quilting carries the highest quality and most recent fabric releases. Your order will ship in less than 24 hours and we are centrally located. Curated by a 5-time author for C&T Publishing, and designer for Studio e fabrics, Judy knows how to select great fabrics for her shop. Shop online and use the discount code BUNGALOW to receive a 10% discount on your purchase for the month of October 2021.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Podcast Episode #201: Schacht Spindle

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a weaving loom and spindle company with my guests Jane Patrick and Barry Schacht of Schacht Spindle Company.

Jane Patrick has been in the weaving and the textile arts field for over 40 years. Between 1981 and 1992 she was an editor at Interweave Press where she edited HANDWOVEN magazine, books, and Design Collections. Jane is an ardent enthusiast of both the art and craft of the textile arts, with interests in both contemporary and traditional work. Jane is the Creative Director for Schacht Spindle Company. Her current project is developing a textile school at Schacht in Boulder, Colorado.

Barry Schacht, CEO of Schacht Spindle Company, came into the weaving and spinning world by chance, in 1969, when his brother’s girlfriend wanted to learn to spin. From a first commission to make a drop spindle, to creating a loom with little knowledge, Barry has been the guiding light of Schacht Spindle Company, now housed in a 33,000 square foot building and employing 50 employees.

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This episode is sponsored by Wunderlabel, your one-stop-shop for professional custom clothing labels and personalized branding products. Visit wunderlabel.com to customize your own clothing labels, hang-tags, gift ribbon and other branding items. Our interactive online design tool will walk you through the design process. Recycled options, small batch quantities and OEKO-TEX certified labels are just a few of the amazing options we offer. Use discount code CIA15 for 15% off your entire purchase.

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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 industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.