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An interview show for creative entrepreneurs.
Episodes
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Monday Apr 20, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about fabric design and illustration with my guest Heather Ross.
Author and artist Heather Ross has won fame exploring themes of resourceful and creative living, the natural world, and handmade. Best known for her collectible fabric designs and books that appeal to the handmade and craft markets, she also hosts a wildly popular series of craft retreats held across the country.
Heather’s critically acclaimed memoir How To Catch a Frog chronicles her childhood spent in a remote corner of Vermont, in a wilderness setting that remains a major influence on her creative work. She is also a celebrated illustrator of numerous children’s books, including the best-selling Crafty Chloe series, winner of the Kirkus Star. Heather Ross was a regular guest on The Martha Stewart Show and one of the most-viewed artists featured on the how-to video channel Creativebug. She regularly speaks on a wide range of topics that include creative living, the modern craft movement, and handmade.
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Today's episode is sponsored by Stockabl. Stockabl is a curated wholesale marketplace for handcrafted goods, built by makers like you, not by Silicon Valley. We’ve got convenient features like risk-free Net 60 buyer terms without the hefty commissions, and orders are always paid within 3 days so you don’t have to worry about cash flow.
With the average wholesale order being worth $250 and some platforms charging commissions as high as 25%, switching to Stockabl helps you put an extra $62.50 per order in the bank. How? As makers ourselves, we understand how every dollar counts so we’re waiving our transaction fees.
Learn more at stockabl.com/craftindustryalliance. Apply to sell today and get your first month free.
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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.
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Monday Apr 06, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building an ecommerce apparel business with my guests David and Holly Lesue.
Holly is a quilter. She runs Maker Valley—a brand for creative makers (quilters and sewists)—where she designs graphic quilting/sewing tees, writes quilt patterns, curates custom quilt kits and fabric bundles, and designs enamel pins and stickers.
David is a graphic designer. He runs Stately Type—a collaborative t-shirt brand—where he designs graphic tees with the help of his social media followers.
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Today's episode is brought to you by Troll Brothers Quilt Designs. Troll Brothers Quilt Designs is a Canadian online quilt shop located on picturesque Vancouver Island, BC, focusing on today's modern fabrics and trending designers in the quilting industry. Stacie Wilson, the owner of Troll Brothers, provides you the best online shopping experience and personalized customer service to bring you the fabrics, patterns, and notions you are looking for!
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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.
Monday Mar 16, 2020
Monday Mar 16, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we’re talking about building a sewing pattern business with my guest Norma Loehr.
Norma is the founder and creative director of Orange Lingerie. After a career in financial services, she started Orange Lingerie and began making custom bras for individual clients in 2010. In 2013 she published a book on how to sew and fit bras and then began releasing her own line of bra sewing patterns and teaching her techniques in weekend workshops all over the U.S.
Her company’s mission is to enable sewists to make their own beautiful and professional looking lingerie.
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Today’s episode is brought to you by Therm O Web, maker of some of the craft industry’s most enduring and innovative brands, including HeatnBond, ZOTS, iCraft and Deco Foil. Based in the Chicago suburbs, second-generation, family-owned Therm O Web is proud to have served the creative community for nearly 50 years with quality products for sewing, quilting, embroidery and paper crafts. Visit thermowebonline.com to learn more.
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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.
Monday Mar 02, 2020
Monday Mar 02, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about building a business as a paper flower artist with my guest Kate Alarcon.
Kate Alarcón is known for her signature designs of uncommon paper botanicals. She teaches flower crafting workshops through her company, The Cobra Lily, and her remarkable pieces have appeared on sites including Martha Stewart Living, Design*Sponge, Poppytalk, and The House That Lars Built, among others. She lives in the Seattle area.
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This episode is sponsored by Darice.
With over 45,000 arts and crafts items across hundreds of product categories, Darice is your one-stop source for wholesale supplies for your craft hobby, business or store.
Whether you make items to sell at craft fairs and your Etsy shop or you teach workshops or make craft kits to sell, find all the supplies and products you need for your handmade business. Darice is offering an exclusive promotion for Craft Industry Alliance listeners. Visit Darice.com and use promo code CIA15 at checkout for 15% off your order. Offer valid through 3/31/20.
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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.
Monday Feb 17, 2020
Monday Feb 17, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a business in rug hooking with my guest Rose Pearlman.
Rose is an artist and teacher who focuses on textile design. Her workshops center on ways of making beautiful home objects with simple, inexpensive materials. As the daughter of two artists, her parents taught her to value a life filled with creating, tinkering, and playing. She lives in New York City with her family.
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This episode is sponsored by Darice.
With over 45,000 arts and crafts items across hundreds of product categories, Darice is your one-stop source for wholesale supplies for your craft hobby, business or store.
Whether you make items to sell at craft fairs and your Etsy shop or you teach workshops or make craft kits to sell, find all the supplies and products you need for your handmade business. Darice is offering an exclusive promotion for Craft Industry Alliance listeners. Visit Darice.com and use promo code CIA15 at checkout for 15% off your order. Offer valid through 2/29/20.
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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.
Monday Feb 03, 2020
Monday Feb 03, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about fostering creativity through daily practice with my guest Windy Chien.
Windy Chien is best known for her 2016 work, The Year Of Knots, in which she learned a new knot every day for a year. Her work ranges in size from a knot that can fit in the palm of a child's hand to majestic, room-sized installations that are sought after by private collectors. Following long careers at Apple and as the owner of legendary music shop Aquarius Records, she launched her studio in 2015. Select clients include IBM, the National Geographic Society, and the Kering Group, and her work has been covered by Wired, The New York Times and Martha Stewart. Windy’s book about her work was published by Abrams in 2019.
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This episode is sponsored by Search Press. Find your new craft in 2020 and use code NEWCRAFT for a 30% discount on Search Press books on our website, www.searchpressusa.com.
See Search Press books in your local fiber arts and craft store or view our whole catalog at Search Press North America. Search Press books are sold through Sommer Street and are available at industry events.
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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.
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about collaborations with my guest Angela Smith and Liz Gipson.
Angela founded Purl & Loop in 2012 after realizing her “ladder was against the wrong wall” in her sales career and she was determined to find a calling that brought joy and creativity to the world. While she enjoyed needle crafts, she was more focused on the idea of creating a business from them rather than actually doing them. Since she focused on operations and process in graduate school, the world of manufacturing always had a special attraction. Purl & Loop was originally a fiber related e-commerce site. Upon discovering the world of laser cutters in 2014, Purl & Loop moved into the business of creating portable weaving looms and accessories. Her goal is to create fun, cute and simple weaving products to help makers use up their yarn and thread stash. When her mind is overactive with creativity, usually in the middle of the night, she reads mystery novels........she averages about one per week.
Liz Gipson has an educational background in community development, wool science, and adult education, and a lifetime of exuberance for introducing beginners to the art and craft of weaving. She hosts a community-funded, online weaving school for rigid-heddle weavers and a resource-rich website. She has written many books about rigid-heddle weaving both self-published and for established publishers. Liz has worked for herself for the past 8 years and before that worked in the yarn trade in publishing and manufacturing. Having spent nearly 20 years in the yarn industry and more than 30 as a weaver, she really enjoys collaborating with yarn makers, tool suppliers, and fellow makers to create unique learning experiences.
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This episode is brought to you by GourmetQuilter. GourmetQuilter has been bringing original quilt patterns to the quilt world for the last 20 years, as well as many quilting tips and techniques video tutorials via GourmetQuilter on YouTube. 0nline projects are a specialty such as Block of the Day, what's in the Box Mystery quilts, Sew Alongs as well as many other delicious items. Go to www.gourmetquilter.com to learn more and use code CIA20 to receive a 20% discount on the GourmetQuilter book, That Town and Country Quilt, through Feb 29th 2020.
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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.
Monday Jan 06, 2020
Monday Jan 06, 2020
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business as a paper artist with my guest Abigail McMurray of Yeiou Paper Objects. I visited Abigail in her studio in Arlington, Massachusetts to record this interview which was a lot of fun.
With paper as a medium, artist Abigail McMurray combines her background in graphic design and sculpture to create papercraft kits, unique greeting cards, architecturally-inspired artwork, and custom house portraits under the name yeiou paper objects. Abigail’s custom house portraits were awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Etsy Design Awards. These heirlooms capture a home or other building, rendering the details and dimensions in a one-of-a-kind paper sculpture. Abigail lives and works in Arlington, MA with her husband, sister, and cat, who are all very gracious about the tiny bits of paper that end up all over the house.
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This episode is sponsored by Search Press. Bringing you the finest in art and craft instruction books to improve your skills or ignite a new passion.
For 50 years, Search Press has delighted crafters with detailed instruction books for knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting, fiber crafts, painting and drawing. Start 2020 off with some of the finest books in craft. If you would like to learn more about selling Search Press books in your store or on your website, check out our website searchpressusa.com.
See Search Press books in your local fiber arts and craft store or view our whole catalog at Search Press North America. Search Press are sold through Sommer Street and are available at industry events.
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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.
Monday Dec 16, 2019
Monday Dec 16, 2019
Today we have a special episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast recorded at Fall Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. International Quilt Market is a trade show for the fabric and quilt industry. It takes place twice a year, in October and May, and is a time when quilt shop owners from all over the country and all over the world come together to see the forthcoming fabric collections from all of the manufacturers, try out the latest sewing machines, embroidery machines, and long arm machines from all the big machine brands, and discover new notions, buttons, trims, storage solutions, and other neat things they might want to carry in their shops in the coming year.
I attended Fall Quilt Market and recorded interviews with shop owners about how 2019 was for them, what's selling particularly well, and what challenges they're facing coming into 2020. Some of the shop owners I talked to have been in business for three decades, and some for just a few years. Some are full-service quilt shops with a dozen employees, some are very small shops, and some are online only. I enjoyed hearing the diversity of their experiences and I think you'll get a snapshot of the industry by listening to what they have to say.
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This episode is sponsored by Marcus Fabrics and Studio 37 Fabrics. For well over 100 years, Marcus Fabrics/Studio 37 has created beautiful fabrics for quilters and crafters, offering innovative, expertly designed BOM programs, designer fabrics and museum collections for today’s creative market, from Traditional to Trendy! Visit MarcusFabrics.com to view the collections, download some great free projects & more. And follow them on social media @marcusfabrics and @studio37fabrics.
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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.
Monday Dec 02, 2019
Monday Dec 02, 2019
On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a fiber business with my guest Felicia Lo.
Felicia is a designer and entrepreneur, born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Her lifelong passion for knitting, color, and design led her to start the sweetgeorgia blog in 2004. A year later, SweetGeorgia was founded at her dining room table with nothing more than three skeins of sock yarn for sale on Etsy. Since then, SweetGeorgia has become a way of life where work and play are inseparable.
In 2017, she published her first book “Dyeing to Spin & Knit” with Interweave Press and currently, she is developing the School of SweetGeorgia to offer online fiber arts education to color-obsessed crafters. When she’s not playing with yarn or hunting tacos and ramen, she’s chasing her two young children around with her orange-loving husband.
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This episode is brought to you by Darice, a premiere distributor and manufacturer of wholesale arts and crafts supplies with over 45,000 items across hundreds of product categories. Darice is offering an exclusive promotion for Craft Industry Alliance listeners. Visit Darice.com and use promo code CIA20 at checkout for 20% Off your order. Offer valid through 12/31/19.
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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.