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An interview show for creative entrepreneurs.
Episodes
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
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, and abstraction. Heidi recently completed a yearlong ARTservancy artist's residency, is a two-time Mary Nohl Fellowship finalist, and has received multiple awards from the Modern Quilt Guild.
Heidi lectures and teaches with a passion for the beginner, and her unique improvisational style promotes the qualities of allowing, savoring, hinting, manifesting, and documenting. Whether on-site or via a self-hosted workshop on her website, Heidi incorporates hand yoga and body care as an essential component of learning to sew.
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This episode is sponsored by Divine Social, a marketing agency for craft and DIY enthusiasts.
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. And now, 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.
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Monday Jan 17, 2022
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 including Vogue Knitting Live. Safiyyah's new book, 2 Socks in 1, comes out this year with Storey Publishing. Safiyyah lives in Indiana.
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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.
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
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 had its former name and theme music when this episode aired. Thank you for listening. I hope this interview is a small way to honor Melanie Ham’s legacy.
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
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 exhibit and visit the h+h Cologne show in Germany. In Darrin’s role with Koelnmesse Inc, he services as the Director of Business Development, IT & Systems Manager, and the show Director for h+h Americas. Before Koelnmesse, Darrin was a University Professor, Service Consultant, and Business Owner. Darrin lives in the greater Chicago area with his two daughters and wife.
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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. And now 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.
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Monday Dec 13, 2021
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 born, she wanted her to be as passionate about sewing but found there was no studio in my town and so she founded Hipstitch, a sewing and craft studio for children in Newton, Massachusetts.
HipStitch has been in business now for 12 years, opening its second location in Wellesley and a third location is due to open in January in Brookline. HipStitch has expanded its offerings to include knitting, crochet, and fiber arts as well as their own DIY hand and machine kits to create at home. In addition to offering classes at their studios, they offer the program offsite to 15 schools in Newton, Wellesley, Weston, Cambridge, and Brookline.
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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. 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.
Monday Nov 29, 2021
Monday Nov 29, 2021
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 share the world of beads with others. She became a full-time beadweaving jewelry designer and teacher in 2004, and had the pleasure of teaching at national bead shows like Bead & Button and Bead Fest, as well as traveling to bead stores and bead societies all over the country for classes full of laughter and bead learning for over a decade. She is the author of Jill Wiseman’s Beautiful Beaded Ropes, and was honored to be chosen as one of Beadwork Magazine’s Designers of the Year for 2013.
In 2013, Jill started a YouTube Channel which now boasts more than 170,000 subscribers where she educates beaders around the world with videos showing techniques, tips, and projects. After the YouTube Channel launched, viewer demand for bead supplies influenced Jill to open an online bead store which has now grown into a 6,000 square foot warehouse facility with 4 employees.
Beading has taken her from coast to coast, and internationally to places like Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, and China. But the rest of the time Jill makes her home in Austin, Texas, with her mother (employee #1,) as well as two spoiled dogs who only occasionally eat the beads.
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This episode is sponsored by The Academy for Virtual Teaching.
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 Nov 15, 2021
Monday Nov 15, 2021
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 helping women - particularly Black women and women of color - to create the life they want doing work that they love, which society doesn't always encourage.
Tian currently has a new free course out, Get Published, created in partnership with Knit Picks and We Crochet. Get Published is a 6-part video series for aspiring and experienced designers who are ready to take their designing to the next level by adding 3rd party publications. Each video takes you through the process from creating your proposal all the way to the publication going live. The course is available now to binge-watch on-demand. Tian also teaches classes on Creativebug.
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This episode is sponsored by goimagine. goimagine is a handmade marketplace donating 100% profits to charity. With a mission to help children in need, goimagine is a movement of makers & artists growing their own handmade businesses while supporting a marketplace focused on social good. Learn more about goimagine's new concept for a caring economy at goimagine.com
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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 Nov 08, 2021
Monday Nov 08, 2021
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.
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Friday Oct 29, 2021
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.
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Friday Oct 29, 2021
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.