Crafting a Revolution

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  career as a Graphic Designer,  I worked in an age...

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 custom furniture for homes and businesses. You may...

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 glass, are all mediums I have explored to complement...

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 cases, a user/viewer is necessary to complete the p...

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 design to drawing and painting.  ABOUT US   Bristle...

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 woodworking. Her first creations included several p...

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 focusing on body remembrances of childhood and joy. Her...

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 that feels familiar for everyone. You can follow K...

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 school at the Waldorf School in Rogers Park, and...

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, friends, and lovers. Interested in creating forms for...

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 intersections of labor, leisure, community, and culture. She...

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 Woodworking Studio Online Mastery program and takes privat...

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 compliment each other when they chose to work togethe...

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 world around us and the things within it are unique...

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 Instagram . Follow guest host Bonnie on Instagram .

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 Colombian on one side and 3rd generation Jewish from...

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 Instagram .

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 Penland, and recently had her work featured in th...

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 her handmade sign wanted to know where they could g...

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, especially with tools. Boun is also looking to lea...

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 of wood, which gives her the creative outlet that...

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 Dublin in 2010. Since 2011 Laura has been the Prog...

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 "pit stop" on her journey, and why those moments...

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'Neal, Michi Meko, Radcliffe Bailey and Sam Gillia...