Craft Industry Alliance

On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we’re talking about creating a lifestyle blog and brand with my guest Brittany Watson Jepsen. Brittany is the founder and creative director of  The House That Lars Built , an award-winning website focused on artful living and making. She is the author of  Craft the Rainbow  and her work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Vogue, M...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about knitwear design with my guest Andrea Mowry . Andrea is was lucky enough to learn how to knit as a child from her Grandma Ginny. By her late teens, guided by the wisdom of the great Elizabeth Zimmerman and her many books, she began trying to work out her own patterns. After leaving her life as a pastry chef to start a fa...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a yarn business with my guest Amy Small. Amy is a business owner, hand spinner, yarn lover, obsessive knitter, and podcaster. Along with making things, she’s passionate about creative small businesses and yoga! At the heart of her business, Knit Collage is the idea that making things makes us better. This might...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about card making with my guest Simon Hurley. Simon Hurley started cardmaking when he was 12 and loved that each card was a unique canvas to work on. After sharing his work on YouTube, he slowly grew a loyal community of crafters who watched his videos. This led to him filming a cardmaking class at Scrapbook.com when he was 1...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about kits and craft books with my guest Cynthia Treen. Cynthia Treen's charming felt animal designs are classics in the making, with their own stories waiting to be imagined. Explore her threadfollower kits and patterns  or her new book, Wind in the Willows Felt Friends . Her passion for teaching and drafting comes through o...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about knitwear design with my guest, Julie Robinson . A more inclusive fiber industry isn’t just possible, it’s a necessity.  Designer and educator Julie Robinson is leading through example. Julie is known for publishing fashion-forward knitting patterns in an inclusive size range. And her courses on the creative and technical...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about quilting and teaching with my guest, Sandra Lee Chandler . Sandra embarked on her teaching career 38 years ago at Santa Ana Community College. She now teaches at many national shows including Quilt Canada, Stitches West, QuiltCon, Festival of Quilts, and Squam, as well as teaching a weekly virtual quilting class through...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about creating a craft kit and workshop business with my guest Morgan Spenla.   Morgan is the founder & CEO of Crafter and The Crafter's Box.  Crafter.com  is an online home for makers offering educational videos, kits, patterns and community, The Crafter's Box is a monthly subscription exploring new crafting mediums such as...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about owning a local yarn shop with my guest, Ana Campos. Ana is a Brazilian knitting instructor, fiber witch, and designer with over 20 years of knitting experience. She currently makes her home by the sea in Salem, Massachusetts, known as the Witch City. As a Latina and an immigrant, she values the opportunities for connect...

Today we’re excited to bring you the State of the Industry Panel discussion that took place at h+h americas , a new trade show for crafts industry that took place in Chicago June 22-24, 2022. h+h americas is presented by Koelnmesse Inc., one of the world’s largest trade show organizations, as you’ll hear me mention in the opening remarks. For the first time, this show came to North America and Cra...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a craft kit business with my guest Stephanie Carswell. Stephanie is the Founder and Creative Director of Hawthorn Handmade , a textile craft kit design company based in Dorset in Southern England. Hawthorn Handmade began in 2013 with a small range of needle felting kits, and over the last 9 years has developed...

On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about owning a local yarn shop with my guest Rachel Bratcher, owner of  Ritual Dyes . Ritual Dyes was created in 2017, by Rachel Bratcher an avid maker and true Libra. Ritual Dyes was born in Rachel’s kitchen out of a love (obsession) with knitting and creative control over all the things. Later Rachel and team moved out of t...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a yarn company with my guest Nicole Snow of Darn Good Yarn . United States Air Force Veteran, Entrepreneur,  Mom to a five-year-old, Wife, Founder & CEO, Nicole Snow is the ‘Jane of all trades. In 2008, out of the desire to create a business focused on social consciousness through crafting and design, Nicole fo...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about running a brick-and-mortar stationery store with my guest Kristina Burkey of Calliope Paperie in Natick, Massachusetts. Kristina owns Calliope , a fun and quirky stationery and gift shop in Natick, MA. Calliope started as an online shop in 2014, opened as a brick-and-mortar location in 2016, and just recently moved into...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about fashion design with my guest Whitney Manney . A Kansas City, Missouri native, Whitney Manney graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2012 with a BFA in Fibers. With a desire to create art in a wearable format, Manney creates garments and textile designs under her independent label WHITNEYMANNEY. Manney's work ha...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about yarn bombing with my guest London Kaye . Born in Los Angeles, California, London received her BFA in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating London realized that her love for crochet, and unexpected joy, came together harmoniously when she began using crochet to interact with the envi...

In this special episode of the podcast, we are focusing on the Etsy strike. I sit down with Kristi Cassidy, one of the organizers, in order to learn how it came to be and the impact it might have. If you haven’t heard about the Etsy strike yet, it’s a petition created by a group of Etsy sellers with a list of demands they want Etsy to meet. These include canceling the latest fee increase which bro...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about creating craft media with my guest Anne Merrow. Anne Merrow started off as a book editor but has turned a series of hobbies—knitting, spinning, and weaving—into a beloved career. She is a founder and partner of Long Thread Media , which publishes Handwoven, Spin Off, PieceWork, Little Looms, and other content related to...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a community through knitting with my guest Jewell Washington.   Jewell Washington is the Chicago-based maker and entrepreneurial designer of Northknits . She learned to knit in college and launched Northknits in 2014. Jewell pursues simple living through her passion for DIY, pattern design, stacking her yarn sh...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about online learning with my guest Craig Swanson. At the age of 18, Craig founded Swanson Tech Support and worked as a tech consultant for 6 years before founding CreativeTechs which lead to over a million dollars in sales. Soon after Craig co-founded the creative online learning platform CreativeLive , an idea that was birt...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about blurring the lines between art, craft, design, and poetry with my guest e Bond . e makes digital spaces by day, handmade books by night, hangs out with trees on weekends, and writes something close to poems in the spaces between. Under the studio name roughdrAftbooks—created in 2003—she makes one-of-a-kind artist books,...

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 qui...

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 Hand...

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 wante...

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 indu...