Craft Industry Alliance

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about building a knitting business with my guest Louis Boria . After going viral for knitting during his daily subway commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan late in 2017, 45-year-old Puerto Rican Knitwear Designer and Philanthropist Louis Boria, also known as Brooklyn Boy Knits , has turned his passion for fiber arts into a platf...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcas,t we're talking about running a brick-building a business in crochet with my guest, Twinkie Chan . Twinkie is a San-Francisco based crochet designer and instructor known for her colorful, food-themed accessories like cupcake scarves, hamburger mitts, and slushee cup purses. She has two published crochet books and currently has a crochet inst...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about building a multi-faceted craft business with my guest Kathy Cano-Murillo. Kathy Cano-Murillo is an author, artist & founder of the award-winning brand, CraftyChica . She spreads the gospel of glitter – literally through her DIY projects and figuratively through her speeches, workshops, books, and essays. A former syndic...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a career as a textile artist and creativity coach with my guest Clara Nartey .   Clara's textile artwork has been widely exhibited in solo and group shows in museums across the United States. Her work is held in both private and corporate collections.   Clara is a self-taught artist who learned by stitching tog...

Today on the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a life and career as an artist with my guest Courtney Cerruti .   Courtney is an artist, collaborator and Editor-In-Chief at Creativebug , an online arts and crafts education site. She's authored 5 books, one of which was released earlier this year and is called Make Art Where You Are and her new one, One Color a Day releas...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business in knitting with my guest Gaye Glasspie. Gaye Glasspie a.k.a GGmadeit better known as GG is a 50-something-year-old who fell in love with knitting late in life - in just the last 9 or 10 years.  She is self-taught via YouTube and some wonderfully friendly yarn stores and she is obsessed with all thin...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we're talking about building a business in ceramics with my guest Emily Reinhardt.   Emily Reinhardt created The Object Enthusiast in 2011 right after graduating from Kansas State University. The greatest gift of all was the mentorship and guidance of professors and teachers in the ceramics department at Kansas State, and without these men...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business in bag making with my guest Ellie Lum. Ellie Lum is an accomplished creative entrepreneur, artist, and skill-building educator based out of Portland, Oregon. Ellie’s passion lies at the intersection of education, art, creative business, and environmental justice. Along with her passion for creating,...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business in cross stitch with my guests Lizzy and Spencer Bean. Lizzy and Spencer are the founders and owners of Stitch People , which began in 2013. They both share a great love of entrepreneurship, dog rescue (they have 3 shelter dogs!), and performing which they share as their "capital "D" Dream." They got...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business in rug hooking with my guest Amy Oxford . Amy Oxford is the owner of The Oxford Company in Cornwall Vermont. She’s been making punch needle style hooked rugs since 1982 when she worked as an at-home rug hooker for McAdoo Rugs, a cottage industry in North Bennington, Vermont. She worked as a traveling...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a business crocheting dolls with my guest Allison Hoffman. Allison Hoffman has been crocheting and designing fun amigurumi for over a decade, has written five crochet books, and lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and three sons. She spends her workdays crocheting weird stuff, writing down how she did it, a...

Today on the show we’re talking about building a quilting business with my guest Amy Smart. Amy has loved sewing as long as she can remember. She started quilting in earnest after the birth of her first baby 21 years ago, craving a creative outlet and something that 'stayed done' at the end of the day. While enjoying quilting as a hobby, she feels so lucky to have dovetailed this interest into a s...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about building a crochet business with my guest Toni Lipsey. Toni is the designer and instructor behind TL Yarn Crafts . Through her printable patterns and cheery video tutorials, she strives to make crochet accessible to makers of every skill level. Toni learned to crochet as a teen but honed her skills after graduating from...

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 popu...

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 stick...

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 bega...

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*Spon...

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, tink...

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 sough...

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 ide...

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 pap...

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...

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 thr...

On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we’re talking about goal setting and getting things done with my guest  Elise Blaha Cripe . Elise Blaha Cripe lives with her husband and two young daughters in San Diego, California. She has been sharing thoughts and DIY projects online since 2005, running an online shop of handmade goods since 2008 and in 2015 launched  GET TO WORK BOOK ,...

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about discovering the life you’re meant to live as a maker with my guest Melanie Falick.  Melanie Falick is an independent writer, editor, and creative director—and a lifelong maker. She is the author, mostly recently, of Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live, as well as several other t...