The Creative Pulse podcast

For the first time ever, a guest has returned to the podcast! Drew Hill is here to share all about his latest exciting projects, including a brand new book. Drew is a talented crochet artist who specializes in creating fun, adorable characters to add to a collection he calls “Drewbie’s Zoo”. Back on episode 28, we talked about how he learned to crochet, what inspired him, and how he dreamed up all...

Brendan Rawlings spots driftwood and sees the possibility for sculptures. He’s able to breathe new life into reclaimed wood too, creating new ways for it to be enjoyed and valued. After a successful career in another field, he discovered his creative passion while making a driftwood sculpture of a shark for his brother-in-law as a gift. During that process he says he finally, in his mid-thirties,...

Faigie Kobre says that art wasn’t really her thing growing up, but she did have a serious love for art supplies. She became an early childhood educator, providing her students lots of opportunities to develop their own creativity. She even started a website for parents and teachers, providing arts and crafts activities for children to help them grow and develop their creative potential. She also d...

Phillip Bailey takes map-making to a new level. He creates hand-drawn works of art that incorporate traditional elements as well as unexpected, unusual designs. He’s had a passion for both geography and art throughout his life, so making hand-drawn maps is a perfect fit for him. Every piece he makes is created by hand with no tracing or computer-generated imaging involved. He even creates personal...

Emily Puente is a total pro at so many things - and stop motion animation is one of the latest ways she’s sharing her creativity with the world. This form of visual storytelling is an incredible way to create a scene and bring viewers on a ride, all through a series of very small movements. Her company, Huddl Studio, specializes in short-form content for social media and creative content for websi...

Lauren Schipper knows all about the kinds of unique sets of dice that can help you conjure up some extra magic during games with your friends. She recently made a big career jump into making custom dice full-time through her own company - Busy Wizard Dice - so she knows what she’s talking about. “Dice handmade with love” - that’s what she says you can expect from her. She specializes in creating f...

Laura Downing handmakes ceramics and each piece is unique as a result. Taking clay as a raw material, then using her hands and a wheel to get the design exactly right, she creates all kinds of things - everything from mugs, to ornaments, to items that support other artists, like watercolour paint palettes! One of the final steps of her process is to fire those items in a kiln, which heats the piec...

Allie Goodbun has worked hard for years to be able to do the thing that makes her happiest - dancing - as her job. She’s a really motivated, and a really motivating, creative talent who is chasing her dreams and making the most of where they take her. She began dancing at the age of five and since then has performed in tons of shows, studied in New York in sessions led by Radio City Rockettes, sta...

For Gabe Wasylko, the long days of the pandemic became a source of inspiration. He wanted to find a way to add some bright moments so he challenged himself to take a photo every single day and share it through his social media accounts. That “one photo a day” idea really took hold and now his series, “Capturing Cleveland” is an incredible showcase of the diversity of landscapes and beauty found in...

Jim Bachor says that “using the same materials, tools and methods of the archaic craftsmen, I create mosaics that speak of modern things in an ancient voice.” A student and enthusiast of history, artmaking, and storytelling that will endure for the ages, he creates works of art that speak about unusual things, through culturally relevant themes and concepts. In addition to participating in traditi...

Hello friends! This week it’s all me, your host Angela de Burger, saying HI and THANK YOU for tuning in to the episodes, hearing from all of the amazingly creative people who join me on the podcast. I created this podcast to shine a light on people and their creative passions. I’m 70 episodes into this creative passion of mine - the podcast - and as I plan for the future, I’d love to hear from you...

Dingding Hu is an illustrator who specializes in food illustration. She creates whimsical, colourful designs and says she’s in the mood of food and on a quest for joy! She develops commercial art projects for brands to enhance their unique voices and makes editorial illustrations to brighten up reading experiences for publications. Dingding has her own online shop too, called Hu is Hungry, where s...

Siew Heng Boon is a Jelly Artist who crafts 3D jelly cakes and she’s the founder of Jelly Alchemy. She uses seaweed jelly in many different colours to create intricate designs, working with a variety of tools to inject coloured jelly into a clear jelly mold. Siew builds complex images in layers, creating them from an upside-down perspective and then flipping them over when complete and ready to se...

Shazlin Rahman’s beloved grandmother was a strong presence in her life and the artwork she creates is inspired by that strong, resilient woman and her batik sarongs. She says she uses her art to engage audiences in conversations about the resilience of women of colour. Shazlin not only shares images of her finished work, but also time-lapse videos that allow us to see how the end result came to be...

Molly Wilkinson grew up in Dallas, Texas but followed her lifelong passion for baking to Paris, then to other cities in France, and now finds herself in Versailles - yes, the same one you’ve heard of with the incredible Château de Versailles just down the street from where she now lives! After studying to become a French pastry chef, at Le Cordon Bleu no less, she is perfecting her craft and shari...

Anna Chojnicka uses a very typical, everyday item as her canvas - a banana! By pressing and poking into a banana’s peel in a series of carefully placed movements, she strategically bruises the skin of the banana, ultimately creating the most incredible edible artworks. It’s hard to believe how detailed and intricate Anna’s designs are, considering she doesn’t use ink or paint or anything like that...

Siobhan Westrop is a poet who knows how to carefully craft entire story arcs using just the right words. She lives, writes and explores in the Canadian Rocky mountains. Her work has been published in the Tiny Seed Literary Journal and Cerasus Magazine. And she just published a poetry chapbook, titled “Naturally.” For this special chapbook of her poetry, she collaborated with Canadian landscape pai...

Lauren Fitzmaurice has tried lots of different creative pursuits but then she started experimenting with calligraphy. It captured her imagination, was a great match for her skill set, and she’s never looked back! This method of creatively expressing herself came at a time when she needed that kind of outlet, helping her navigate some difficult moments in life. With big life worries on her mind, ta...

Marian Gehman not only puts on a show but also creates the characters she’s portraying, detailing everything - right down to tone of voice, facial gestures and personalities. She’s a ventriloquist so she does all of it without even moving her lips when her puppet speaks! Her characters find their way into this world through her creativity and imagination. And she ensures they are entertaining as w...

Hello again! After a crazy couple of months, taking a big leap to embark upon a new life adventure, I’m so happy to be back and bringing you fascinating conversations about the creative passions of intriguing people around the world. In this episode, I’m sharing what I’ve been up to over the past couple of months (hint: an international move is a big undertaking!). And I also have an update about...

Hi, it’s your host Angela de Burger here! As we near the end of the year, I can’t help but look back and be thankful for all of the guests who have taken time to join me, sharing their stories about creativity. On the 62 episodes of the podcast I’ve shared so far, I’ve had the pleasure of welcoming 63 guests from all over the world.  It’s been so amazing to see thousands of people downloading the...

When Mark Langan looks at cardboard boxes, he sees art supplies. Through his eyes and in his skilled hands, they are raw materials that he uses to bring an artistic vision to life. With his unusual choice of this eco-friendly medium, he’s made a name for himself as an artist. His intricate, detailed, stop-you-in-your-tracks creations are one of a kind! His works range from pop culture, to brand lo...

A few years ago, Kelly Hardy decided to make a gingerbread house for the holidays. It didn’t turn out quite the way she wanted so the next year she tried again, but with a twist. Being a Canadian Football League (CFL) fan, she decided to make a replica of a CFL stadium. She began with the home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Mosaic Stadium. It was a hit! She carried on and has made eight of the n...

Tim Klein is not only a fan of puzzles, he gets really creative with them! He fires up his imagination to stretch the boundaries of typical puzzle play and uses them to create mashup-style, one-of-a-kind works of montage art.  Imagine having two puzzle boxes side by side, one with an image of a horse and the other with an image of a train. Tim looks at those two images and imagines how he might be...

Jane Labowitch started playing with an Etch A Sketch when she was only four years old. She’s been able to combine a talent for drawing with the very precise movements needed to make the toy do what she wants it to do. She’s known as Princess Etch, is a professional Etch A Sketch artist, and has been recognized by Ripley’s Believe it or Not for her incredible creations. When you consider an Etch A...