Welcome to the first episode of season 5 of the podcast, which we’re calling Mind of a Maker.  We are going to take a slightly different approach to the podcast this season by focusing more on the creative process itself. Each episode will examine a  specific piece of work or body of work of our guests and take a deep dive into how that work evolved . Also along with each podcast, we will be producing a short films to take the highlights from our conversations and put them in a visual form....

On Episode 57 of Why Make? we talk with Brad Reed Nelson, a Glenwood Springs, Colorado woodworker, furniture maker and product designer creating magical pieces made from metal and wood. Brad, aka BRN, and his better half Ann, run Board By Design, a functional design company making such brightly colored amazingness as Knuckles, The Good Pot, Elefunction, Blokkey, Bling Pong tables and the steadfast Winsorrondack chair. We talk with Brad about his years in school and learning about life and...

Episode 56 of Why Make? is a conversation 50 years in the making! Erik sits down sit with his childhood friend, the amazing metalsmith, jeweler, sculptor and teacher Boris Bally. Erik last saw Boris sometime in 1974 when they were 12 years old. Originally, like Erik, from Pittsburgh, Boris now resides and works in Providence RI. A maker from the early days of his youth, Boris fell in love with the magic of working metal and never looked back. Growing up in a Swiss family he took advantage of...

In Episode 55 of the Why Make? podcast we talk with Mia Hall, a maker, former educator and current executive director of the Penland School of Craft, one of the oldest and most prestigious craft schools in America. After growing up in Sweden Mia moved to northern California at the age of 18 and explored for the next 10 years. When a close friend became a buyer for Pottery Barn that possibility as a career excited Mia and she  found a path forward through art school. Eventually enrolling at...

Retired educator, jeweler and metalsmith extraordinaire Bob Ebendorf joins us on episode 54 of the Why Make podcast. Originally from Topeka Kansas, Bob was a star football player and wrestler in high school who had the choice of a big time college athletic scholarship or attending art school. Lucky for us he made the right choice! After spending his undergraduate and graduate years in the art department at the University of Kansas Bob then went on to spend a fair amount of time in Norway...

Welcome to Episode 53 of Why Make? On this episode we talk with Robert Lyon, a woodturner, artist and educator who lives and works in the Columbia, SC area. Literally climbing the walls with handmade ladders as a small child, the sky was the limit, as Robert explored model rockets and building theatre sets, before landing in art school for college. His lifetime in the arts started in ceramics when he discovered he could spend the whole day at the wheel and not notice the passage of time. No...

In Episode 52 of Why Make? we talk with Katie Thompson, an artist, writer, creative consultant and instructor based in the Low Country outside of Charleston, SC. Katie wears many hats including being a disabled mother of two, and wife and partner to fine furniture maker Joseph Thompson. Katie has a passion for people and sharing their stories, and pursues her inclinations as a storyteller through her monthly online woodworking journal Pen and Chisel and her ongoing project the  Women of...

Welcome to Episode 51 of Why Make? We are excited to be talking with Boston native Aspen Golann, an artist & furniture maker, and recent graduate of the North Bennet Street School, who blends early American furniture forms with sculpture and social practice. Aspen maintains an active teaching practice. Most recently Aspen is a recipient of the second annual Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft, she has also received a Windgate residency in the wood/furniture design program at San Diego...

On this episode of Why Make? we talk with Kim Winkle, an arts administrator full time teacher and artist. Kim is a Professor of Art and the Director of the School of Art, Craft & Design at Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft. A native of Oklahoma Kim holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in Ceramics from the University of Oklahoma. She then started her MFA in ceramics at San Diego State University but during her first year was persuaded to take a class in the Applied...

Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part two of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama. Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species. As we discuss in the podcast, at 28:03 of...

Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part two of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama. Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species. As we discuss in the podcast, at 28:03 of...

On this episode of Why Make we talk with James McNabb a woodworker and artist who grew up in Montville, NJ overlooking New York City. James grew up in a family that was very supportive of his creative endeavors, his mother being a teacher and father a carpenter. Early experiences taking woodworking classes in middle and high school led him to pursue his undergrad in woodworking, at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It was as a graduate student at the...

On this episode of Why Make? we resume our conversation with Melanie Falick an independent writer, editor, creative consultant and lifelong maker who lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. We continue talking about the creation of her book Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live and also find out more about work on her new book, tentatively titled The Maker’s Way. Melanie enjoys learning by challenging herself with new things and shares with us the...

On this episode of Why Make? we talk with Melanie Falick an independent writer, editor, creative consultant and lifelong maker who lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. Making things, handwork and creativity were avidly fostered by Melanie's parents in their household growing up and with a natural talent for writing Melanie began a career in publishing and soon combined it with a passion for knitting and other forms of handwork. As a result, she has written and helped other authors create...

In this Bonus Make with Zeke Leonard we get into the nitty gritty of the relationship between making objects and musical instruments and being a musician or just making wonderful noises.

On this episode we talk with Zeke Leonard, a Syracuse, NY based educator, designer, musician and maker. Born in Charleston, SC Zeke started out early, getting involved in community theater while growing up in Winston Salem, NC. His interest in acting and set design & construction led him to a degree in Set Design at the NC School of the Arts. Zeke moved to NYC to follow the dream of a career as a theatrical set designer where he eventually became disillusioned with all the waste created...

Episode 43 of Why Make? is a Bonus make? We talk with Tom Loeser about the time he spent with Tommy Simpson in 1981 during a 10 day chair making workshop at the now defunct Boston University Program in Artisanry. Tom talks about Tommy’s ability to tell a story through a narrative and his exceptional quality and speed as both a maker and woodworker. So loosen up, get ready to reset your brain and enjoy this Bonus make conversation… Tom talking about Tommy.

On Episode 42 of Why Make? we talk with Tom Loeser, an educator, furniture maker, and box maker who recently retired as the head of the Furniture Design and Woodworking program at UW-Madison where he has taught since 1991. Tom designs and builds one-of-a-kind, functional and dysfunctional, objects that are often carved and painted. His work is primarily based on and uses the history of design and object-making as a starting point for developing new form and meaning. We talk with Tom about...

On Episode 41 of Why Make? we talk with Christopher Schwarz, a furniture maker, educator, writer and publisher who lives and works from a storefront in Covington, KY. Schwarz is one of the founders and the editor of Lost Art Press, which publishes numerous, high quality books, including the Anarchists Tool Chest, on hand tool woodworking. In 2019, Schwarz triumphantly closed his commission book, and now builds pieces on spec only and sells them via his prolific woodworking blog at Lost Art...

Building sandcastles on the beaches of Massachusetts is the perfect way to start a life long love with making which Mark Del Guidice continues to this day. In Episode 40 of Why Make? we talk with Mark about growing up in a working class family which may have been short on experiences in the arts, but, was long on nurturing and probably at the heart of this psychology student turned supermarket managers discovery of his hands as the tools he wanted most to work with! After discovering the...

A brief update on our progress on the Tommy project

This episode is a special edition of sorts where we actually talk about the process of making instead of getting all existential like we usually do… and although this is definitely not a “tool talk” it is more of a How Make! than a Why Make? this time around! On Episode 39 of Why Make? we talk with Karen Ernst a maker and educator, who is currently a Professor in the Art Department at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where she teaches woodworking and furniture design. Originally from...

Welcome to our holiday episode of Why Make. Today we have something extra special in store for you.It’s a conversation with one of the groundbreaking artists of the modern studio furniture movement… Tommy Simpson. Tommy’s work has a whimsical bent, but that belies a serious approach to making for someone who has created a universe of uniquely Tommy objects in every media you can think of. Tommy along with Wendell Castle cracked the furniture atom with their 1966 exhibition in New York called...

In this episode of Bonus Make! we continue our conversation with Ellie Richards, a furniture designer, sculptor and teacher who is currently a resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts. We talk with Ellie about her project “The Highboy’s Understory: Deconstructing the Icon” in which she examines the Winterthur, Delaware Museum, Garden and Library’s collection of high chests and other related forms. Richards plans to incorporate this research in a new line of work that responds to and...