Craft Your Commerce Podcast

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Sarita Westrup, a sculptural basket weaver based in Burnsville, North Carolina, to talk about building a creative business intentionally, finding support along the way, and making room for new possibilities in her practice.

Sarita shares:

• How a high school sewing class sparked her interest in fiber arts—and led her to study fibers at the University of North Texas

• How Penland shaped her craft education, and what she learned while serving as its textile coordinator from 2018 to 2021

• How a residency at Arts Fort Worth and an American Craft Council grant helped her leave a part-time job and commit more fully to her work

• The four parts of her business: studio art sales, teaching workshops, grants, and paid opportunities like jurying exhibitions

• How galleries and local collaborators help with administration, collector connections, photography, packing, and shipping

• The challenges of balancing her first solo exhibition with supporting her mother through chemotherapy—and how deadlines helped her keep moving

• Why she and her partner chose a one-year Penland residency, and how they planned for their next chapter together

• The realities of purchasing a home as a self-employed artist, from preparing financial documents to asking family and friends for help

• How having a permanent home studio has helped her feel grounded and invest in equipment and new materials

• Her current public art proposal in Texas, including the research, mentorship, collaboration, and budgeting involved—and the possibility of adding public art to her business model

This conversation offers a thoughtful perspective for artists and creative entrepreneurs navigating unpredictable income, asking for help, and making choices that support both their work and their lives.

If you're building a creative career one step at a time—or wondering how a more secure workspace might change your practice—Sarita's story is a reminder that support, flexibility, and a willingness to ask questions can open new doors.

Learn more about Sarita: https://www.saritawestrup.art/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie visits Night Owl Iron Works, a blacksmithing and leatherworking studio, gallery, and gathering space in Rutherfordton, NC, to talk with co-owners and partners Jordan and Rachel about what it takes to grow a craft business from a backyard shed to a building they now own in downtown.

Jordan and Rachel share:

• How Night Owl Iron Works began as Jordan's late-night side hustle in a shed in the woods while he was a single dad and hairstylist, and how Rachel slowly crashed the party as a friend, client, and eventually partner in life and business

• The leap from zero rent to their first $200/month shop next to a pawn shop with no bathroom, long before there was a playbook for how to start a blacksmith shop in Western North Carolina

• What it was like for Rachel to be laid off from a corporate job, show up at the shop in tears, and hear Jordan say: you work for Night Owl now, and how they gave themselves two months to make it work

• How a conversation with their town manager led them to Mountain BizWorks, what it meant to have a lender treat them like a person, and how that relationship helped them buy their building and weather both the pandemic and the aftermath of Helene

• What owning their space changed: making decisions on the fly, building an outdoor space, painting when they feel like it, and dreaming about using this building as a launchpad for the next maker-owned business

• The evolving mix inside the building: blacksmithing and leatherworking classes, workshops, a gallery, events, and bar service, and the growing role Night Owl plays as a space for locals and visitors to gather, make, and connect

• Rachel's journey into leatherworking, from I'm not a maker and a $12 Amazon tool kit to falling in love with a craft she never thought she could do, and why being bad at something for a while is essential to learning

• How they think about growth now: navigating lower foot traffic post-Helene, working with a business coach, and planning seasonal product launches so they can keep building without burning out

This is an open, honest conversation about betting on yourself when it doesn't make sense on paper, learning to ask for help, and building a life around craft and community.

If you've ever wondered whether you're a real artist, questioned whether you can responsibly take a big risk, or needed a reminder that you don't have to build your business alone,this episode is for you.

Learn more about Night Owl Iron Works: https://nightowlironworks.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie visits Torched, a community jewelry studio, gallery, and hub in West Asheville, to talk with co-owners and partners Meredith Tibjash and Nora McMullen about what it takes to build a brick-and-mortar metals studio around access, education, and community.

Meredith and Nora share:

• How a chance meeting at a SNAG conference, months of long-distance calls, and a visit to Asheville that Meredith never quite left turned into Torched
• Why they went big from the start instead of starting small, and how Mountain BizWorks helped them get there with two loans ($70k startup, $25k operating) when a traditional bank wasn't an option
• What the business looks like day to day: classes are the bread and butter, with casting services, gallery sales, private lessons, make-your-own wedding band workshops, and bench memberships filling out the rest
• How their apprenticeship program is still taking shape, and why they care so much that it leads somewhere real, not just a certificate that doesn't mean anything outside their walls
• The ongoing puzzle of pricing: how they structure gallery commissions and push their gallery artists to charge what their work is worth
• What caught them off guard, like intro classes and lost wax casting becoming their biggest revenue drivers, and watching people walk out the door with something they made with their own hands, completely surprised by themselves
• How imposter syndrome follows you even when you know what you're doing, and the small, steady reminder that keeps them going: I do know what I'm talking about
• What Helene looked like from where they were standing, grateful the studio was untouched, watching tourism dry up, and leaning on community when it mattered most
• Where they're headed: visiting instructors, payment plans, a scholarship fund in the works, and a long-term dream of opening "Torched Two," a welding, fabrication, and blacksmithing school

This is an honest conversation about building something you believe in, staying creative while running the numbers, growing without burning out, and keeping the door open for people who think they're not the type to make things.

If you've ever second-guessed taking on debt, struggled to price your work, or felt like the creative community in your city had no room for you, this one's worth a listen.

Learn more about Torched: https://torchedavl.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie visits Silver River Center for Chair Caning in Weaverville to talk with Brandy Clements and David Klingler—co-owners, educators, and accidental museum founders—about what it takes to build a business around a craft most people have never thought twice about.

Brandy and Dave share:

• How Silver River started as a tiny shop in Asheville's River Arts District doing chairs, framing, and gallery work—and how the chairs slowly took over everything
• Their shift from restoration to teaching, why overuse injuries forced the question, and what the learning curve of running a school looked like
• What the business looks like now: roughly half education, a quarter materials, a quarter restoration—and the ongoing work of learning to say no and refer out without feeling like they're abandoning the craft
• Why they won't build a hiring model on underpaying skilled workers, and what that means for a small shop with real limits
• The friendships and working relationships that kept them going after Hurricane Helene—shared storage, referrals, and the kind of community you can't plan for
• How a book project turned into two books because there was too much to say about chairs
• Their museum, which now takes up half the Weaverville studio, started as a way to help clients identify their chairs, grew into a free, hands-on collection of Appalachian makers, Shaker pieces, Danish Modern, Hans Wegner, and more

This is a real, unhurried conversation about keeping a traditional craft alive without burning yourself out or compromising what you believe in.

If you've ever struggled with when to hire, how to price your time, or how to grow without losing the thing that made you start in the first place—this one's worth a listen.

Learn more about Silver River Center for Chair Caning: https://silverriverchairs.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Anna Bryant—printmaker, studio co-owner, and former dental hygienist turned full-time artist in Asheville—to talk about rebuilding a creative life from scratch, twice: first when COVID unexpectedly opened a door into art, and again after Hurricane Helene took her studio.

Anna shares:

• Her path from a homeschooled kid with a greeting card business ("Salutations by Anna") to a career in dental hygiene that left her craving creativity
• How a few linocut tools in January 2020 quietly became a full-time practice when COVID shut down dental offices—and why she's careful not to make that transition sound easier in hindsight than it actually was
• The role of mentorship and community in her growth: meeting printmaker Denise Markbreit at a market, joining Asheville Print Studio, learning on the presses, and eventually becoming Denise's business partner
• The story behind Print House—a reimagined, post-flood studio built around green printmaking practices, education, and community
• What it actually means to run a green print studio: water-soluble inks, no solvents, and deep care for what goes into the body and down the drain
• Her experimental mono screen printing process—a hybrid of painting and printmaking using inks that never dry until they touch fiber—and how it shifted her imagery from figurative bodies toward architecture, rooms, and fragile built systems
• How she structures her week to protect studio time: time-blocking, a dedicated admin day, and systems that corral bookkeeping, marketing, and logistics so they don't bleed into making
• Living with imposter syndrome as a self-taught printmaker—from the meltdown over typing "artist" in her Instagram bio to learning to trust her future self to figure things out
• Inspired by Tricia Hersey's Rest Is Resistance and The Nap Ministry, how reframing rest has reshaped her relationship to productivity and studio pace
• Finding and growing her audience in a new body of work, including restructuring her shop for one-of-one prints, shipping framed work for the first time, partnering with aligned brands like East Fork, and thinking of marketing as planting seeds rather than performing on Instagram

This conversation is full of grounded, practical insight for printmakers, craft artists, and second-career creatives navigating the realities of identity, sustainability, and starting over.

If you've ever struggled to call yourself an artist, to balance spreadsheets with studio time, or to rebuild after a big life disruption, Anna's story offers both language and real-world examples for building a practice that's sustainable—for your body, your community, and the environment.

Learn more about Anna and Print House: https://www.annabryantart.com/, https://www.printhouseavl.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

​​This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Laura Wood—contemporary jeweler, educator, and studio owner in Asheville's River Arts District—to talk about the winding, honest reality of building a creative life in craft.

Laura shares:

• Her journey from a dance-focused childhood and a reluctant start in college to discovering art through an eye-opening art appreciation class

• How she fell in love with metalsmithing, studying with mentors like Rob Jackson, Mary Hallam Pearse, and Robert Ebendorf, and finding community at Penland School of Craft

• Why she chose to start a jewelry business instead of pursuing academia after her MFA—and what that looked like financially and emotionally

• The role of mentorship at every stage of her career, from being supported by established metalsmiths and gallerists to mentoring emerging jewelers in her own studio

• How she and Kat Cole created Jewelry Edition to fill a gap for emerging contemporary jewelers, and what they learned from organizing traveling exhibitions and opportunities

• The deeper ways her background in dance informs her jewelry: discipline, choreography, designing for the body, and creating sculptural work that collaborates with movement rather than just "referencing" it

• Her three-year Penland residency—using it to step off the production hamster wheel, make "weird, ugly" experimental work, and rediscover how she starts new work from scratch

• Returning to Asheville, rebuilding her business, and strategically leaning into e-commerce, email marketing, and gallery relationships while also starting a family

• Opening a retail space in the River Arts District, navigating a hurricane that displaced many artists, and ultimately landing in a shared jewelry space that truly fits her practice

• Her practical, energy-conscious framework for selling work in person:

• How to talk about your work without feeling salesy or exposed

• A tiered approach to greeting, educating, and engaging visitors

• Setting boundaries so not everyone gets full access to your story and energy

This conversation is full of grounded, generous insight for jewelers, craftspeople, and creative entrepreneurs who are navigating the realities of money, time, and identity in their work.

If you've ever felt stuck between production and experimentation, or awkward about selling your own work, Laura's story offers both language and permission to build a practice that honors your complexity—as an artist and as a person.

Learn more about Laura: https://laurawoodstudios.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

​​This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

In this episode, Jamie sits down with Deanna Lynch, a hand weaver, bookkeeper, and educator who helps craft-based businesses and small organizations feel more at home with their finances.

Deanna shares:

• Her path from a sheltered upbringing and a derailed art school dream to studying weaving at Haywood Community College

• How weaving became a meditative, grounding practice and why its rhythm mirrors the patterns of bookkeeping

• The financial and personal challenges that pushed her to learn budgeting and accounting as a young mom

• Why she prefers day-to-day bookkeeping and financial storytelling over tax prep

• How numbers can be seen as a visual language and a way to reclaim the narrative of your business

• Practical, approachable advice for:

• Mapping where your financial information comes from and where it goes

• Choosing systems (software, spreadsheets, or paper) that you'll actually stick with

• Doing a year-end review that looks at income, expenses, sales, time, and personal goals

• Her step-by-step method for setting a base rate and pricing your work in a needs-based, reality-grounded way

• Navigating the emotions around raising prices, losing clients, and hearing "no"

• Viewing production as part of craft and skill refinement, and small ways to bring joy and creativity back into repetitive work

This conversation is full of compassionate, practical wisdom for artists, craftspeople, and creative entrepreneurs who want their businesses to sustain both their finances and their well-being.

If money, pricing, or bookkeeping feels scary or shame-filled, Deanna's perspective will help you see your numbers as a story you can understand, and change.

Learn more about Deanna: https://deannalynchtextiles.com/

Connect with us: https://www.mountainbizworks.org/craft-your-commerce/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftyourcommerce/

​​This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.

Craft Your Commerce is a podcast elevating the voices of creative entrepreneurs in Western North Carolina. Each episode features insights from artists, makers, and business mentors who are shaping a thriving craft landscape. Through real stories and practical guidance, we dig into what it takes to build a creative business, stay connected to community, and grow in a way that feels true to your work.

This is a space for learning, inspiration, and celebrating the power of craft.

​​This podcast is produced by Parkway Studios and recorded at the Center for Craft. Original Music is by Hannah Kaminer.