On this edition of “The Secrets of Mastery,” a production of Craftsmanship Magazine, we talk with musical inventor Andy Graham, whose long-term fascination with a centuries-old Australian aboriginal wind instrument, the didgeridoo, has yielded several off-the-wall new musical creations. 

The Electric Stringed Didgeridoo, the Didge-ly Bow, the Fiddleridoo and the “Didge Bass” all are just a few iterations of the ancient instrument that Graham has fashioned over the past 25 years. 

From his Santa Rosa-based studio, his experimentation has also created the Nixa Wobbler, a percussion instrument composed of a magnet on a rod. And he sells the SlapStick, which he patented. It looks like a metal walking stick with frets, and Graham plays it as if holding a guitar. 

Graham can be seen performing as a one-man band with his wild-looking instruments, everywhere from Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area to the annual National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) musical trade show in Anaheim. 

I sat down with Graham to learn more about how he sees himself fit into the historical tradition of the didgeridoo, and what motivates him to devote his life to creating new musical sounds.

LINKS: 

Andy Graham’s website: http://www.andygraham.net

Craftsmanship Magazine: https://craftsmanship.net/

Other episodes of Craftsmanship Magazine's “The Secrets of Mastery” series: https://craftsmanship.net/interviews/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

On this edition of “The Secrets of Mastery,” a production of Craftsmanship Magazine, we’re talking about taking bamboo to new heights. 

Jonas Hauptman, an industrial design professor at Virginia Tech, has been experimenting with ways to use bamboo, a giant grass, to build multi-story housing. 

Hauptman says bamboo could be key to housing the world’s growing population in a more ecological way.  

Bamboo culms, or stalks, can be harvested in just 3-5 years, and they grow back in place from the same rhizome bulb. Contrary to wood, steel or concrete, bamboo is lightweight, making it easier to transport, and cheaper to use on the construction site. 

For the past seven years, Hauptman has collaborated with organizations in Ecuador and other countries in the Global South to experiment with bamboo construction, which includes planing bamboo stalks and turning them into panels. 

Hauptman has had his hands on many different materials throughout his varied career as an entrepreneurial craftsperson. He’s a trained blacksmith, he’s made modernist furniture out of tree flakes, and while living in Los Angeles, he researched how to divert palm tree fronds away from the landfill. 

I sat down with Hauptman to learn more about his ambitions with bamboo, and to find out how his hands-on experimentation with materials informs his design work. 

LINKS: 

Jonas Hauptman at Virginia Tech: https://design.vt.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/industrial-design/hauptman-jonas.html

Craftsmanship Magazine: https://craftsmanship.net/

Other episodes of Craftsmanship Magazine's “The Secrets of Mastery” series: https://craftsmanship.net/interviews/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

On this edition of “The Secrets of Mastery,” a production of Craftsmanship Magazine: why is entomologist Doug Tallamy on a national crusade to get private landowners to tear their lawns?

As a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Delaware, Dr. Tallamy sees the world from a bug’s point of view. He’s also a co-founder of an organization called Homegrown National Park. The organization is trying to convince Americans to grow native plants — not ornamental, non-natives — in order to increase biodiversity. Tallamy says rewilding approximately 44 million acres of lawn is critical to restoring the natural order of insects of animals that keep our food webs strong and help alleviate the climate crisis. 

We interviewed Doug Tallamy about how he’s rewilded his own land in Pennsylvania and the steps landowners can take to be craftspeople of biodiversity in their own yards. 

The “Secrets of Mastery” podcast series is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions. Pauline Bartolone is Senior Audio Editor for Craftsmanship.net. Managing Editor for the magazine is Laurie Weed, and Todd Oppenheimer is the founding editor and executive director. 

LINKS: 

Homegrown National Park: HomegrownNationalPark.org

Craftsmanship Magazine's podcast page: https://craftsmanship.net/podcasts/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

It’s one thing to make, it’s another thing to sell. 

On this edition of “The Secrets of Mastery,” a production of Craftsmanship Magazine, we talk with Rebecca van Bergen, founder and executive director of NEST, about what craftspeople need to have thriving businesses.

NEST helps craft businesses around the world grow by providing training, resources and sales opportunities.

The international organization has worked with 2000 artisans and businesses in more than 100 countries, from quilters in Alabama to candle makers in Taiwan. 

Because of Nest’s work, potters, jewelers and textile workers sell their wares through major brands such as MadeWell and Anthropologie.

“One of the questions I’m often asked is whether or not with robotics and AI whether the death of craftsmanship is upon us,” van Buren tells Craftsmanship Magazine. “We’ve seen the opposite. And the more we swing in that direction, the more the human psyche craves something else.” 

Van Bergen brings her training as a social worker to help craft businesses grow. Her own grandmothers were textile workers. I asked her about what craftspeople need — and offer — in an increasingly manufactured world, and about the role both humility and hustle play in business. 

The “Secrets of Mastery” podcast series is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions. Pauline Bartolone is Senior Audio Editor for Craftsmanship.net. Managing Editor for the magazine is Laurie Weed, and Todd Oppenheimer is the founding editor and executive director. 

LINKS: 

NEST: https://www.buildanest.org/

Craftsmanship Magazine's podcast page: https://craftsmanship.net/podcasts/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

This week on "The Secrets of Mastery" produced by Craftsmanship Magazine, we’re talking about letterpress printing. 

For centuries, newspaper and book publishers used this analog method of printing, involving heavy machinery, ink, paper, and thousands of tiny metal typecasts, to reproduce their words for the masses.  Though it’s largely been replaced in commercial printing by cheaper, faster methods, there’s a tactile, handmade quality to letterpress that makes the digital word feel merely two dimensional.   

Craftsmanship Magazine visited San Francisco’s iconic Arion Press, one of the last fully integrated letterpress printing shops that casts, types, and binds its own limited edition books. We sat down with Creative Director and Lead Printer Blake Riley, who surprised us with details about the craft’s history and recent revival— though he was skeptical about applying the term “master artisan.” 

The “Secrets of Mastery” podcast series is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions. 

Pauline Bartolone produced The Secrets of Mastery series for Craftsmanship Magazine. 

She is also Senior Audio Editor for Craftsmanship.net.

Managing Editor for the magazine is Laurie Weed.

Todd Oppenheimer is the founding editor and executive director of Craftsmanship.

LINKS: 

Arion Press: https://arionpress.com/

More podcasts from Craftsmanship Magazine: https://craftsmanship.net/podcasts/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

This podcast episode is inspired by the Craftsmanship Magazine photo essay “Printing with Love” by Douglas Cruickshank, with Todd Oppenheimer and Claire Bloomberg.

 https://craftsmanship.net/printing-with-love/

On this edition of "The Secrets of Mastery," we’ll hear one woman’s journey from starving artist to owner of a successful, large-scale glassware company.

Annie Morhauser, founder of Annieglass, started her business 40 years ago with little more than debt and determination. Today, her glassware can be found on fine dining tables across the country—as well as in the Smithsonian.

“The secret to mastery is adaptability,” Morhauser says. “I don’t care how talented you are, how much money, opportunity, [or] if you’re at the right place at the right time. The most important thing is adaptability.”

Annie Morhauser first fell in love with glassblowing in the 1970, when she saw the craft at a beach party on the California coast. She went to art school, and began selling her own handcrafted glassware at galleries and craft fairs. But she soon learned that wouldn’t pay the bills. So she scaled up and started her company,  AnnieGlass, which now has a factory in Watsonville, California. 

Morhauser has found a way to mass-produce plateware that is durable enough to survive a storm, but still has the unique beauty of glass made by the human hand. 

The 20+ workers at AnnieGlass use minimal technology, like waterjets, to produce Annie’s designs for a broad client base that includes high-end department stores like Neiman Marcus, and hotels in Las Vegas Hotels. 

Annie shares her wisdom about “letting go” of mistakes, the importance of “hiring up,” and how she feels about babies being baptized in her glassware. 

LINKS: 

AnnieGlass: https://annieglass.com/

Craftsmanship Magazine's podcast page: https://craftsmanship.net/podcasts/

Sign up for Craftsmanship Magazine on Substack: https://craftsmanship.substack.com/

On this episode of "The Secrets of Mastery," from Craftsmanship Magazine, we walk into the world of drought-resistant gardening at the Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery in Walnut Creek, California.

Cricket Riley, former design services director for the garden, gives us a tour of the 3-acre oasis of succulents, cacti, and herbaceous plants that need very little water. Then we sit down for a chat about the unique horticultural design principles of the late Ruth Bancroft, and how her love of succulents turned into an international model of climate-resilient gardening.

When she died in 2017, Ruth Bancroft was 109 years old. She worked in the garden 8 to 10 hours a day into her late 80s, according to a New York Times profile. 

Ruth Bancroft’s garden design sensibility was unusual for her time. She started planting succulents back in the early 1970s, when succulents weren't in style. 

Ruth created visual interest, Riley says, by blending plant texture, such as the angular, coarse texture of agaves with the finer texture of herbaceous plants. 

The Bancroft garden is also noted for a sense of seamlessness. There are no retaining walls or landscaping edging. Three-to-four-foot mounds provide plants with adequate drainage and create smaller “rooms” for visitors to wind through. 

When Ruth started the succulent garden, her family was limiting water use on the part of the farm designated for her pleasure garden. Instead of seeing that as a limitation, Ruth used the parameter to create a stunning landscape for any Mediterranean climate. 

“She didn't do it for like an altruistic idea,” said Riley. “It was this idea that ‘I'm going to create this garden that will be able to withstand the conditions of this place.’ And isn't that what climate resilience is?”

Over the years, Ruth Bancroft took meticulous notes about the horticulture project and the trial and error she practiced. In the 1990s, the garden opened to the public. And since then it has become an example of what everyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint and use fewer resources in the garden. 

—

The “Secrets of Mastery” podcast is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions. Pauline Bartolone is the senior audio editor for Craftsmanship.net. Managing editor for the magazine is Laurie Weed, and Todd Oppenheimer is the founding editor and executive director. 

LINKS: 

Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery

Cricket Riley’s forthcoming book, “Designing The Lush Dry Garden,” co-authored with Alice Kitajima & Kier Holmes. 

On this edition of “The Secrets of Mastery,” a production of Craftsmanship Magazine, we hear from Italian gelato-maker, Andrea Soban, based in the northern city of Valenza, Italy. 

Soban is a third-generation gelato maker, who continues to win prizes at international competitions for the quality of his coveted dessert.

In 2019, Soban published a book titled simply “Making Italian Gelato.”

In this short interview, Soban talks about the differences between gelato and ice cream, and about what his family has taught him about mastering this creative culinary endeavor. 

This story draws on original reporting from journalist Erla Zwingle, who wrote “Secrets of an Italian Gelato Maker” for Craftsmanship Magazine. 

The “Secrets of Mastery” podcast series is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions. Pauline Bartolone is Senior Audio Editor for Craftsmanship.net. Managing Editor for the magazine is Laurie Weed, and Todd Oppenheimer is the founding editor and executive director. 

LINKS: 

Gelateria Soban: https://www.gelateriasoban.com/en

"Making Italian Gelato" book by Andrea Soban: https://www.gelateriasoban.com/en/the-book.html

"The Secrets of an Italian Gelato Maker by Erla Zwingle:" https://craftsmanship.net/the-secrets-of-an-italian-gelato-master/

Craftsmanship Magazine: https://craftsmanship.net/ 

On this episode of "The Secrets of Mastery," we learn about an unusual folk art of the American West called horsehair hitching. Horsehair hitching involves the knotting of horsehair into complex patterns to make belts, necklaces, decorative walking sticks, and—of course—accessories for horses. 

Shoni Maulding, who has been practicing the craft for more than 30 years, talks with Craftmanship's Pauline Bartolone about its mysterious origins, how she’s found the patience to master this unique art form, and why a machine could never learn to hitch.

"The Secrets of Mastery” is a series of conversations with artisans about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them. 

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

On this episode of "The Secrets of Mastery," we discuss the value of handmade work with master woodworker and furniture maker Gary Rogowski. The founder of the Northwest Woodworking Studio, Rogowski is also the author of many books about woodworking and creativity in the digital age.

In this interview, we discuss whether technology helps or hinders us in the creation of beautiful things. And about how he sees patience as key to mastering anything. 

Gary has his own podcast, Splinters, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts. 

The “Secrets of Mastery” is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine. It's a series of conversations with artisans and innovators about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them.

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net.