Grandma's Silver

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky speaks with the founder of Bushel of Prints, a studio specializing in illustrated wrapping paper and printed goods inspired by memory, pattern, and everyday storytelling.

The conversation explores how even ephemeral, everyday materials like wrapping paper can carry meaning through design. It considers how pattern becomes a form of visual language, and how illustration can transform ordinary places and objects into part of personal and cultural rituals.

Together, they discuss the relationship between design and memory, the emotional role of gifting and presentation, and how small-scale creative work can shape the way we experience everyday life.

This episode looks at pattern not as decoration, but as a way of marking time, memory, and connection through design.

RESOURCES:

• Visit the Bushel of Prints website here.
• Follow along on Instagram.

Read about the Lowcountry!
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If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with Cynthia Main, founder of Sunhouse Craft, for a conversation about tradition, material knowledge, and what it means to carry craft foward today.

This episode is part of a special series exploring American craftsmanship inspired by Colonial Williamsburg, created in partnership with the Craft & Forge brand of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Craft & Forge collaborates with contemporary makers whose work reflects the Foundation's mission to preserve historic trades and pass on artisanal knowledge through living practice.

Based in Berea, Kentucky, Sunhouse Craft operates as both a working studio and a training environment, dedicated to reviving regional materials and traditional making practices through well-made goods for daily use. Through this collaboration, Cynthia's work draws inspiration from the Historic Area, archival collections, and the legacy of early American craft, while remaining rooted in place and process.

Together, Allie and Cynthia explore the philosophy behind making objects meant to last, the role of nature and seasonal materials in shaping craft, and the balance between historic inspiration and contemporary design. 

The conversation also centers on Sunhouse Craft's white oak basketry apprenticeship, an initiative supported in part by South Arts, which is working to restore an endangered Appalachian tradition through hands-on training, mentorship, and long-term skill development.

This episode offers a thoughtful look at craft as living practice, one sustained not only through objects, but through people, knowledge, and the act of making itself.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The path into woodworking and traditional craft
• How regional materials and seasons shape the work
• The influence of Colonial Williamsburg and the Craft & Forge collaboration
• What it takes to rebuild a disappearing craft tradition
• Why apprenticeship is essential to preservation
• The relationship between function, beauty, and longevity in handmade objects

RESOURCES

• Visit the Sunhouse Craft website here, and follow along on Instagram. And shop the collection here!
• Take a peek at the work the Craft & Forge brand is doing, and follow along on Instagram.

Read about Appalachia!
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If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

Recorded live at the Pennsylvania Antiques Show, this panel brings together leading voices in the worlds of design, material culture, and collecting to explore what it means to live with objects today.
Framed as a conversation on collecting—why we do it, how we begin, and what it means to steward the past—the discussion moves beyond acquisition and into the role objects play in shaping identity, memory, and home. Together, the panel considers how a new generation is approaching antiques and material culture with a fresh perspective, balancing scholarship with instinct, preservation with use, and tradition with evolving taste. At its heart, this is a conversation about how we carry the past forward, and why it still matters.


About the Panel
This collecting-focused discussion was convened as part of the Pennsylvania Antiques Show, the inaugural gathering of dealers, scholars, and collectors dedicated to the study and appreciation of American decorative arts and material culture. The panel explored the evolving nature of collecting today, from connoisseurship and scholarship to accessibility, storytelling, and lived experience, offering multiple entry points for both new and seasoned collectors.


Panelists

• Michael Diaz-Griffith is a writer, designer, and historian working at the intersection of past and future. As CEO of the Design Leadership Network and Vice Chair of The Winter Show, he brings a storyteller’s instinct and a strategist’s insight to cultural life, helping organizations connect creative leadership with curatorial thinking. His work treats objects and images as sources of transhistorical insight, revealing how people have lived, imagined, and adorned their worlds, and offering cues for how we might live today. Through projects spanning museums, foundations, ateliers, and publications, he is known for making the material past feel newly alive. He is the author of The New Antiquarians: At Home with Young Collectors (2023), which helped spark renewed interest in antiques among a younger generation. His forthcoming book offers an inviting and authoritative guide to collecting in the 21st century. Follow Michael on Instagram.
• Matthew E. Monk is the Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and an Affiliated Assistant Professor in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. His work takes a holistic and global approach to textiles in America, with a focus on process, structure, craft, and materiality. A dedicated teacher and maker, Matt emphasizes making as a primary mode of understanding, arguing that how something is made shapes how we interpret it. His forthcoming dissertation, A Useable Past: The Creation of an Appalachian Identity and the American Handweaving Revival, 1890–1940, reflects his deep interest in craft traditions and cultural identity.  Originally from Appalachian Virginia, he comes from a long line of craftspeople, grounding his scholarship in lived experience and tactile knowledge. Follow Matthew on Instagram.
• Lisa Minardi is Executive Director of Historic Trappe and an internationally recognized expert in the history and material culture of southeastern Pennsylvania. She previously served as an assistant curator at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and has spent more than two decades working in the field. She is the author and curator of numerous exhibitions and publications on Pennsylvania German art and culture, including Pastors & Patriots: The Muhlenberg Family of Pennsylvania and A Colorful Folk: Pennsylvania Germans & the Art of Everyday Life. Her work has been instrumental in advancing the study of regional material culture and traditional Americana. She also serves as editor of Americana Insights and Executive Director of the Lutheran Archives Center in Philadelphia. Follow Lisa on Instagram.
• Allie Kochinsky is a cultural host and the voice behind the Grandma’s Silver podcast, where she explores American life through the lens of heritage, home, and tradition. Through conversations with artisans, historians, and cultural stewards, her work highlights the rituals and objects that shape how we live. Through her platform @grandmillenniallifestyle, she has cultivated a distinct perspective as a heritage tastemaker, interpreting the past in ways that feel relevant, livable, and deeply personal today. Follow Allie on Instagram.
  

Read about Trappe and Collegeville!
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If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

What makes a home feel truly lived-in?

In this episode of Grandma’s Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with Bebe MacKellar, an interior decorator known for her classic, layered interiors and intuitive approach to creating spaces that feel warm, personal, and enduring.

Bebe shares how her career began apprenticing under her mother at Fanny Bolen Interiors, and how that early hands-on experience shaped her understanding of the importance of intention and following her gut.

In this conversation, you'll hear about:

• Learning design through apprenticeship and experience
• Creating layered, collected interiors that evolve over time
• The role of antiques, color, and sourcing in a home
• The influence of place
• Designing for real life, entertaining, and everyday living

For anyone drawn to homes that feel personal, storied, and thoughtfully assembled, this episode offers insight into the art of creating spaces that are both beautiful and deeply lived-in.


RESOURCES:

• Visit Fanny Bolen Interiors here.
• Shop Buzz by Bebe here.

If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky sits down with designer Vicente Wolf to explore the intersection of interiors, nature, and the art of creating true environments. 

Known for his layered, collected approach, Vicente shares how his work is shaped by a lifelong relationship with the natural work, from tending plants in his New York City apartment to living and working in Montauk. Together, the pair discuss the balance between natural and manicured spaces, and how the same principles that guide a garden can inform the way a room is composed.

The conversation also explores how interiors can function as living landscapes, spaces with rhythm, movement, and emotional resonance, and what it means to design with restraint, intuition, and a sense of time.

Listen for:

• The relationship between interiors and the natural world
• Natural vs. manicured design philosophies
• How to create rooms that feel layered, collected, and alive
• The influence of place
• The role of intuition and restraint in creating lasting interiors

For those interested in thoughtful design and the quiet influence of nature on how we live, this episode offers a deeper look at how interiors can become environments that truly shape experience.

RESOURCES

• Take a peek at Vicente's website here.
• Follow along on Instagram and/or Facebook.

If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

What makes a piece of jewelry meaningful, and how does it become something we keep for a lifetime?

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky speaks with Jane Winchester Paradis, founder of Jane Win, a semi-fine jewlery brand known for its symbolic coins designed to represent intention, identity, and personal milestones.

Jane shares her journey for a career in corporate marketing at Lilly Pulitzer to building a rapidly growing brand centered on meaning over trend. They discuss the philosophy behind her designs, why she believes people are seeking deeper connection to the objects they wear, and how jewelry can function as a modern heirloom, telling a story and carrying significance over time.

The two also explore the themes behind her recent collaboration with Giadzy, including ritual, gratitude, and the role of gathering in shaping memory and experience.

Listen for more on:

• Jane's transition from corporate career to entrepreneur
• Why symbolic jewelry resonates in today's culture
• How objects become modern heirlooms
• The role of ritual and gratitude
• Designing with storytelling and intention in mind

For listeners interested in intentional living, meaningful design, and the stories attached to objects, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how personal philsophy can shape what we create and carry with us.

RESOURCES:

• Shop Jane Win here.
• Follow along on Instagram and/or Facebook.

If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

A single street can reveal a lot about ambition, identity, and the rise—and disappearance—of cultural ideals.

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Allie Kochinsky is joined by architectural historian Mosette Broderick, author of Fifth Avenue: Architecture and Society, to explore how one of New York's most iconic avenues became a powerful lens for understanding American social and architectural history.

From its early days as rural farmland to its transformation into a boulevard of brownstones, and later, a stage for Gilded Age mansions, Fifth Avenue tells a story of aspiration, competition, and constant reinvention. Families like the Vanderbilts and Astors built grand homes not simply for comfort, but as expressions of status, taste, and belonging.

Yet many of these archiectural landmarks were surprisingly short-lived. As the city evolved, mansions gave way to apartments, hotels, and luxury retail, marking a profound shift in how status was defined, from private ownership to public presence.

Together, Allie and Mosette explore the idea of architecture as social performance, examining how buildings reflect identity, hierarchy, and cultural values, and what it means when those symbols are erased. 

This conversation offers a thoughtful look at Fifth Avenue as a place and as a cycle, one that continues to shape how we think about cities, preservation, and the meaning of prestige today.

Listen in for:

• The evolution of Fifth Avenue from farmland to cultural icon
• How Gilded Age architecture reflected wealth, aspiration, and social competition
• The role of architects in shaping American identity
• Why so many historic mansions were demolished... and what was lost
• How status shifted from private homes to public, commercial space
• What Fifth Avenue reveals about modern urban development and cultural change

To purchase Mosette's book, click here.

Read about the Gilded Age!
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If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

Step into the world of Masters Week in Augusta, Georgia, with returning guest Vera Stewart, as we explore the traditions, etiquette, and understated elegance that define one of the South's most iconic spring gatherings.

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, Vera shares insight into the rhythms and rituals of Masters Week, from its distinct visual language and sense of restraint to the ways it shapes how people host, gather, and entertain. Together, we explore how this unique tradition reflects a broader culture of hospitality, intention, and timelessness. 

We also discuss Vera's new cookbook, Generations, inspired by her years of cooking, teaching, and hosting. Filled with approachable, family-friendly recipes, the book captures the spirit of her long-running cooking camps, bringing people together through food and tradition.

Whether you're drawn to entertaining, seasonal gatherings, or culinary heritage, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at how traditions continue to shape the way we live and celebrate today.

Listen in for:

• The traditions and etiquette that define Masters Week in Augusta
• How the event influences entertaining and hospitality
• The cultural rhythm of this iconic spring tradition
• Vera's approach to hosting like a pro
• A look inside her new cookbook, Generations, and its inspiration

Resources:

• Visit Vera's website for information on her camps, show, and to pre-order her new book!
• Follow along on Instagram and/or Facebook.
• Listen to our first episode, which focused on entertaining during football season. 
• You can find Vera's first two books on her website, but if you prefer to shop on Amazon, they're also here: Recipes from My Table and Occasions

If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

While Historic Garden Week offers a glimpse into some of Virginia's most beautiful private homes and gardens each spring, the story doesn't end when the gates close.

In Part II of this conversation, Allie Kochinsky is joined by Deneen Brannock and Candy Crosby of The Garden Club of Virginia to explore the deeper work that sustains this long-standing tradition.

Learn how funds raised during Historic Garden Week are translated into long-term preservation projects, why stewardship requires ongoing care rather than one-time restoration, and how the organization's fellowship program supports research. 

Using projects like the restoration of the Kent-Valentine House grounds as a case study, this conversation highlights how preservation is not static, but an evolving practice rooted in education, investment, and responsibility.

This episode explores:

• How Historic Garden Week supports preservation efforts across Virginia
• Why long-term stewardship matters in historic landscapes
• The role of fellowships in shaping preservation's future

Visitors may come for the beauty of spring, but they leave having contributed to something far more lasting: the protection and understanding of Virginia's cultural and landscape heritage for generations to come.

RESOURCES

• Listen to Part I of this conversation here.
• Visit the Historic Garden Week website (and grab your tickets!) here.
• Interested in the Fellowships? Learn more here.
• Follow along on Instagram and/or Facebook.
• Give to the Garden Club of Virginia.

If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.

“When you step into Whitehall, you’re not just walking through a house—you’re stepping into a vision of what America could be: a place of beauty, innovation, and possibility.” — Campbell Mobley

What can a single house reveal about the creation of an entire destination?

In this episode of Grandma's Silver, I speak with Campbell Mobley of the Flagler Museum, the Gilded Age estate of Henry Flagler in Palm Beach, Florida.

Completed in 1902, Whitehall was once described as "more wonderful than any palace in Europe," and it remains one of the most important surviving Gilded Age homes in the United States. Today the museum preserves not only the architecture and interiors of the house, but also the broader story of how Flagler's railroad and hotel ventures transformed Florida's east coast and helped establish Palm Beach as a winter resort destination.

In our conversation, Campbell, the museum's Chief Curator, shares how the museum interprets this history for modern audiences, what visitors often find most surprising when they walk through the house, and how historic spaces like Whitehall help us understand the social life, design sensibilities, and ambitions of the Gilded Age.

We discuss:

• The creation of Whitehall and its remarkable architecture
• Henry Flagler's role in shaping Palm Beach and Florida tourism
• How the Flagler Museum brings Gilded Age history to life today
• Why historic houses continue to resonate with modern visitors

For anyone who loves design history, Palm Beach culture, or the stories behind America's great houses, this episode offers a fascinating look inside one of the country's most iconic historic homes.

RESOURCES:

• Plan your visit to the Flagler Museum, check out their exhibitions, or view upcoming events here.
• Follow along on Instagram and/or Facebook. They're also on YouTube!

Read about Palm Beach and Flagler!
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If you enjoy Grandma’s Silver, follow the podcast and share this episode with a friend who loves heritage, design, and timeless living.