Keith Drennan is back! Long time podcast supporter and dare I say friend, is here to chat about what happened in the northeast maker world this summer, and a bit about finding your way, unintentionally.

I took a break so why not call this Season 2!?

If you enjoy the show, please share it with a friend, and if you have something to say, leave us a review!

Sarah Windisch is a printmaker and former music teacher, making art to bring folks joy. We chat about how she went from elementary music teacher to printmaker, and how her work was featured on a billboard promoting the local library. Along the way we cover robots, analog coding and quilting.

Mark Adams and Nick Toga are back and we go all over the place. We talk about how AI is affecting artists, and chat about historic ways artists have negotiated making their way through the world as artists inspired by the Mason Currey book “Making Art and Making a Living”. This inspires topics such as being honest and open, using your voice, and creative mischief. Stick around for a bit of encouragement at the end!

Olivia Van Oot is a woodworker exploring quilt patterns in wood veneer. We learn about why craft schools are so important, how she discovered woodworking, and combined her experience with fabric to making quilt-inspired wood projects, lamps, furniture, and a wood dress.

Trevor is back with Patti Gilstrap to recap and chat about our experience at the Maker Camp Group Forge. The group forge event is a collaborative learning experience where a bunch of folks of varying levels of experience work together to bring a vision into reality over a weekend. This year’s project was an approximately 10 foot tall steel weathervane adorned with copper accents. We discuss as usual, the process, and the unique property of undo when working with hot metal.

Trevor Higgins, blacksmith, and obsessive skill sharer is back to discuss the quick win verses deliberate craft. How do we decide what level of perfection we are working towards? When is it about the results and when is it the process. We preview the Blackthorne Resort Maker Camp Group Forge coming up this weekend.

This week I talked to Brittani Locke from the Soft Asylum. Brittani is a marbling artist making beautifully patterned silk scarves. She shares her introduction to marbling and later rediscovery of the art as well as how she shares the art through teaching and her demonstrations at the Catskill Mountain Maker Camp.

Leah Aripotch is a metal scultptor focusing on organic monstrous forms inspired by nature. We discuss the connections between observing nature, curiosity, and the creative process. We follow her journey from being a kid out in nature, to painting, jewelry making and metal sculpture.

Check out Leah’s work on Instagram and her web site

The podcast is back with Derek Weston, a sculptor and fabricator from Philadelphia. We go over his journey from curious creative kid to college where he tried industrial design, but ultimately discovered sculpture. Learning to make things with tools lead him on the path to working as a fabricator and taking a break to explore and learn and meet other creative folks around the US, finally leading to starting his own shop where he does his best to work with clients that provide an interesting problem to solve! Along the way we discuss the value of art school, and cultivating your creative community.

John Graziano, Graz, is a good friend still, if you haven’t heard this one in a while, here is a repeat presentation of my chat way back from Episode 3 back in 2022.

This time I talked with John Graziano, aka GrazMakes on your usual platforms, about curiosity and a constant desire to modify things to understand how they work and to take things apart to bend them to your will. Along the way we discussed the important discovery that, yes, you can make creativity a career and the joy of sharing what you’ve learned a way to show even more folks what making is all about. Check him out at @grazmakes on Instagram and YouTube.

Find Graz at https://www.instagram.com/grazmakes/