Crafting a Revolution – Details, episodes & analysis

About Kayden:

I'm Kayden! I'm a coffee-fueled and dad-joke-filled creative. I'm a fan of spreadsheets, climbing the occasional mountain, iced coffee (year round!), anything wood-related, and don't even get me STARTED on sushi.

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I graduated from the nationally accredited Graphic Design program at the College of Saint Rose with a BFA. Throughout my career as a Graphic Designer, I worked in an agency, a newsroom, and on marketing teams for global companies, which gives me a strong sense of designing for a wide variety of industries.

Throughout my career as a craftsman, I have worked in flooring production, construction, a cabinet shop, and a countertop/table production shop. These experiences give me the skills and problem-solving capabilities that allow me to bring your vision to life with tangible materials.

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My wide breadth of experience has given me the foundation to methodically apply what I have learned to my design, woodworking and signmaking processes. Attention to detail, problem-solving, and considering how people will interact with the final product are a few things I take into account when working on projects.​

Follow along with Kayden on his Website  or Instagram.

My woodworking and art have always grown out of functional needs combined with my desire to be in motion. Each piece I create explores the natural lines and contours of the wood, allowing it to come alive with textures, lines, colors, and shadows. 

I use sustainably harvested local wood and non-toxic finishes to make art and custom furniture for homes and businesses.

You may find her on her Website and on Instagram.

Ellie Richards is a furniture designer and sculptor interested in the role the furniture and domestic objects play in creating opportunities for a deeper connection between people and their sense of place. Ellie looks to the tradition of both woodworking and the readymade to create eclectic assemblage, installation, and objects exploring intersections of labor, leisure, community, and culture. She has traveled extensively to investigate the role play and improvisation have on the artistic process. Her work, both furniture and sculpture, has been included in exhibitions at the Mint Museum; Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design; SOFA Chicago; and the Society of Contemporary Craft. Most recently Richards was awarded Windgate residencies at the Center for Art in Wood, and in the wood/furniture design programs at San Diego State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Additionally, she maintains an active teaching schedule sharing the fundamentals of woodworking and artistic practice with a breadth of audience including appointments at Yestermorrow Design/Build School, Appalachian Center for Craft, and Haystack Mountain School of Craft.  She is currently a resident artist at Penland School of Craft 2020-2023.

You may follow along with Ellie on Instagram and her website.

Follow along with the Podcast on Instagram.

One evening Kellie was in need of a bow tie for a special event and decided to design and make her own. Out of pure insanity - and a love for autonomy - she continues to design and create handmade bags, wallets, aprons, ties and other accessories including a handmade all natural fabric wax that is available in retail stores nationwide.  Kellie intentionally created a business that doesn't cater to gender, it caters to people.

You can find and follow along with Kellie on Instagram and her Website.

Phoebe is a studio woodworker from San Francisco, CA, currently based in Evanston, IL, who makes site-specific sculpture using traditional furniture making techniques. She was born in California to Taiwanese-American mathematicians, and grew up navigating hybrid identities. She continues to explore hybrid identities as a queer artist of color.

You can find Phoebe and follow along with her on Instagram and her Website.

Pottery by Osa grew out of her kitchen in New Orleans in 2015 and has since expanded to a full sized studio space at her home in Florida. She took her first pottery class at the age of 34 after playing in various punk bands for about 15 years. Punk isn't about longevity or technique, it's about urgency and primal expression. Being in bands and making zines helped her build the confidence to share her creative projects with others without worrying if they were good enough. By the time Osa discovered clay, she feels she was looking for a challenge. She wanted the chance to work on something for a sustained amount of time and become skilled. With her new ceramic practice, she decided she would prioritize pleasure, follow her intuition and avoid overthinking.

You can find and follow along with Osa on Instagram and her Website.

Prior to joining the mainstream maker movement, Tamara spent a decade in corporate engineering where she was pivotal in creating Women in Leadership mentorship programs.  During this time she noted a lack of women so in 2015, she transitioned full time to outreach in hopes of inspiring more young women to pursue S.T.E.M. careers.  It was during this time that she was given the opportunity to battle it out for a chance to join the Mythbusters legacy where her lifetime as a tinkerer and collector of skills landed her as the only female finalist and 2 x MVP winner.  Since then has become one of the leading female science hosts and engineers on the Science Channel lending her talents to Scijinks with Johnny Galecki, Mythbusters 2.0 with Brian Louden and Jon Lung and most recently on Mythbusters Jr. with Adam Savage.

You can find all of the things Tamara is up to and follow along with her here.

Joyce Lin is an artist and designer passionate about making furniture and sculptural objects that deconstruct material, form, and the ever-shifting relationship between humans and their environment. Joyce currently lives and works in Houston, TX and was a 2019 artist in residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

You can follow along with Joyce's work on Instagram and her Website.

Sandy has enjoyed design and making her spaces her own for as long as she can remember. She started Ellee Home with a vision to build a small and mighty community for real people in their real lives. She creates spaces, objects and content to inspire that community with all things home and decor, lifestyle, and anything they are up for talking about.

You can Sandy on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and her Website.

Gourd bowls are an integral part of the culture of the people of the Northern region of Ghana, where Trustina comes from. They are used to serve anything from refreshing water to palm wine. In her work, she views each gourd as a face or a body, taking note of its natural shape, blemishes etc. Trustina then assumes the role of a make-up artist, emphasizing the beauty that already exists through techniques like dyeing, highlighting, shadowing, trimming, carving and impressing. Slowly, the design reveals itself.

You can find Trustina's work and follow along with her on Instagram and her Website.