Makers of the USA (Kristan Vermeulen)

"My craft is hand hewing, which is basically turning a log into a square beam using only an axe. It's a craft that's been around for thousands of years. Most of the old homes and barns and structures throughout New England were timber framed, and those beams were hewn just with an axe. So it's a craft that is not common anymore. But you can still learn about it through books or YouTube videos. And as soon as I learned about it, it just resonated. I just knew I was going to enjoy it," said Steve Smith with Renaissance Timber.

Steve traveled far from home to attend school to receive a degree in history and worked in various roles along his career journey but when he came home he wanted to do something with his hands. 

"I grew up on this property here in Cumberland, Maine. And you know, growing up in the fields in the forest with my twin brother, adventuring out in the woods, always working on the old farmhouse with our dad, there's always something to fix. So working with our hands and kind of having that five senses experience of nature with the sounds in the sense. I went to college in the midwest and was a history major. So I was always interested in history, and then worked at a medical school in Biddeford, Maine for a while, and then went to grad school in Dallas for theology, and then communications. So I was writing and storytelling for a while. And it was there in Ohio, where we moved to that I kind of got bitten by this bug of really wanting to work with my hands again, and not just be in an office behind a screen, not seeing the product of my hands," said Steve.

Hand-hewn was the craft that Steve turned to when he ventured back to Maine. Steve did a ton of research by reading books and viewing things online to learn how to hand-hew. 

"Hand hewing is just taking an axe and squaring off around log into a beam that then is useful for timber framing, and timber framing is joining beams to form a structure. The reason is that for thousands of years, people used axes because they didn't have sawmills. They sometimes had saws like hand saws, or pit saws, where guys would saw planks or beams, but it was usually more efficient to square off a log with an axe for hundreds of years here in America, the process looked like this, he would take a round log, you would fix it so it wouldn't move, you know, to either dunnage underneath it or you would have these big, basically metal staples that you would staple it to logs underneath. Then you would take a felling axe, the type of axe you'd use to cut down a tree and you would score down the side of the log, you would mark a square on each end of the log, and establish a plane with a chalk line. As I mentioned, you'd score then you'd come back with that felling axe and knock out the billets in between those scoring marks. So if you think of a bunch of wedges down the side of a log, now you're knocking those billets out between those wedges going along with the grain so they kind of pop right out. That's rough hewing, you've basically had a rough squared-off side. And if you want to smooth that you take a broad axe which has a much longer bit, and usually is a single bevel. So it wants to follow a straight line and you smooth off that face and you can get it really smooth. And if you do that on four faces, you have a squared-off beam. That's hand-hewing," said Steve.

Steve is the only commercial hand-hewer doing this full-time in the United States.

"I wasn't sure if I could make a living at it. But what I discovered was not only that I was very passionate about it, and I do love the lifestyle. But there's a whole niche of Americana, who also appreciate the crafts. And there's homesickness in our country for traditional values and aesthetics. People want to have the warmth of a hewn beam, you know, exposed in their home either as a mantel for a fireplace or a structural beam. And, you know, these people, I don't need thousands of customers because I'm just an individual. So I'm low volume, high value, and you know, I'm able to make a living doing this," said Steve.

Tune in to learn more about the craft of hand-hewing, Steve's history prior to taking on hand-hewing, and what he looks forward to in the future with his craft.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Well, I grew up in Auburn, Maine, and at 10 years old, I announced to my mother, I was going to the Rhode Island School of Design to be a fashion designer. I have no idea where I'd ever even heard of Rhode Island School of Design. But anyway, I did. And then, growing up in Maine, in those years, there was no art after sixth grade. So I took classes wherever I could. And anything in school from mechanical drawing to whatever was holding a pencil and or a paintbrush. So then I decided I did get into RISD but I knew I had to have a job when I got out. And I love math. And I love physics, and I loved art and that with architecture, so I decided to go into architecture. Then I went to RISD. And the first year, I walked around, you didn't have to declare a major and I realized architecture wasn't a good fit. So I went into textile design because that guaranteed a job in New York City. Being a kid from Maine, that sounded just great. So I went to that, and it just didn't fit either. It was not right at all. So but I'm really good at rendering wallpaper. But so um, next door was the metal shop and there was somebody in there casting metal with metal and fire and centrifugal force machines. There was somebody hammering a sheet of copper into these undulating forms and they were all graduate students, they only had a graduate program. Long story short, I just said, I'm never going to leave. I'm going to stay here. So let's work it out. And so ultimately, they did. So I was one of the first undergraduates because I wouldn't go. And I just thought, you know, I don't know how I'm going to have a job after this. But I'm gonna learn something in this and it was just magic to me. It was just magic. It was and it was art. And it was math. And it was physics and all the things that I love and fashion to wow, that's sort of how I ended up there. I mean, I just, I just truly stumbled upon it," said Patricia Daunis.

Patty Daunis is a remarkable artist that has been in the craft of jewelry for quite some time. She has taught at renowned universities and then went full-time in growing her own business that she was dabbling into part-time when she was teaching.

"Giving up the steady paycheck and benefits was hard. In 1981 interest rates were almost 20% and that was just for business. And gold was never as high as it was, then. It's certainly higher now. Silver was $40 an ounce. It has never been that high since then. The Hunt brothers were trying to corner the market. It was a really stupid time to start it. But I did it," said Patty.

She grew her customer base substantially when she started getting her name out there through awards programs and such. Her style is very artistic as she uses materials you would never hear of when putting together jewelry.

 "I like to work with metal or other materials to get a three-dimensional form. I find when I draw, I can almost tell when a drawer draws that design because there's a front and a back, but it doesn't turn the corner. In sculpture, that's what you're looking at, you're looking at a sculpture, if it's a torso, you know, you're looking at how the muscles go around to the back or how, and that's all important. That to me is a very important thing in jewelry. Yeah. And so it's not like this ring. The front is pretty, but the back is pretty. How it all connects is important as well. Make sense? So those are things or earrings are another place where you can be incredibly three-dimensional, right? Because there's so much space here. So I find that I can create forms that I could never think of drawing if I did them on paper with a pencil. So you know, I mean, how do you draw a form like that over there in the park? And sometimes I'll take a simple form like that started out as a circle with a cut. It's several circles with cuts put together and hammered into that shape. So my oval and then a tan shaped into that kind of flower. I get a lot of metal smithing in it. It's got a lot of art. It's got a lot of math in it. Yeah, a lot of physics. It's kind of like small architecture. But then other things here are tick wax and wove it. So you see I've got these woven pieces. So that stint in textile design was not totally lost. But I use wax to weave instead of metal because it gives a softer look nice got more than something," said Patty.

Tune in to learn more about Patty's process behind her Big Reveal piece and much more.

Please visit Patty's website here.

To see Patty’s final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Eric Hopkins is not just an artist, he is a kind gentleman that looks at the world through a different lens. He takes his experiences of life, death, happiness, beauty, and much more and showcases it through his work. His work is portrayed in many forms of art from watercolors to oils to photography. He enjoys the use of bright, vibrant colors and typically you will see in many of his watercolor work, small forms of trees that give his landscape texture and dimension. It is a minor detail that many see as Eric's signature and when one sees it they know exactly who created it.

Eric along with his two brothers was born on North Haven Island and he and his brother David still reside there today. Eric's three children grew up on the island as well. One of his sons passed away in a horrific car accident and his other son and daughter still reside on the island raising their beautiful families. You will find Eric putting together beautiful pieces on his 40-acre property. He has three shacks that all include studios, one for his watercolors, the second for his drawings and sketches, and the third for his woodworking that best complements his watercolor pieces. Eric also has a gallery located in Rockland that showcases many pieces of his work.

Eric enjoys traveling the world and capturing the beauty of nature in those areas to display through his artwork. He has a glass studio in Washington state where he visits once a year but he always winds up back in his home state.

To learn more about Eric Hopkins and to see his one-of-a-kind artwork, please visit his website. Feel free to follow him on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new artwork and what's going on at his studio.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Sean McGowan. Sean is a fingerstyle jazz guitarist who combines many diverse musical influences with unconventional techniques to create a broad palette of textures within his compositions and arrangements for solo guitar. His song Damariscotta is about a local town in Maine that is a part of the New Castle region.

Thank you to Justin Smulski and Amy Bouchard for joining me on this amazing adventure and capturing the experience through your creative skills and channels.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"My Dad took it to the commercial level. He grew up doing a more fun way to crab which is called trout lining. My Dad worked for the gas company, Baltimore Gas and Electric for years, and then he started taking into commercial with the pots. He’s being crabbing since the 90s. But growing up, he took both myself and my sister out. He used to supply other crab houses as we have now. We always talked about coming back and starting our own crab house. Then around 2008 - 2009, when the economy started crashing, the sales weren't doing great, because I was based in construction, the real estate side of it. So sales were being impacted significantly. So my Dad and I talked and we just said, if we're going to do this, now's the time,” said Barry, one of the owners and founders of Cravin Crabs.

Barry and his family are true Marylanders who are all about blue crabs. They know how to find them, catch them, steam them and eat them. It’s quite the Maryland tradition and growing up it was a part of Kristan’s family traditions.

“It's a year-round sport pretty much the legal season is April 1 through December 15. Depending on how far down south you want to go you can start right out the gate in April but we choose to stay local. My dad usually starts crabbing, in May so that we don't really mess with it too much in April unless it's really hot and warm out. The further south we go is the Bay Bridge,” said Barry.

Even though crabs are delicious and it’s a big part of the Maryland lifestyle, the craft or the process of finding them and catching them can be quite challenging.

“You have your ups and downs. This is definitely a very down year. For crab meat, you see a lot of it being brought in from overseas for all the restaurants. With all the COVID restrictions you can't get the crab meat on the shipping containers, and then there are no local crabs that are cheap enough to pick. So it is an inconvenient combination. There's just nothing around. It just drives the cost up and even more,” said Barry.

But Barry has hopes for his business as he believes the crabbing industry will continue to grow and succeed even with restrictions in place. As long as continue to work hard, the crabbing lifestyle will always remain a Maryland commodity.

“For us, it's just a lifestyle. Our families get together. When somebody comes from out of state on a summer night, it's tough because this time of year we do work a lot. In our world, Mondays are a down day because typically the commercial crabbers have to pick a Sunday or a Monday as their off day and we have always gone with Monday. That’s the day when out-of-town guests would come in we would typically have crabs dinner, a nice sit-down. The people in my family from out of state they've grown up eating crabs so they absolutely want them right. We don't have to teach them how to eat them. They know what they want. It's just a matter of finding the time and getting together right?” said Barry.

Tune in to the podcast episode to learn more about how crabs are caught, how to eat them, and about Barry’s family and how they got into crabbing. Also, stay until the end to hear the featured musician, John Patti, and to hear a special announcement.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

I discovered Rose Barboza and Jerry Edwards Black Owned Maine while searching for guests on this podcast as I wanted to create a diverse list. I didn't realize how many black owned businesses are here in Maine until I stumbled upon this database and there are a lot! Being a fairly new resident to Maine, I wanted to dig deeper to learn more about how our state is known as the "white state" and how those in the black community felt being raised in this community or being a part of this community.  Rose fills me in on not just her amazing efforts towards Black Owned Maine and the future projects they're working on but also her life here in this beautiful state. I also stumbled upon this great interview Maine Public Radio put together on explaining why Maine is "so white".

Please visit Black Owned Maine's website to view the wonderful businesses of Maine's black community. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new initiatives they're working on and learn more about how you can support them.

I will be donating 25% of proceeds made from the Makers of Maine t-shirt collection to Black Owned Maine to help them continue their amazing work of updating their database and website, supporting black-owned businesses through the challenges of the pandemic, and assisting those in the black community who want to start a business by establishing a grant program and also supporting future ideas of providing marketing resources to businesses by launching a photography and videography studio. Pre-orders will be accepted up till August 21, 2020. Local Maine residents have the option to pick up their shirt at a local spot and I will coordinate a date, time and area and communicate this through social media.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Suzie Assam. Suzie was born in Lewiston and always loved how universal music is. She hopes to work on new music during this time of pandemic as it has given her time to see what this new music looks like. Check out her tune Cuffing Season on Spotify and iTunes.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Kristan Vermeulen telling her story of her experience mushing along the Umbagog Lake and camping overnight under the full moon in the cold, wintery conditions. Then she talks to Polly to learn more about her experience in Alaska prior to coming to Maine to start Mahoosuc Guide Service with Kevin. She also touches on her mushing adventures up in the Arctic where she eats something out of the ordinary but very common up in that area. Then Kevin talks about his journey to Maine and how he has worked for various guiding services throughout his life. He also touches on how he crafts his own dog sleds, canoes, paddles, snowshoes, and much more.

To learn more about Mahoosuc Guide Services visit their website, Facebook or Instagram. 

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, the Gawler Sisters, and their song Red Rocking Chair.

Lastly, there are a handful of Maine maker's products that were a part of this adventure including, Brant & Cochran Axes, Gabriel Frey Baskets, Knit Ware Co., Kennedy, and Co., Mainly Wool Mittens & Pyxie. Go check them out! Great gear for the cold months!

Photo credit: Frances Mahoney

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Treading New Paths: Jax & Bard’s Shoemaking Mastery

In the heart of Gray, Maine, a small town known for its scenic beauty and quiet charm, a unique brand has emerged, one that combines age-old shoemaking traditions with modern sensibilities. That brand is Jax & Bard, a name synonymous with high-quality, handcrafted footwear. Whether you’re a connoisseur of custom shoes or simply someone who values craftsmanship, Jax & Bard offers more than just shoes—they offer a story, a legacy, and a testament to the enduring art of shoemaking.

The Origins of Jax & Bard

Founded by Jackie Lindstedt—the company started with a love for shoe design and craft as well as quality and sustainability. Jackie was driven by a desire to create shoes that not only looked stunning but also felt exceptional to wear. Jax & Bard shoes are designed with a focus on comfort, durability, and, most importantly, craftsmanship.

Both Jax and Bard bring a personal touch to every pair of shoes they create, infusing their distinct styles into their work while honoring the legacy of traditional shoemaking techniques but also making the process more modern and sustainable. Their commitment to quality is evident in every stitch and the fabric she uses is unique as she can craft a custom piece for her clients.

Handcrafted from Start to Finish

What sets Jax & Bard apart from other footwear brands is their dedication to the art of handcrafting. From the moment a customer places an order to the time they slip their feet into their new shoes, the experience is steeped in artistry. Jackie carefully and strategically prints out a design onto sustainable fabric and then places the fabric on clogs or an espadrille base sourced by a local company.

The design process is highly personalized. Jax and Bard work closely with each client to ensure the shoes not only fit perfectly but also reflect the wearer’s style. Each pair is made-to-order, meaning no two shoes are exactly the same, and this level of bespoke care is what makes Jax & Bard shoes a unique treasure for those who appreciate the value of true craftsmanship.

Every step in the creation of a Jax & Bard shoe is done with precision and care. The process includes hand-stitching, custom fitting, and finishing techniques that ensure a level of comfort and durability not often seen in mass-produced footwear. The result is a pair of shoes that don’t just serve as a piece of clothing but as an investment in craftsmanship, style, and longevity.

A Commitment to Local Craftsmanship

Though Jax & Bard has expanded its reach beyond Gray, Maine, the company remains deeply rooted in its local community. They take pride in their artisanal approach and in supporting the local economy by sourcing materials and services from nearby suppliers whenever possible. The brand is also committed to sustainable practices, ensuring that its shoes are built to last, thereby reducing waste and the environmental footprint of fast fashion. She even takes leftover fabrics and turns them into earrings.

The Future of Jax & Bard: Crafting New Paths

As the company grows, Jax & Bard remains committed to its core values. They continue to build upon their legacy by expanding their collections and experimenting with new designs and techniques while staying true to their roots. The world of custom footwear is evolving, and Jax & Bard is at the forefront of this evolution, bringing old-world craftsmanship into the modern age. She is even considering diving into slippers which is a huge passion of hers.

But while the future is exciting, Jax & Bard hasn’t lost sight of what makes their shoes special: the personal connection they have with their customers. Each pair of shoes is more than just a product; it’s a collaboration between the maker and the wearer, ensuring a perfect fit, both physically and stylistically.

Discovering Jax & Bard

To explore their collections or learn more about the artisans behind Jax & Bard, visit https://jaxandbard.shoes/. Whether you’re based in Maine or beyond, there’s no better time to step into a pair of shoes that are as unique as you are.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook, and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Whether you're a writer, a runner, a gardener, whatever it is, you have to have somewhere to put those things so that they don't stay inside of you and for me, whether I want it or not, it was music. It just saved me along the way and it still does. I find it really interesting and then I was trying to do other things, which were fine, but then other things kept coming from me musically. Even if I wasn't prepared, or I didn't think I was worthy of it. I would have to stop and say, Well, I respect that person. So should I believe them? Or believe me, and it was scary. So you have to fly above the fear and say, okay, I'll give it a go and, and it just never stopped," said Deanna Bogart, a nationally known musician who built the majority of her music career in Maryland.

Deanna Bogart found her true calling in music by expressing her emotions, and memories through song, and instrument, particularly with the saxophone and keys. Her music career grew tremendously when she resided in Maryland. She joined many bands and soon created one of her own.

"I was 25 when I decided to buy a saxophone because when I was 11 my friends and colleagues went around to ask who wants to be in the band? and I said, me, and they said, What do you want to play? And I said I want to play the saxophone. And all I got was, girls don't play the saxophone," said Deanna. 

She has proven to the world that girls can play the saxophone and be good at it. She has performed with national artists such as Jimmy Buffett and B.B. King. She also has a unique way to go about her performances. She has no setlist, she lets her soul and the flow of the performance speak to her and the rest of her bandmates follow her lead.

"As a bandleader with my guys, it's you know, how did I put it to them? Don't think -- feel more. Because I'm going to arrange kind of on the spot. The songs are a blueprint. The bridge, the verse, the intro, after that, guys, girl, whoever's there. Don't even think because I'll cue you when something else is going to happen. So you don't have to go okay, wait a minute, I have to wait for 12 measures before I do this. No, I don't want that world and I'm happy doing it, you know, with other people's gigs. If I'm like a special guest artist, you know, I will always respect the bandleader and do what they want. But on mine, it's going to be a little bit different every time because either I have no memory, or it just feels different that day. I don't know...there's live music and then there's alive music, and I like it to be alive. And sometimes it doesn't work, but it's worth it when it does," said Deanna.

Deanna is on tour and you can find her tour calendar here. Also, stay until the end of the episode to listen to one of her singles.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Maine Craft Weekend falls on the first weekend Saturday and Sunday in October and offers an opportunity for the public to explore the life and work of craft artists and businesses in Maine, and for artists to connect with craft enthusiasts, collectors, and visitors behind-the-scenes. This is an educational, community-oriented, and family-friendly event for all!

Typically the event is in partnership with Maine Made, and scheduled in conjunction with American Craft Week, a nationwide event promoting craft events each October. In 2019, Maine Craft Weekend received a Star Award from American Craft Week for Outstanding Legacy of Craft Education & Demonstrations. The organization launches a database filled with makers who will partake in the event that is hosted on their website and share what they will be doing for the event.

This year the event will be treated as a DIY event and the organization will be promoting what others will be doing through their social media. They have also partnered with this podcast to interview a handful of those who will be doing social distance, COVID-friendly gatherings.

Please visit Maine Craft Weekend to learn more about the event and please follow Maine Crafts Association to see how you can support makers from across the state or if you're a maker, how you can be a part of this association and to benefit from the services they offer. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Sarah Kelly and Leah Robert, owners and founders of SaltyGirl Beauty, have been crafting clean body care products out of their office in Kennebunk since 2017. The idea of a clean beauty care line came about when Sarah was diagnosed with stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer and was eight months pregnant, her sister Leah came over to her house one day when Sarah was undergoing cancer treatment with bright, fun lipstick and Sarah tried it on. It made her feel like herself again. These ladies have not only crafted a clean beauty line, they have also rounded up many women to be a part of their SaltyGirl community where they talk about Mom life, favorite music and so much more. They also give back in many ways to two non-profits that they also started, Warrior Revolution and Foundation4Love.

Please visit SaltyGirl Beauty's websites to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, check out their Lip Gloss Heroes contest where you can nominate an individual in your life that you know is empowering and inspiring to the community and they may be named after a shade of lipgloss from their new collection.

Also please check out my featured Maine musician, Kate Matzell, and her full track of Don't They Say and the rest of her beautiful music on iTunes. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I am a photographer. I have been doing it at this point, for about 14 years and it's kind of evolved over those years. Right now I'm focusing on interior and architectural photography. But in the beginning, what inspired me, was to take it from a hobby to a more professional level. I just really fell in love with the digital world and I had been using film so everything just kind of opened up and seemed much more accessible in terms of what you could really do with the craft, it just seemed easier, it was less expensive upfront. It was just more feasible and my daughter at that point was a baby and I started kind of like a blog, which became really popular back in the blogging days, and that really kind of launched my career very quickly. So within six months, I was already shooting gigs and getting hired and you know, it was just all very serendipitous and worked out well," said Erin Little.

Prior to Erin's photography career, her focus was raising her beautiful daughter and crafting children's clothing. She had an online shop and blog to help her promote her pieces. She handled her own photography and people grew to love her photography work when visiting her online shop.

I had kind of an interesting college path. I was a musician growing up so that was kind of my focus. I play classical piano and jazz trumpet and classical trumpet. So I actually auditioned to get into Berklee School of Music and like, just kind of passed it up. I was in this really defiant, kind of like, everybody just assumes that I'm going to do music because I've been doing it my whole life. But what if I don't want to go to a music school, it was really scary for me to think about going to a school where you went for one thing, and it was music, you know, you didn't have any other options. If you got to, like the junior year, and you're like, well, I don't know if this is what I want to do. So I gave that up. I ended up at Simmons down in Boston and really didn't enjoy it. So I kind of went my own way and then ended up at Goddard, which is a kind of a school, this hippie school in Vermont, and did that for two years. And like kind of, it's like a home, school-based kind of you do it yourself, but you meet your advisors once a semester and all that stuff. I really love that it allowed me to work full time and go to school. Then I found my way back to music. So I ended up at USM School of Music in the jazz program for jazz trumpet performance. So absolutely no photography in any of that. But I was always taking pictures during that whole time," said Erin.

To learn more about Erin Little and her journey behind the lens, listen to the episode or visit his website.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I was actually going to school for marine biology at College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor and I was kind of not feeling the classes I was taking. I wasn't really interested anymore. I just got burned out with the sciences. I started just kind of looking at things and so I went to a gem show down in Massachusetts and I walked in and I was like, oh my goodness, I was just blown away by all of the different beautiful gemstones you could buy. I just started walking around and buying things. I was amazed that you could actually buy those things. And you could buy gemstones. So I did and then I ended up spending about, a week's pay in about an hour and then I went to the ATM and I did it again. I walked away with this, you know bag of gemstones. When I had them I had no idea what I was going to do with them. But I was just so happy," said Derek Katzechbach, award-winning faceter, gem artist, and custom jeweler.

Derek decided to take his passion for gemstones to the next level by taking jewelry manufacturing classes and learning more from apprentices in jewelry stores. 

"I was working for a small shop in Bar Harbor and the owner ended up showing me how to set stones, just like little prong settings that were pre-made, which was helpful. It kind of set me off in that direction. But then I wanted to learn how to fabricate settings and make things more from scratch and more custom. So I took lessons for a little bit at that point from a local jeweler, Addison Saunders. He made the Maine State Tourmaline necklace, which is displayed in the Maine museum. Yeah, that piece was made out of all gold I mean, that took me a long time to make as well. So I took lessons for a little bit but I ended up moving. I moved to Farmington and then I met one of Addison's previous students and he ended up showing me some repair work. He showed me repair work over the weekends and I learned to size rings and fix broken chains and things like that. Then as it got closer to Christmas, he said, You want to do this more full time? Oh, absolutely. And at that point, I was doing some construction work. So this paid more on the weekends than that that all week. So it was kind of a no-brainer. That's kind of the start of where I got my passion for gemstones," said Derek.

Derek has worked on some challenging pieces including the Big Reveal piece he crafted which took about a year to put together. from beginning to end.

"This stone was a little different than the style of stone that I would actually facet myself, it's more of a carving than it's a mixture of a carving and a faceted stone. So it makes it a lot more challenging to set and to kind of work, a design around that flows with that style of gemstone. That was one of the biggest challenges I had. I probably sketched a few things with the stone, maybe, I don't know, maybe a month or two after getting it. I just didn't like them. I looked at it went and nope. Then I sketched something else out, you know, I could do that. But it's not, it didn't really sing to me. So I kept doing that for maybe six months. Because I really wanted this to be special. You know, it was one of those things that I love the relationship I have with the museum, I really love the idea of the event. I wanted to make sure that when I did match that, you know, quality of detail that they have. So you know, I just kept thinking and thinking about it and I ended up coming up with a great idea. It utilized a variety of different skill sets. I just drew something, and then I kind of let my creation and my imagination go at that point and kind of started scrounging for materials that I had around the house and started putting together my concept of what I had and ended up buying tools that I didn't have, and all kinds of things just to like, bring this thing into fruition," said Derek.

Tune in to hear about Derek's maker journey and more details behind the craft of his final Big Reveal piece.

Please visit Derek's website to see more his lovely pieces.

To see Derek's final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“First off I love that you're using that word, craft because it has to do with both the art and creativity, but also the intention and the precision behind it as well. So kudos to you for using that word. So I am a chef cook and I alternate back and forth between those two. But sometimes say I'm a cook that just makes good food. I'm also a writer and I write cookbooks. I also write my blog and I used to write a column for the Portland Press Herald for a long time,” said Annie Mahle.

As you all know Kristan start’s off each of her episodes with the question, “what is your craft and what inspired you to start it?”. Annie’s answer was a bit of a surprise as Kristan only knew about her amazing cooking on the J. & E. Riggin but Annie brings a lot more than just cooking, she elevates the mealtime experience. Mealtime in any environment she is in whether it be on a schooner or at home creates memories with friends and family and that’s what mealtime is all about. While it may seem the process of going into a beautiful mealtime experience is fun and rewarding, there are many challenges along the way.

Annie has shifted her career as she is no longer the owner of the J. & E. Riggin and now focuses on her writing, traveling to fun places with her family, and horseback riding. Tune in to learn more about Annie and her career as a maker of all sorts. Also, stay until the end of the episode to hear a new song by Becca Biggs who is a fabulous musician located in Belfast, Maine.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Podcast Notes: Olagunju Busola Dorcas – Fashion, Storytelling, and Community Impact**

Episode Overview:

In this episode, we speak with Olagunju Busola Dorcas, a Maine-based fashion designer originally from Nigeria. Olagunju shares her inspiring journey from studying project management in Maine to following her true passion for fashion. Alongside her design work, she supports refugees as they settle in Maine, weaving together her love for creativity and community.

Key Topics:

1. Background & Journey:

   - Olagunju’s move to Maine to study project management.

   - Despite focusing on a degree in project management, her passion for fashion never faded.

   - How she transitioned from academics to pursuing a full-time career in fashion design.

   - The importance of following one's true passion and making career shifts.

2. Fashion Design & Creative Vision:

   - Her approach to fashion design – blending personal stories with each creation.

   - Custom designs and bespoke dresses tailored to tell a meaningful narrative.

   - Notable figures she’s worked with in Maine, including the owner of Coffee Be Design and USOA Ms. Maine.

3. Fashion as Storytelling:

   - How Olagunju uses fashion to communicate deeper personal stories.

   - The power of design as a tool for self-expression and narrative.

   - Examples of her work and how each piece tells a unique story.

4. Community Impact:

   - Olagunju’s role in supporting refugees in Maine and helping them settle.

   - The intersection of fashion and community engagement in her life and work.

   - How her career enables her to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

5. Advice for Aspiring Designers & Creatives:

   - The importance of persistence and staying true to one's passion.

   - How to balance creative dreams with practical life responsibilities.

   - Tips for anyone looking to start their own business in the fashion industry.

Takeaways:

- The importance of combining passion with purpose, as Olagunju does through both her fashion design and refugee support work.

- Fashion as a means of storytelling and cultural expression.

- How personal experiences can shape creative pursuits and contribute to broader community support.

Listener Action Points:

- Reflect on how creativity and passion can be integrated into your own career.

- Support local designers and businesses in your community.

- Consider how fashion and other creative industries can be used as a platform for social good and storytelling.

Closing Thoughts:

Olagunju’s journey is a testament to the power of following one's passion, the impact of community support, and how creativity can be used to inspire and make a difference in the world. Tune in to hear more about her journey and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"We probably owe it to the Portland music scene as an entity, mostly, you know, we all knew each other. It's a tight, tight-knit scene. It's a very supportive scene. There were a lot of great clubs that we all knew when we were getting started and we'd all been playing in the clubs and working in the clubs and spending every free second in places like Big Easy. So the scene was a great place to pull from. So when we started, we ended one project and we started writing songs. Me and Will and Nick, originally on our, on our couch with me and Nick were roommates. Within like a couple of weeks, Nick kind of took it upon himself. He was the one who said, I'm gonna put a band together, and he started going out and talking to people. And we were playing shows in 2009. Our first you know, our first couple shows happened real fast. We had a bunch of songs, and we were kind of ready to go really fast," said Luke Mallett.

The Mallett Brothers Band grew very fast when they started back in 2009. They have dabbled into many times of music including rock and roll and country but they will also have their own theme, their own style.

"I mean, I think it's kind of amorphous. And I think that maybe one thing about this band that I liked the most is our lack of like, real strict genre stylings. I think the music changes on the regular, I think it's like the songs never seem to stay the same for long, we spent so much time on stage. A lot of stuff happens on stage. So we can come in here and we can knock out a record but we make our living playing shows. And we you know, when we can be we're out on the road, like 200 days a year. So when you're on stage, stuff just happens. And sometimes it's for the better. And sometimes it's for the worst, but it's kind of we like to experiment, we'd like to change it up. I feel like every record has been a little bit different stylistically to notably show the Falling Of The Pine is kind of, I mean, we had, we had like a real kind of vision in an image of what we wanted those songs to sound like because they weren't our songs. We were trying to take traditional folk ideas and make them suit us and make them fit us. So it was, you know, it was a cool experiment in really sticking to the theme, I think," said Luke.

The Falling of the Pine was quite the hit album as it brought out the band's true native roots -- the Maine woods.

"Luke and I grew up in the logging Maine rather than lobster Maine. You know, Brian's from Westbrook originally close to Portland and Nick, ocean guy, Andrews an ocean guy, but the thing was, was that all the loggers were they all lived or there's somebody lived to tell this tale about somebody dying. So all these songs are about somebody dying, whereas it was right there on the page where there wasn't really that way with the ocean," said Will.

Tune in to learn more about the Mallett Brothers Band their history, style, shows, and the creation behind the Falling of the Pine.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Jordia Benjamin, recognized in MaineBiz's "40 Under 40," is a prominent figure in the arts community. As the Executive Director of Indigo Arts Alliance, she focuses on supporting artists of color and fostering cultural representation. Benjamin's leadership emphasizes collaboration, creativity, and community engagement. Her work has significantly impacted the Maine arts landscape, promoting diversity and inclusion while nurturing emerging talent. Through her initiatives, she aims to inspire social change and enhance the visibility of underrepresented artists.

Kristan speaks to Jordia about her previous careers that helped her get to where she is today. The ones that have a really special place are those that continue to have an impact today. Twelve years ago, under the auspices of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, she created the first teacher's art resource guide (over 100 pages) that provided an art curriculum for each grade school level based on Bahamian artists and history. The guide is still in use today.

In addition to her work on an art resource guide, she fostered a program allowing gifted emerging Bahamian artists to exhibit their work alongside Bahamian masters in conjunction with the gallery, many of whom are now represented by international galleries and have exhibited in international museums.

Today, her work at Indigo Arts Alliance allows her to advance the professional development of Black and Brown artists aligning with her moral compass. With an amazing team, they can advance through their residency program, the artistic excellence of local/national and global creatives.

You can learn more about Indigo Arts Alliance by visiting their website. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I'm an urban planner by profession and through my work as an urban planner for the city of Baltimore developed the Made in Baltimore program. So I would say that my craft is an economic development community organization. I’m also interested in all of the different types of activities that our, our member businesses do for their work. I do have a background as an artist, and through that work have done a good, fair amount of carpentry and screen printing and other types of things that a lot of our members do as well,” says Andy Cook, Founder, and CEO of the Made in Baltimore organization.

Andy Cook started an organization that was much needed for Baltimore. Baltimore continues to have a bad rep whenever you hear about it on the news but Baltimore is a community of makers, entrepreneurs, and craftspeople that lift up the heart and soul of the city.

“I came up with the idea for a local brand initiative in Baltimore, that's kind of the term of art for what we do here, Made in Baltimore wasn't the first local brand initiative. There are others and other cities around the country, I looked a lot towards examples in San Francisco, in New York, San Francisco made and made in NYC were programs that started before us. Also, guidance from a national organization called the Urban Manufacturing Alliance, which was kind of not exactly an umbrella organization for all of these different local brands, but they host an annual conference for people doing this type of work, supporting urban manufacturing. It was at one of their conferences in 2014, that I learned about this type of activity and thought, yeah, there's nobody doing this in Baltimore City, somebody probably should,” says Andy.

Kristan chats with Andy more about how the program assists its members in their business operations, what the future holds for the program, and much more. Tune in to hear more about Andy Cook and the program he has built from the ground up.

To learn more about Made in Baltimore click here. Follow Made in Baltimore on Instagram and Facebook.

The featured musician of this episode is Deanna Bogart who is a part of this series and her popular track Fine By Me Good Bayou.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Mark & Stephen Ferguson and Barry Worthing, owners and founders of Brant & Cochran, started a shop almost four years ago that restores vintage axes and crafts Maine pattern axes. These three gentlemen have brought back the craft of axe making in Maine as there are no other axe makers currently in Maine. Back in the 1800s to 1900s, twelve well-known axe makers resided in Oakland, Maine including Emerson and Stevens who crafted many axes including an axe for Theodore Roosevelt. Brant & Cochran use techniques and traditions created from this historical time towards their axe making. From forging, grinding, heat-treating, sharpening and hafting, the process is dirty and challenging but the Brant & Cochran staff have a good process going and they continue to refine it every day. They even stamp each of their axes with their logo, the temperer’s initials and year of manufacture as it is a tradition that all axe makers take on and Brant & Cochran wanted to continue it.

Please visit Brant & Cochran's website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, please reach out to them if you would like to check out their shop in South Portland and visit their events page to see how you can see their axes and wonderful makers up close and in person.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, The Gawler Family. The Gawler Family brings you a delightful assortment of songs and tunes rooted in the traditional music of Maine and the Northeast. John and Ellen, together with their daughters Molly, Edith, Elsie, and “brother” Bennett Konesni, back up their intertwining family harmonies with fiddles, banjo, cello, guitar, and sometimes, a few surprises. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I would say my craft is the preservation of traditional sailing. And I think the thing that inspired me to start it was just a lot of my connection to nature as a kid and how sailing and doing it in a sort of, I guess I for lack of a better term, say more organic way, with less plastic and less technology and sort of just, you know, more wherewithal, and that sort of inspired me to go the route of traditional sail, it also sort of fell in my lap to a degree, like a lot of things that, you know, you end up being lucky with. But I would say that that's one of the things that has kept me inspired to keep doing it over the years. I'm sure it's that connection that you can have to the natural world through having to work through you can't go around it, you can't go over it, you have to just work through it and figure it out and do it with you know, all of these traditional materials," says Captain Sam Sikkema.

Captain Sam grew up in Michigan sailing on the great lakes. His father introduced him to sailing which at first Sam didn't really care for and enjoyed the speed of powerboats instead but then over time he grew a passion for sailing.

"There is not a school for being a Merchant Mariner. There certainly is a Maritime Academy which is an excellent way to go. I certainly considered that getting out of high school, though, I have to say, when I was getting out of high school, the idea of doing any more school period ever was not really on my radar. So one of the things that I think is really cool about sailing, and especially traditional sailing is that it is in a lot of ways an oral tradition and the best way to learn is through experience. So it's pretty much all on-the-job training. I was fortunate that I was able to kind of, you know, get into it right out of school and be put to sea and just start going and getting that experience and learning and seeing the world and yeah, you know, went on from there," said Captain Sam.

Captain Sam continues the conversation with Kristan on the foredeck of the Victory Chimes discussing the history of the vessel, his past career leading up to being the captain of the Victory Chimes, the experience of Windjamming, and so much more. 

To view, the Maine Windjammer Association fleet visit their website, Instagram and Facebook.

To view, the Victory Chimes visit their website, Instagram and Facebook.

Photo Credit: Quinton Donleavy

Thanks to sponsors Berlin City Auto Group and Cliff House Maine.

For more information on the Cliff House Maine event with the Windjammers, click here.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Our craft is making snowboards with Winterstick snowboards. Winterstick is the oldest snowboard company in the world. It was started in 1972 by Dimitrije Milovich out in Salt Lake City and for the last 23 years, we've run our business out of Maine. I came on about six and a half years ago and I've always been a lifelong snowboarder. I've based my whole education and life around snowboarding. Somehow I ended up in a position where I actually get to design and make snowboards," said Rob Lu, President of Winterstick.

Rob had quite the career journey in getting into the position he is in today. He studied Mechanical Engineering and wound up working for a government contractor before heading up to Maine to work for Winterstick. 

"I think it was about 2015 or so they were talking with Seth Wescott, who's a Maine snowboarding legend, two-time gold medalist in snowboarding, and longtime Sugarloafer and they were talking to him about wanting to help out the Carrabassett Valley, bring jobs back to the valley and make better snowboards. They brought Seth on as one of the owners of Winterstick. We secured the manufacturing location here at Sugarloaf through Seth's connections with the mountain. We were able to start making our own boards again, six and a half years ago. Since then we've been working here to keep the manufacturing going make it better and better and continue to improve our craft of making snowboards," said Rob.

They have continued to innovate their styles yet keep their traditional board alive.

"We have about ten models of snowboards that are what we sell as our inventory boards. But we also offer customizations on all of those models. Then we also offer customizations to a fully custom board depending on the needs of the customer. For our in-stock models, we have everything from powder boards to park boards, but we also will take those and we can offer them in a custom option. Such as custom boards for bigger-footed riders for guys with size 13 and up feet," said Rob.

The process in designing and creating a snowboard is a lot of work but to Winterstick it's an everyday activity.

"We go through some new prototyping designs and we jam a Sharpie into our CNC machine so that we can draw shapes on cardboard. We draw shapes until we like the feeling of them and then we can stand on them. Then we can go and we can actually take that from the console, the Sharpie concept to a working board, and in about a day it comes out of our factory, we can just jump on, go test it out, see how it feels, and then make tweaks as we need to from there," said Rob.

Tune in to learn more about Winterstick and how Rob Lu got involved in the business after his time in mechanical engineering with the government.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“It's a puzzle; the shapes of the puzzle keep changing based on my interests in the music that I like at a certain time. You sort of put it together, right? You feel like, okay, I've got that puzzle together. Then, a week later, the shapes change,” said Dietrich.

While viewing the behind the scenes of Dietrich's recording session at Great North Sound Society, which you may have seen in the preview video of this series, it was amazing to see the dynamic between Sam and Dietrich. They carefully listened to the instrumentals and voice build into a magical tune. The voice and individual instruments were recorded one at a time, in separate rooms. The process seems so fluid and just came naturally to both of them. I was excited to have Great North Sound be my first recording studio experience because it is like no other.

Dietrich started to play music at a very young age starting with the piano. In elementary school, he was given a trumpet and immediately got really into it and play all the way up until high school, even going to music school for trumpet performance after high school. He noticed that playing the trumpet can be very lonely and you have to be really, really good.

To learn more about Dietrich please visit his website and Instagram.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Dietrich Strause. He is also featured in the promo video of this podcast series and is one of the guests on the podcast series.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Jim Woldenberg discussing his business Tempshield and what it was like prior to him taking it over in 2018. He then jumps right into sharing the in-depth process of crafting the cryogenic protective gear and how important it was to keep their manufacturing in Maine. Jim has expanded Tempshield's operations by entering into new industries and locations around the world and has grown its team that is still located in Trenton, Maine. 

To learn more about Jim Woldenberg with Tempshield you can visit their website or Instagram.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Natale, and her song Baby It's Alright.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

" I define myself as a leather art wear designer so which means that I make one-of-a-kind pieces of art fashion using recycled leather. How I got into that -- long funny story but it really came down to my friend asking me in his driveway if I wanted to sew leather jackets together. My experience sewing before that was minimal. I had a sewing machine. My mom got me from Walmart and knew how to do some really basic straight stitches on jeans and didn't repair things. But I always had an interest in sewing and so I said yes and three years later here I am making jackets and vests and bustiers -- one-of-a-kind pieces," said Nicole or Gnykol, a fashion designer based in Bath.

Nicole's passion started in Ashville, North Carolina where her and her friends would cut pieces of used leather and turn them into all types of things. She never thought that passion would turn into a career.

Barney and J.M. are clay polymer artists and J.M. went on out on his own to do wearable art. So I modeled I hate modeling. I found that out pretty quickly. But it was great to work with them. Our friendship stayed intact and it was over the years we stayed in touch which led to the driveway question do you want to sell leather jackets? So J.M. had been working with leather and caught me up to speed when we started working together he brought me up to everything that he knew. And from there we learned a lot together in that process I'd say maybe six months in J.M. helped me up he gave me the means to have my own studio space, helped me get a work table, encouraged me to get the materials and tools that I needed, including sewing machine, we spent some of our COVID money buying sewing machines together, which was really fun, and fascinating. Six months and I started to have my own space and my own tools. That's when I started to branch out and start making my own thing. So J.M. was really focused on his jackets, and has been continuing on the jacket path whereas I took off and started making bustiers. So we make very different items from the beginning, we just started to start a collective. Our collective is called True Self Couture. So it's not just leather art, it's wearable art. The idea is that its everyday art, where it's pieces of art fashion that you can wear every single day, no matter where you're going, what you're doing. It's expressive, it's inspiring. It's one of a kind and it's to empower the wearer and just inspires the people around you," said Nicole.

Nicole hopes to create wearable art for musicians, other artists, and celebrities. But the most important thing is that she crafts pieces for all.

"One of the main focuses of my work is to make couture pieces to make to order so that way no matter what your size and shape is no matter what your intention is I make for you, so you're not just buying something that you know is a medium. You are a medium, it's a little loose here, it doesn't quite fit there and it's just I want to make you feel like a rockstar. I've had some fantastic friends support me and some of my friends are cool. One of my friends just wore one of my bustiers that I made for her which is covered in these dragon spikes, she wore it to her brother's wedding and over a ballgown, and she looked, killer. I have performers that have ordered my work, everything from musicians to drag performers, I had a commission from a lady, a mature woman over 60. She just fell in love with the jacket I had down in the gallery here in Bath. I was so flattered that she wanted one of my jackets because it was not the age demographic that I thought would be interested in my jacket. But lo and behold, she was so really excited to have her support," said Nicole.

Tune into the episode to learn more about Nicole -- her past and the future of her fashion career. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Kristen and Joe Camp, owners and founders of Campfire Pottery, have been crafting one-of-a-kind contemporary ceramic pieces that are symbols of human-gathering for five years in Westbrook, Maine. They also have a storefront built out of a shipping container located off of Washington Avenue in Portland. The Campfire pair came to Maine from their home state of Georgia to help build a church and they decided to stay in Maine long-term as they loved the environment, culture, and wanted to start a business around the passion that started their relationship, pottery. Their craft is very unique as they use a Japanese style ceramic process called Raku on a portion of their collection. Joe suits up in a firefighter like uniform as temperatures, when undergoing this process, get extremely hot! Kristen’s newest project is working with an interior designer on a light fixture and will be launching an interior designer program later this year.

Please visit Campfire Pottery’s website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, please consider giving back to this lovely business as well as the frontline workers who are risking their own health for those suffering from COVID-19 by supporting their Stay at Home Mug Project. For every 5 “To-Stay” Mugs they sell, they will donate one of their signature To-Go Mugs to a healthcare worker on the frontlines.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, The Jacob James and their full track Live It Up and the rest of their awesome jams on iTunes.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Ryan McPherson took over Glidden Point Oyster Farms five years ago as he left Massachusetts to start a venture that has grown tremendously over time. Their goal is to craft the perfect shaped oyster and they have accomplished this and are continually providing these to wholesalers and customers across the nation.

His team of farmers works hard to grow and collect millions of oysters, all different sizes (the jumbos are HUGE), throughout the year. Oyster season is year-round in Maine due to its chilly climate but sometimes the farmers have to watch out for the green crabs as they eat oysters and have caused some challenges.

They give back to the community by collaborating with farmers starting out and non-profits to help establish their oyster farms. Oyster farms keep our coastal waters clean and Glidden Point truly believes in this mission and will continue to help others build their oyster farms and continue to keep theirs maintained.

Please visit Glidden Point Oyster Farm's website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and events happening at their tasting room.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, The Ballroom Thieves, and one of their new tracks, Vanity Trip. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Heather currently crafts her beautiful pieces in South Portland but before starting her business and starting her family here in Maine she lived in Northern California. She attended a pattern-making school in San Francisco and learned how to make her own patterns. She learned how to bring her ideas to life.

She was a photographer and film archivist prior to taking the leap of faith of starting her fashion journey. Her focus is on slow fashion and bringing free movement, comfort, and beauty to her customer's wardrobes. Her pieces are in a handful of stores in Maine and she has an online store. She launches new pieces every season but the intention behind her line is that every piece can be worn any time of year.

Her studio is located in South Portland and she also homeschools her kids in the back of her studio. She wears many hats by continuing to grow her brand and tending to her three boys (husband and kids) she loves dearly.

You can check out herself clothing on Facebook and Instagram.

Photos of Heather and herself clothing were taken by Elle Darcy.

The featured musician of the episode if Renee Coolbrith and she is from Portland, Maine. Her latest single All I Need is showcased at the end of the episode.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Aidan Frazer who is the founder and designer behind Luster Hustler. She has a deep passion for supporting women's rights and believes that the woman body should be appreciated more as an art form, a functional piece, really just appreciated in general. Aidan is new to being an entrepreneur but thanks to her mentors and support system, her business has grown from solely an Instagram business to Etsy and hopefully launching a website  in the near future.

The next guest on the episode is Britt Sweet who is the owner and founder of Birch & Grey Co. Britt decided to start this side gig as she found a niche that needed to be filled. To give people a chance to relieve stress with all-natural dough. It smells good, it feels good and it's made to last for a while! She launches scents by season from pumpkin in the fall to pine in the winter to grapefruit in the spring and summer. She also includes raw pieces of the scents into the dough to give it more of a visual appeal.

To learn more about each of the guest's products, please visit their websites listed here: Luster Hustler and Birch & Grey Co.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Azariah Charles.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Who knew that a woodshop was located on a popular "pick your own" apple orchard in Limington. Now, this isn't just any woodshop as they craft crates and gift boxes for Allagash Brewery put together retail furnishings for Sea Bags, and so much more.  Emily Chelate, daughter of Earl and Nancy Bunting who has owned and operated the farm since 1993 and still do today, started this woodshop due to Allagash's interest in being a wholesale partner where the shop would craft crates and boxes for their customers. They use a burning technique to go about putting the logo on the crates which gives it a rustic look and you typically find these crates when purchasing their house beer at their tasting room. 

Allagash's relationship with Doles Orchard started when they were trying to find cherries for their beer as the orchard was one of a few that grew them in the state. Allagash even named one of their beers after Nancy which of course includes the cherries and you can find it in their tasting room today. When they saw how the farm transported produced in wooden crates they both came together to formulate an idea of crafting a wooden crate for their beers and their relationship and custom products grew from there.

Emily and her team of woodworkers work day-to-day on very interesting projects including a spa-like contraption that was a bit of a challenge to put together but is now making hundreds of them. Emily is a fascinating woodworker and designer. She has built a team of men and women who craft pieces of all kinds and she is someone to look up to as a female entrepreneur, woodworker, and designer.

To learn more about what Emily will be doing for Maine Craft Weekend and to view her products, please visit her website. Feel free to follow her on Facebook and  Instagram to get updates on new products and what's going on at the farm. You can also go apple picking anytime on the weekdays and weekends. You can find the "What's In Season" schedule here.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Troy Hudson and The High Road. Troy Hudson is a Maine native that lives on the midcoast. His grandfather and brother both played guitar and inspired him to start playing around 8 years old. Their latest single, Frontline of Love, was recorded during the pandemic. All of the tracks were recorded separately in different locations by the band. Each of the band members sent their individual tracks to Troy and he mixed them at his recording studio. Listening back to it you’d never know they were miles away from each other during the process. The song is about coming out of your shell and believing you deserve happiness and love. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Brendan Bullock, a photojournalist based out of Bowdoinham, Maine, has won many awards for his editorial work but his photo work doesn't stop there. He is also a wedding photographer but he likes to keep each business separate as each is a different form of photography. He may use the same cameras and techniques, but it is a different mindset when stepping into each setting. 

He has worked on many projects including a photojournalism project in Jaisalmer, India where he got to capture community and culture for editorial purposes. 

To learn more about Brendan please follow him on Instagram  and his website.

Cover Photo © Brian G. Peters

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Connect with me on social media by following the below handles:

Facebook

@makersofmaine

Instagram

@makersofmaine

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I've been playing music my whole life, as have my bandmates. All of us come from musical families. Both of my parents are professional musicians and music teachers. My parents' names are Susie Burke and David Seret and they play a lot of different kinds of folk and traditional music. I grew up kind of immersed in the folk and roots music community in the sea coast area. It was kind of a no brainer for me. For a long time I wasn't totally sure if I wanted to be a professional musician, but I always knew that music was going to be a really big part of my life.”

Isa dabbled in a few instruments at a young age, but definitely started singing before anything else. “I was the kind of kid who would just like to mess around with whatever was nearby. I was always drumming on surfaces or my parents would have guitars and ukuleles around the house. We had a piano I would sort of plunk away on that. Thought about learning the flute for a second in school, but that didn't pan out. I played trumpet for a couple years. Then, I played guitar when I was around 10. And then, when I was 13, I started playing fiddle. That was the first instrument that I really lost my mind over.”

Her experience at Great North Sound Society, has been a fully immersed, changed woman typed of experience. Isa along with her bandmates recorded their first two albums at a studio in Boston, but their third album was recorded in June of 2020 at Great North Sound Society. 

When they make an album, they aren’t a band that wants to chip away at it over time. When they start, they want to be fully immersed in the experience. “(After recording), then I emerge as changed woman. That's so much what that space is like because it's a house. You are staying there, so you're just there round the clock. It's not like you get up and you go to the studio and then you go home. You’re totally immersed. I think that's a really special way to make a record. That is a big part of what makes Great North so awesome.”

Lula Wiles new album, “Shame and Sedition” produced by Sam Kassirer is now out! Be sure to give them a listen.

To learn more about Lula Wiles please visit their website and Instagram.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Lula Wiles, and their new track In Dreams.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"The Maine Mineral & Gem Museum is a fabulous place nestled in one of the most gorgeous little parts of Maine. We are a small town that focuses on a very particular part of Maine's history. Maine has had mining happen here since the early 1800s and we tell the story of that particular part of Maine's history and also a little bit about Maine's place in the universe as well. We are probably the only museum definitely in the state of Maine and probably the only one in the United States that tells a particular part of mining history. You know, like I said they've been mining here in Maine since the early 1820s and still continued to this day, mostly for gemstones at this point. But before really the 1960s they've been mining for industrial minerals. So we tell the story of that -- we preserve the pieces that have been mined here we preserve the stories of the people who did the mining and who created the jewelry. So it's kind of a local history museum, and certainly, something that our visitors don't expect when they walk in the door," said Maggie Kroenke.

When folks think about gems and Maine the first thing that comes to mind is tourmaline. In October 1972, near the top of Plumbago Mountain in Newry, George Hartman, Dean McCrillis, Dale Sweatt, and contract miner Frank Perham unearthed North America’s most magnificent single discovery of gem-quality tourmaline crystals–more than a ton in all. The discovery sent shockwaves through Maine and around the mineral world. Never had such a large quantity of world-class tourmaline gem rough been found in a single locality in North America. 

"2022 is the 50th anniversary of what's called the Big Find. It was one of the largest traveling finds in North America. And, you know, being the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum, I said, Well, we got to celebrate it somehow. And no, luckily, we were sort of coming out of the woods a little bit with COVID. And I said, Well, we gotta throw a party somehow. I started thinking about the gemstones that I have in my retail collection that I have available for customers and also artisans. Knowing that I had some absolutely amazing ones. I said, Well, let's figure out how we can get some artists involved. So I thought, well, you know, here in the museum store, we work with local artisans and I provide them with gemstones and they make beautiful jewelry that I have available in the store and I said well let's expand on that a little bit. So I brought that to what became the big find committee and they said, well, why don't we try to make this a nationwide thing. In July of last year, we sent out a call to artists and received over 30 submissions. We narrowed down the gemstones to 12, we would pick 12 artists from those who submitted and we would have a selection committee. I created a selection committee with people who were in the arts and jewelry community, both here in Maine, and nationwide. Then they had an hour-long Zoom, because of course, some were a little farther away and randomly chose the 12 gems for each artisan. They would have a year to create these pieces with complete and total artistic control," said Maggie.

On Saturday, October 8th the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum will be hosting The Big Reveal event in Bethel. All 12 pieces will be showcased on models and the models will also be wearing pieces from local fashion designers, Catherine Fisher, Angelrox by Roxi Suger -- I interviewed Roxi on the podcast, and True Self Couture. There will be a VIP portion of the event where folks can meet one-on-one with the artisans who are a part of this project and see the pieces up close. To learn more about the event and get your tickets, click here.

To see all of the artisans involved in this project, click here.

Please follow the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

[00:02:56] Organ building craftsmanship.

[00:03:58] Organ building and inspiration.

[00:10:37] Knowing music for organ building.

[00:14:22] Perfect facility for craft.

[00:20:53] The cost of organs.

[00:21:43] Organ building as mechanical design.

[00:27:11] Moon and farming practices.

[00:30:43] Two temperaments in organs.

[00:38:15] Organ pipes collapsing over time.

[00:40:21] Organ builders and bone materials.

[00:45:09] The gold leaf process.

[00:48:06] The weight of the organ.

[00:52:02] Community involvement in instrument care.

Organ building is a complex and intricate process that demands a significant investment of time and financial resources. In the episode, it is highlighted that churches and other organizations often face the challenge of securing funding and going through a lengthy organizational process before they can even begin constructing an organ. This can take years to accomplish as they work towards securing the necessary funds and finalizing arrangements.

The episode also sheds light on the cost of building an organ. It is mentioned that the average cost of an organ is around a million dollars, although this can vary depending on the size and complexity of the instrument. Larger organs can cost up to two million dollars or even more, while smaller organs may be priced at around five hundred thousand dollars.

The episode emphasizes the crucial role of careful planning and design in organ building. Before commencing the construction process, the organ builder must create a detailed design that ensures all components fit together harmoniously and allows each pipe to have sufficient space to produce sound. This meticulous process involves laying out thousands of pipes on templates and ensuring each one is of the correct size and position.

Organ building is a costly and time-consuming endeavor that necessitates extensive planning, funding, and organization. It is a process that requires both craftsmanship and artistry and scientific and mathematical skills.

The episode discusses the average cost of an organ, which is approximately a million dollars. The host inquires about the cost of organs, and the builder confirms that a million dollars is a typical average cost. However, the builder also mentions that the cost can vary, potentially reaching two million dollars or more for larger organs, or as low as five hundred thousand dollars for smaller organs. Therefore, while a million dollars is the average, the actual cost depends on the size and complexity of the organ.

Martin initially developed a passion for organ building at the age of 15. However, their parents discouraged them from pursuing it at that time, leading them to choose a business high school instead. Despite this, the desire to become an organ builder never left their mind.

After completing high school and entering adulthood, Martin felt a strong urge to engage in a craft and work with their hands. Organ building remained a lingering passion. Fortunately, they secured an apprenticeship position with a well-known and reputable organ-building company. Through this apprenticeship, they acquired the necessary skills and knowledge to install organs, tune them, and perform maintenance.

Eventually, Martin had the opportunity to travel to the United States multiple times a year for work. They received job offers from various organ builders, first in Minnesota and then in the Montreal area of Canada. Finally, they decided to move to the United States and work with another organ builder who intrigued them. This experience ultimately led the host to establish their own organ-building business.

Despite initially facing discouragement from their parents, Martin's passion for organ building never wavered. They pursued their passion, gained experience and knowledge through apprenticeships and job opportunities, and eventually established their own successful business in the field.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"When we took over it was a nice I guess disco. It was just a poor excuse for a disco I guess but that's what it was. But I was always into music. I loved music and that's what I wanted to do. So I started booking bands and you know, we went from local bands to regional bands to everybody. From Smashing Pumpkins to David Cassidy," said Ron Furman, owner and founder of Max's Tap House. 

Ron and his family are originally from Baltimore  and at the age of twelve got into the Max's business. From taking artifacts from historic buildings and repurposing them for his facility, Max's Tap House has a unique character and a top place to have a good time in the heart of Baltimore.

"If we can find use from something we used it.  If you look at the first floor in the back that's all bowling alley that came out of the Old Southway Bowling Alley in Federal Hill. The second floor, the floor, and the walls all came out of the Secrets Distillery, the warehouse that was over in Dundalk before they tore it down. What was really neat when we cut the wood, you could actually smell the whiskey in it. It had a great aroma," said Ron.

Today Max's is the largest tap house in Baltimore as it holds over 68 taps and they even built the largest bar, over 55 feet.

Tune in to learn more about Ron's journey building Max's. You can learn more about Max's Tap House by heading over to their website and visiting their Facebook and Instagram.

Also, tune in to the end to listen to Freddie Long, the featured musician of the episode. His single Blanket is one you don't want to miss.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I was always like a record store hound since I was in elementary school and so I started working record stores and I worked at weird indy stores. Yeah, like underground music they're cool back in the 80s. And yeah, and but those stores often had like a strong kind of roots music component as well and by chance I heard a recording that been a field recording of a fiddle and banjo player made in the 40 or 41 and I just put it on because I had to keep something playing in the store right. I wasn't really paying attention because it was busy and then a few songs played and I was like man what is this. I had heard bluegrass and stuff like that before, but this didn't sound at all like that. It was like way more acerbic and emotionally direct. It really had a coarseness to it that probably appealed to my ears because of all this sort of harsh underground music I'd listen to. But the other thing that was interesting to me about it was that they were both African American musicians. I didn't really know what it was and if it had been just sort of filed in the blues section, yes. Whoever filed it didn't know, either. And, you know, I knew there were some customers in the store, who are really into like, 78. Collecting and really, really rich music collecting. And so I played it for one of them. And he's like, yeah, that's pretty good. And I was trying to get a feel for what it was. He didn't say much. And then he came into the store, like a few weeks later, and he says, Hey, Pete, you still listen to that country music? I was like, Is that what that is? Like? I didn't really know because I didn't quite sound like anything I'd heard. So it's sort of the idea of African Americans playing this music that I always thought it was kind of the most cracker fire music out there. It was a revelation. And then I'm just curious. I started reading more about the history of that music and then the instrument specifically. I found out that the banjo itself was an African American instrument originally. I found out pretty quickly, at least at that point, it seemed that none from that earliest period of history had survived. I was just so driven to learn more about it. I realized to hear one play, I had to make it myself. So that's what got me started,” said Pete Ross.

Kristan was shocked about how much Pete knew about the history of this beautiful instrument and who knew the banjo had a connection to Baltimore.

“The earliest commercial maker was here. The instrument was played by African Americans here as well at the tobacco plantations on the eastern shore. I was sort of exploring my identity, somebody from a state that doesn't carry a lot of cultural identity in the minds of the rest of Americans. But I was sort of discovering like, this is the place where these things happened, right? But it was a southern state that even though didn't join the Confederacy, the economics here grew around mass force labor to Kansas, growing tobacco here, right. And it was important that wasn't forgotten either. So I started, like, how much do you identify with that? Well, not really. But it's also I didn't grow up in Baltimore. I grew up in Maryland. So that all played in my mind. I had spent some time in high school in Baltimore come up here to see the punk bands and all in the little crappy little clubs and abandoned buildings. So I got to know the lay of the land. As you grow closer DC as DC having more intensely gentrified, the sort of more blue collar surroundings, and Baltimore, just like, I felt more comfortable with it. Like I said before, you know, it's sort of the perfect place to have sort of delete that kind of bohemian lifestyle because you don't have to devote so much of your lifetime,” said Pete.

Kristan learned more about Pete’s mentors, musicians he crafted banjos for, his time growing up in Maryland, the step-by-step process on how he crafts his banjos and so much more.

To learn more about Pete’s craft visit his website and Instagram.

Photo Credit: Matt Sprague

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I'm able to make color by working with glass and the glass that I work with is fused dichroic glass, which I work in a kiln. But what really got me started was I had a pair of earrings that my Mom had given me years ago and I lost one. I was inspired to make a match for that earring at the same time that I was looking for a new way to find work to walk through my day,” said Alison.

Alison was a commercial banker in Northern Virginia and she found that a nine-to-five job wasn’t her calling. Her mother gave her a book called The Artists Way by Julia Cameron and this really opened her eyes to get into a more creative hobby which has now turned into her full-time job. She also has a family filled with creatives and she never thought she would go in a similar direction as her family members.

“I never considered myself that person until I went through this process and that broadened what I was going to look for, as far as work. So then I started thinking, well, maybe I could write the great American novel, or I could, you know, make a line of note cards, and it just started me on a different path. So it wasn't a big stretch when I did lose that earring and I was driven to make a match for it. As I was doing that, and I started the process of learning how to make fused glass, I would wear my work, because that was the point. People started asking to buy the work right off of me. So I listened. And I went, you know, I, I did a few things that my banking background helped me with, I figured out the cost analysis of the process. Was this something that I was going to be able to actually make a living at? The answer was, yes,” said Alison.

Alison has made over 193 different colors into her glass pieces and she continues to think of innovative ways of growing her craft. You can find her website here and find her on Facebook and Instagram. Tune in to hear more about Alison's story.

Also, the featured musician of this episode is Joshua Eden who is originally from Vinalhaven. Here is his track Certain Kind of Love.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Rogue Life Maine: A Story of Craftsmanship, Community, and Passion

In the heart of Maine, where the rugged coastline meets vast forests and small towns built on hard work, a brand was born — a brand that would eventually redefine the world of fitness equipment and inspire a lifestyle grounded in strength, resilience, and pride. This is the story of Rogue Life Maine.

The Beginning: A Vision Takes Root

This business started as an award and trophy business owned by Mark Rodrigue's parents and now it's a commitment to continue producing American-made apparel and accessories that are both built to last and designed for performance.

In a state known for its natural beauty and hardworking, no-nonsense people, Rogue Life Maine has all of its operations in Lewiston. Maine’s deep-rooted culture of craftsmanship, from shipbuilders to loggers to artisans, resonated with the Rogue team. The decision to keep this business in Maine wasn’t just about logistics; it was about a philosophy that aligned with Maine’s spirit — a place where quality and hard work were not negotiable but ingrained in everything people did.

The Heart of Rogue Life Maine: Craftsmanship and Quality

In a small town in Maine, nestled among forests and fields, the Rogue team set up shop. And here, the true essence of Rogue Life Maine began to take shape.

Maine’s factories are often humble, yet they produce some of the most enduring and well-crafted products in the country. This tradition of attention to detail and pride in one’s work was infused into every piece of apparel, outdoor pack, hat, etc. produced by Rogue. Every stitch, every screenprint, every embroider was a testament to the skill of local craftsmen who took pride in their work, just as the Rogue team did. Rogue Life Maine wasn’t just a name — it was a commitment to producing materials that reflected the values of this quiet, hardworking state.

A Lifestyle Built on Resilience

But Rogue Life Maine wasn’t just about manufacturing — it was about building a community of individuals who shared the same drive and dedication that the brand embodied. Whether in Maine or across the globe, those who used Rogue products became part of a greater movement.

The rugged landscapes of Maine, with its steep mountains, coastal cliffs, and winter winds, provided the perfect metaphor for the type of person who was drawn to Rogue Life. It was a life built on grit, endurance, and a love for the challenge. It didn’t matter if you were climbing mountains in the backwoods of Maine or just pushing yourself to be the best version of yourself — Rogue Life was about embracing that challenge with everything you had.

At the heart of Rogue Life Maine is a community of athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and everyday people who know that true strength comes not just from the muscles you build, but from the mindset you cultivate. The same values that shaped the production of Rogue’s products — durability, reliability, and strength — became the foundation for the community that formed around them.

The Future of Rogue Life Maine

Looking ahead, Rogue Life Maine continues to evolve, with new products, new initiatives, and a growing community of like-minded individuals. As the brand expands its reach globally, the roots in Maine remain firm — a constant reminder of where it all started and the values that continue to drive it forward. It’s about maintaining that commitment to craftsmanship, community, and strength that has always been at the heart of Rogue Life Maine.

Whether you're hiking the rugged Maine coast, or simply living your life with determination and grit, Rogue Life Maine is a reminder that true strength — like the land of Maine itself — is built slowly, steadily, and with purpose. And it’s a life worth living.

You can learn more about Rogue Life Maine by visiting their website. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

[00:04:13] High school challenges and dyslexia.

[00:09:23] Intriguing lifestyle at the country club.

[00:13:38] Reconsidering life and taking risks.

[00:18:40] Learning to sharpen knives.

[00:19:13] Knife sharpening journey.

[00:23:20] Science of steel and knives.

[00:28:25] Making your own steel.

[00:32:41] Making Japanese steel replica.

[00:36:02] Understanding steel and challenges.

[00:39:15] Overcoming failures in craftsmanship.

[00:44:21] The story behind Transformation.

[00:47:34] Putting energy into handmade objects.

[00:51:29] The business side of creativity.

[00:55:08] Crafts and minimalism trends.

[01:00:31] Midnight storms and love.

In the episode, Bob Kramer shared their struggles with college and their decision to pursue a non-traditional career path through travel. They expressed difficulty in succeeding academically, particularly with note-taking and retaining information. As a result, they reevaluated their aspirations of attending medical school, finding it overwhelming. They also dismissed career options like accounting or law, as they lacked passion and excitement.

Instead, the speaker felt a strong desire to explore the world and embrace a more adventurous lifestyle. They were inspired by the book "Dove," which ignited their dream of sailing from San Diego to Hawaii. Unlike the challenges of college, this book provided a sense of joy and excitement. The speaker set a goal to drive across the country, reach San Diego, and find a boat to embark on their sailing adventure, despite having limited sailing experience.

This decision to prioritize travel over a conventional career path reflects the speaker's yearning for a different kind of lifestyle. They sought adventure, excitement, and a sense of freedom that they couldn't find within the confines of traditional education. It also signifies a shift in priorities, as the speaker prioritizes personal fulfillment and happiness over societal expectations and conventional success.

Overall, the speaker's experience of struggling in college and subsequently choosing to travel underscores the importance of aligning one's path with their passions and desires. It highlights the value of exploring unconventional options and pursuing a lifestyle that brings joy and fulfillment, even if it deviates from societal norms.

In the episode, the host and guest discuss the growing trend of people valuing handmade and high-quality goods over mass-produced items. They observe that an increasing number of individuals are engaging in crafts such as leatherworking and metalworking, finding contentment in owning fewer possessions as long as they are of superior quality or handmade. This trend is not limited to the United States but is observed worldwide, with individuals in Asia also expressing a desire for a simpler lifestyle and a departure from long working hours. The host suggests that adjustments will be necessary in response to this trend, indicating that changes need to be made. They also note that younger people are opting out of the corporate world and embracing a more sustainable lifestyle, including traveling and building their own travel vans. Overall, the episode highlights the shift towards valuing handmade and high-quality goods and the potential impact this trend may have on various industries.

In the episode, the speaker emphasizes the significance of having a strong understanding of business and finances to succeed in a creative endeavor. They acknowledge that many creatives tend to overlook the business side of their work due to its challenging and dry nature. However, they stress that comprehending the business aspect is absolutely essential.

The speaker suggests that if someone recognizes their lack of aptitude for the business side, they should seek an ally who can assist them in that area. They specifically mention finding a business-minded bookkeeper and compensating them to provide guidance and direction for the creative individual. By acknowledging the importance of the business side and seeking assistance, one can avoid potential struggles and setbacks in the future.

The episode also dispels the romantic notion of instant success, emphasizing that there is much to learn in both the craft and business aspects of a creative endeavor. The speaker highlights the need to study the field, learn from past successes, and pay attention to the business side, even if it doesn't come naturally to the creative individual.

Overall, the episode underscores the necessity of having a strong understanding of business and finances or finding someone who can provide support in those areas, to thrive in a creative endeavor. It emphasizes the importance of being realistic about the challenges and being willing to put in the necessary work to navigate them.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Not only am I an artist, but I'm a psychoanalyst and a medical hypnotist and in psychoanalysis, your earliest memories are considered very important. My earliest memory is making something with clay with my hands and as I was making this little thing, a little horsey or a cow or whatever it was. I was maybe four years old and I, I was thinking to myself, this is wonderful. It wasn't that I thought my horse was so beautiful. It was the process of making something with my hands that I enjoyed so much. That has really defined my entire life. I work with my hands, I create art with my hands, and someone wants to ask me what my most important tool was my favorite tool. And I said, my hands. So there's this compulsion, one might say, or drives that I have to create things that allow me to use my hands, I'm at this time, I'm a gemstone carver and high jewelry maker. But I'm also a master knitter, crocheter, and classical marble carver, as well. So art has been very important throughout my entire life, as a little girl, learning how to knit and sew and crochet and do all sorts of very traditional crafts, like calving and hairpin lace. If you could do it with your hands, I was eager to do it," said Naomi Sarna, an international award-winning jeweler.

Naomi started crafting jewelry at a very young age. She would walk around her neighborhood selling her pieces and that is where her passion stemmed from. 

"Watching a plumber, soldering some types together, I found the flow of the solder to be very fascinating. The tool that he was using to heat to solder was all really interesting. And like I'd say, we just learned how to do things because we needed to know how to fix things. In terms of going to school, I did attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia for three years and I went to do classic sculpture carving. And that was, I would say, my most concentrated time, of studying art, but it had nothing to do at that time, with making jewelry. Jewelry came much, much later. I would take a week-long class at 92nd Street. I learned how to do metal forming with a few wonderful teachers, in a very, very wonderful place. But like I say, it would be maybe a week or a year, because, at that time, I was raising my two children on my own. I had gone into the food business because that was what I really knew how to do but I really wanted to be a starving artist. I knew that I could cook well and I started selling my cakes. Then I got into large-scale catering and I specialized in parties for over 1000 people. That was very consuming work for quite a number of years. At the same time, I was also going to school to become a psychoanalyst and I didn't really have time to make jewelry. I looked at a lot of jewelry books, I have a very fine art collection. Finally, I sold my food business which was called Montana Palace, and became a full-time psychoanalyst. That's when I have a little more time to start making the jewelry. And again, I would take a class here, a class there. Then about 20 years ago, my husband died very unexpectedly and I started going out to Alan Reveres School in San Francisco. I took a class that was really quite pivotal with Bernd Munsteiner, he had never taught in the United States before. When I saw that he was teaching a class, I immediately signed up for it, there were about 10 of us in that class. It wasn't that I learned his style. But his attitude was very important to me. He said, to find beauty in anything. If there are inclusions in the gemstone material, aren't they beautiful? And so, if you look at any of my work, you'll see that almost without exception, my work is very curvy. So like I say philosophically, he had a great influence on me," said Naomi.

With Naomi's background in working with curved line gems, the piece that she was given for the Big Reveal project was quite a challenge as it was clean and straight. But she ended up putting together a beautiful piece inspired by nature, the ocean.

"These are waves. I'm, even though I was born and raised in the mountains, I would rather be on the ocean and for me, the most perfect place to be is on a boat in the ocean. So many, if not almost all of my pieces, have these waves like healing, water flowing, that kind of thing. So I created this ring with the Green Tourmaline, MMS, and I surrounded it with yellow 18 karat yellow gold. Then the waves of different colors of tourmaline, green and pink. There are a few diamonds on it and I think of it as sort of Neptune's treasure tourmaline because it's coming out of the water. Very unusual setting, coming out of the water, out of the waves," said Naomi.

Tune in to learn more about Naomi's journey as a maker and if you would like to purchase a ticket to attend the Big Reveal event on Saturday, October 8th, click here.

Please visit Naomi's website to see more of her work.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"My craft is currently a collection of sustainable clothing, where each design springs from the meaning of a particular poem. I did an MFA in poetry. I went back to doing that when I turned 50. After my experience there I just started to see some of the poems in physical form as garments," said Catherine Fisher, poet and fashion designer who is located in Brunswick, Maine.

Catherine is originally from Massachusetts and had quite the journey before starting her own business.

"I went to a women's college and my major was philosophy -- a very practical major. I have done a lot of different things in my life. I was a clown and then a dental assistant and then I owned an inn and restaurant in the White Mountains of New Hampshire before I moved to Portland, and then I became a personal historian working with people to write their life stories, company histories, family histories, and then I went to Shiatsu school and I did acupressure for a while," said Catherine.

The most difficult part when getting into her own craft and business was sharing it with others.

"As kids being first introduced to poetry, I really thought it as a kind of a magical thing, once I kind of got what it was, you know. And then I think I did some, as an angsty teenager, but I really didn't write very much until I did the MFA. I was surrounded by poets. I was married to a poet, a very established poet. And so that was part of my path. It gave me an assignment and I had to do it and I had to share it. Sharing it was the most difficult part of it. I really feel like my MFA experience was a way of becoming a grown-up really. It was hard for me to put myself out there, show my work, or do anything. It's gotten easier, but it's not easy. Still, for me, this is a big deal for me to put myself out there this way, I'm still pretty shy," said Catherine.

Once Catherine got into the swing of her poetry she took her craft to the next level by crafting small-batch pieces made from sustainable fabrics that were visuals stemmed from her poetry.

"Well, the poems definitely spring right from my life, for sure. Then I think that I hope that there's something universal, you know, I mean, we are all one stuff really all connected. And so I think, I'm not sure I mean, that I can say, why the garment from the poem. Like, why do that, except that, how we adorn ourselves, you know, it is part of our identity. And that, in bringing ourselves out into the world, to connect with other people, we want to feel good, we want to feel like what we are wearing, it is reflective of how we're feeling and who we are. And now, I mean, I feel best, sometimes in my jumpsuit that's covered with paint and dirt, and, you know, I'm happy," said Catherine.

Tune in to learn more about Catherine's past career, where she is at today with her poetry and beautiful fashion pieces that go along with them, and how people connect with her pieces.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I build rods for Maine Fly Company and I definitely fell out of touch with the outdoor industry through my late teenage years. Now that I've kind of settled down in Maine for a while and have a passion for fly fishing, I really wanted to get back into that community,” said Izzy Hutnak, rod smith for Maine Fly Company.

Izzy grew up fly fishing as she was taught by her father and had gone across Maine to many ponds, rivers, and oceans to fish different types of fish. 

“I'm the oldest and my Dad lost the battle when I was born. I say that I am technically Isabelle Machias. But I am also grateful enough to actually have the middle name Meehan, which is my mother's maiden name. But my other two siblings, their middle names are actually bodies of water in Maine where my Dad has caught his largest fish. So my sister is Abigail Eddington and my brother is Matthew Magalloway,” said Izzy.

Izzy caught on to the craft of fly rod building quickly as the process seems mindless and meditative. It’s the perfect part-time job while attending college where she is studying outdoor education. 

“We have our stations in the studio room, which overlooks the river. That's where we're going to be taking the blanks and gluing on the reel seats and the handles. Right there, I'm looking over the river. So you can just imagine the calm presence that I have while doing this and from there, those guides that I talked about those eyelets we're going to use a Dremel to sort of build this ramp so that when we wrap the thread on that the thread just builds up and there's not like a harsh line between the blank and the guide. After that, you're going to wrap all your guides with whatever color thread your customer wants. When all of those are wrapped on, the whole rod gets moved to the cleanroom where the rods will get two coats of epoxy that each spin for eight hours. Your first coat of epoxy is going to be just a clean cover the thread spent for eight hours, the second coat is going to be where the beauty happens and you make like bulbous glossy, covering,” said Izzy.

Tune in to learn more about Izzy’s journey of being a rod smith with Maine Fly Company, how it is being a female in the fly fishing industry, and what advice she gives on being a new rod smith, fly fishing angler, and maker.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Briana Warner talking about her craft of kelp farming and partnering with over 24 farmers throughout the nation. She then jumps right into sharing the in-depth process of kelp collection and processing and how her team does this within a short amount of time to keep it as fresh as possible. Briana has not just expanded her partnerships with farmers, she has started a product line of kelp-based snacks including kelp cubes to put in your smoothies to seaweed salad you can enjoy right from the jar. 

To learn more about Briana Warner with Atlantic Sea Farms you can visit their website or Instagram. 

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Lady Lamb, and her song Even In The Tremor.

Photo credit: Hannah McGowan

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"We are jewelers and hand engravers. Well, more specifically, Matt is the jeweler and we're both hand engravers. He actually found his start in high school," said Lauren Tuggle.

"Yeah, I was lucky to have a cool jewelry program in high school. We were fortunate to learn just a bunch of different techniques, we have a class where you would pick a different technique like enameling, piercing, or just some type of technique, and then you would kind of study that technique. Then you would teach the rest of that class that technique. So you got to learn a lot of different, you know, avenues of jewelry," said Matt Tuggle.

"And when Matt and I first met, he was super excited to show me these two woven chains that he had made in high school. Immediately it was obvious that he had a knack for this. That was the true talent behind these pieces. I asked him I was like, why aren't you doing this and then two weeks later, he had his first job working at Sears watching jewelry. That pretty much just started our entire path into the company that we have together today," said Lauren.

Matt and Lauren have been crafting beautiful pieces of jewelry in their home state of Colorado. They have built a huge community of clientele that enjoy their style of showcasing an emotional connection through their custom pieces.

Rings are probably one of the things we do most, we do a lot of custom bridal. So a lot of wedding rings. But we do a fair amount of pendants and earrings. We like doing pendants because you have this, you know, depending on the piece, really nice scale. So you might have more areas to work, more canvas to work with. But sometimes the challenge of a smaller piece like a ring and being able to fit everything in detail wise that a client might want or that we have in our vision is a fun challenge. Like Matt often refers to things as a puzzle that he has to put together, you know, you have all these different parts and pieces, and you have to figure out how it all works," said Lauren.

The process behind their Big Reveal piece was lengthy and challenging but setting the stone seemed fairly easy due to the experience and skills Matt obtained over the years.

"I definitely the end of the day, when my eyes are really tired or you know, definitely set bigger stones like that first thing in the morning when I'm nice and fresh. You know, feeling refreshed from the previous day or whatever. I said a lot of colored stones or a lot more sensitive stones internally. So I mean, for me tourmalines are a pretty hard stone. I set a lot of gem-quality Rhodochrosite. And I mean, they compare that to chalk. I mean, that's about how hard that stone is. So even trying to make a setting for a sound like that and not scratch it because you can't really steam it, you can't put it in the ultrasonic you can't really do any of that stuff. It has to you know, be very, very careful with stuff like that. So I would say in my younger years and making jewelry, the setting was very stressful. But I've taken a lot of classes and I would say now it's more just kind of second nature to me. So it's like I know if I can get that piece made and all my dimensions are right, then I know I can set the stones in there. So yeah, I would say that's not quite as stressful for me anymore. It was when I was younger, my career. But now it's more just like trying to get all these. I mean, I can't think I counted. It was like 37 different little components made up our pendant for the main piece. It was like 37 pieces, and it's the size of my pointer finger.," said Matt.

Tune in to hear more about Matt and Lauren's journey.

Visit their website here.

To see the Tuggle’s final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I am a Penobscot basket maker. So I actually do come from a long line of basket makers. So it's in my family, and it was always something that I had an interest in. I think I was just an artist like I've always been an artist since I was just, I remember being four or five, six years old, and that's all I wanted to do was draw, color. So making things has always been my real true kind of desire and passion and so when I graduated high school, I planned to go to art school and that's what I wanted to pursue. I ended up taking some time away right after high school, I went, and I stayed and lived at my grandmother's house on the reservation on Indian Island. I ended up living with her for a while and helped her out after my grandfather died. So while I was there on the island, I began becoming more and more interested in hearing my grandmother's stories, knowing more about her as a child. I think it's really important when we have our elders around and available, that knowledge is there," said Sarah Sockbeson, Wabanaki basket weaver located in Maine.

Sarah is the type of person who likes to get her hands on  everything native craft including art, basket weaving, and now a newly started project, a podcast.  Kristan Vermeulen shares her passion for her podcast and some tips she has learned along the way during her podcasting career. 

“I feel like every maker is so different, and has a different story. So what I like to do is fully focus on that individual and what their story is about. That kind of pulls that thread of that theme, that topic, that focus. I feel like getting to know each individual maker first and foremost is probably like my first priority and sort of pulling together the content, pulling together that story, pulling together the questions. Then what I do is I also want to learn about the process of the craft, because that's really why I wanted to start the podcast, I wanted to treat it as an elementary sort of voice process because I know a lot of makers that use terminology where a lot of folks just don't understand. And they're like, Huh, what are you talking about? Like, can you take a step back? So I ask people to just tell us the elementary level, like broad level of a process of your craft, because that's better to understand in that regard," said Kristan, host of Makers of the USA.

To view Sarah's work visit her website, Instagram and Facebook.

Also, stay until the end of the episode to listen to Sarah Trunzo's track Liberty Tool.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"We were actually founded by two folks out of the engineering department of Digital Equipment. They were phenomenally big in computers early on, and had a very large manufacturing facility in Augusta just 10 miles from here. Throughout our history, we have had one big event that really moved us along, and early on at AMI was Stanley Toolworks. They're the Stanley tools that we still hear about and they were moving into electronics, and they had an electronic stapler. That couldn't just have a manual switch, because if it did, you'd click the switch and it would shoot off 15 staples all at once. So it needed a little electronic switch to just allow that to fire once and AMI landed that contract. At some point they decided to do a reverse auction, which was in effect, how low will you go to build our product and they took quotes to Asia, this was just starting to happen then and people were moving products offshore. Sure enough on something like 15 cents, we lost the product line to a manufacturer in Asia. So we had to start working again and we happen to be working with a smaller company in Massachusetts called Software House and they were designing devices that would control access to buildings. So instead of having a key, you'd go up and slide a wave a car would let you in," said Kim Vandermeulen, CFO of Alternative Manufacturing Inc. (AMI).

AMI has been building chipboards for various tech companies across the globe for decades. Today they have helped companies with the transportation of COVID vaccines by tracking the temperature and other important factors within the crate that the vaccines are being transported in. But the one important thing AMI cares about is supporting start-up companies.

"What's unique about AMI, is that we're not afraid of the small guy, we're not afraid of a startup. We'll build one [chip], I'll build 10 [chips]. A lot of the bigger companies, they don't want that in their process. Our process is set up uniquely where we have modeled call 11. Many lines, most companies want volume, so they can set up their line run one pot, 10,000 to 100,000 parts, that's not us, we're the little train that could so we have the ability to use those small guys and we have the ability to take it to the next level of pre-production and production when it gets to the super-high volumes, I want to buy 100,000 or a million of something, it tends to fall out of our hands, we try to hand it off to a local partner try. But a lot of times they'll take it offshore to Asia, basically, for cost-driving purposes to drive as much of the cost out of it. I will say that I think the number is 85% of the clients who have started down the path with us are still with us," said Jim Barry, VP of Sales & Marketing.

One start-up that is mentioned in the interview is called iTell which gives seniors the ability to not forget their walkers when traveling about their day. This gadget provides a solution to reducing falls and medical issues in the senior community.

Tune in to learn more about AMI's history, how they have helped not only start-ups but international companies with their tech needs, and how Kim is not only a maker focused on tech but of delicious beverages.

To learn more about AMI please visit their website.

 

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Sascha Deri, the owner, and founder of bluShift Aerospace, talking about the inspiration behind the craft of the team's rocket. It was quite a long journey to launch day as they were working with Maine's state government and various organizations to assist with funding and permissions to launch a rocket from Maine and they worked with Loring Airforce Base  for setting up a launch site as it was the perfect fit for what blueShift was looking for.

To learn more about blueShift Aerospace visit their website, Facebook or Instagram. Also, to see the Stardust 1.0 launch visit their YouTube channel.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Vander Viper and the song he specifically made for bluShift as you will hear Sascha's voice in the background when he was conducting one of his test launches.

Photo credit: Lindsay Heald

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“David Dorr, the Executive Director at Somerset Career and Technical Prep, approached myself along with the other surrounding schools to the tech center, and just asked, does anybody have any space and I happen to be in my office. I quickly responded and said, we have some space come on up. And I think within 24 hours, Dave and I were meeting in this area here, which was a combination of a little welding, a little fabrication kids worked on vehicles in here. And I said, how would this work? And that was really how it began and it's incredible that we’re here a year later because last year at this time, we were completely bare walls. None of this equipment was here and at the beginning of September, we started the program as a satellite for SCTC. And now we're up and running and just looking to make it more than what it was last year and how can we support kids and have a comprehensive offering for students and also for community members because we also have a vision that we want this running throughout the day, throughout the evening as people want to get involved in welding,” said Christopher LeBlanc, Principal at Madison High School. 

Prior to Madison High School opening this welding facility under SCTC, the welding program had a lengthy waitlist. This center has helped the program extensively and Christopher hopes to see more growth and involvement in the future.

“We've talked about the signs that you see in this facility here, not that we want to take away from other people in the communities that are doing it. But this is something that we had looked about incorporating computer design and then being able to have a machine that makes those signs as well as all of the various signs that people have on their house. We’re also looking to incorporate other disciplines, because that could be done up in our computer classes. You know, maybe they're not into the welding piece of it. But there's so much more that you can do with computer design and hands on experience, and to do that stuff. Plus, it is also as a springboard of what we need to do next door in the woodshop. Because if you can do it here, in the metal shop, you have just as many people interested in the woodshop as you do here, and hoping that with again, community support and we've already started that conversation with some local people on how do we enhance that over there, modernize that and really make that for those people who are hands on but more in the wood opposed to the metal,” said LeBlanc.

Chris Beaman graduated from Madison High School and is a new instructor of the SCTC welding center at the high school. He has learned lots of skills not just in welding but in teaching as well. He continues to improve his teaching skills and grow the welding program that he knows very well and has a passion for. 

“I graduated in 2016 and grew up Madison, so I've spent my entire life here so far. And how I got into welding was seeing it through my father growing up. He was always a welder and I didn't really know what I wanted to go to school for. When my sister told me, I should just go to school for welding, I took her advice and went with it. And it led me to this, so I can't really complain. It's cool to see the success come out of the students after just one year. Like I told you earlier, seven out of ten of my students got certified this year. One got six certifications, which in a year span is pretty good to me. I'm hoping to expand that and get 100% next year, we'll see if that happens,” said Chris Beaman, Madison High School welding instructor.

Tune in to learn more about how the welding center at Madison High School began, how they have helped not only students but adults build their careers in welding, and what the future holds for them at the SCTC welding program continues to grow.

To learn more about SCTC please visit their website

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Milly Welsh who is the owner and founder of Zwellyn Pottery. She went to school for animation and her full-time job is website design and development but her true passion is pottery. Her designs are unique and the ones I personally enjoy are inspired by horror flicks. She also shares her passion for pottery with her three girls and they all reside in Limington, Maine.

The last guest on the episode is Liz Kirby with Good Jane which is now Betoken CBD. Liz was undergoing stresses in her daily life and was trying to find an outlet that could help provide her with some relief. She started formulating oral capsules with CBD which became very popular and she decided to keep expanding her product line to  creams, body baths, and so much more. She is not only a maker but an educator behind CBD.

To learn more about the Makers Market at the Point and to view each of the guest's products, please visit their websites listed here: Zwellyn Pottery and Betoken CBD.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Bait Bag, and their new hit Safe Word.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I would consider myself an artist before a jeweler but my medium is obviously metal. I started as a means to travel around with these bands that I like and make money on the side. That's when I was still doing wire wraps and everything like that. The main band I traveled around with was Phish. I did a bunch of years on tour with them and sold my wire wraps and just slowly transition into what I do now," said Matt Fischer, hand fabricated jeweler of Wolfmans Sun Designs.

Matt's jewelry career lifted off while he was living in Colorado and his customers are mainly on social media. Every time he launches a piece it's sold within hours. 

"I've been fortunate enough to have a really good following on social media and have that kind of support to where I'm able to just focus all my time on one of my original creations and have them be scooped up in a pretty timely manner. And it's funny, because some people always say, Oh, are you going to open a storefront? Are you going to do that? Maybe that would be cool someday. But that's just not something I'm really interested in, especially with the way social media is nowadays. I have a website, I just don't tend to use it because I'll post something or I'll hype it up on Instagram stories. By the time I get around to posting it, a lot of times it's already been claimed or somebody's doing a payment plan on it or something like that. Social media is my full-time job. I love it and I hate it. But it's a very good tool," said Matt.

He enjoys that his customers appreciate his style and they typically don't ask for custom work -- where the client typically drives the creativity of the piece.

"I always start with the center stone, that's always my main inspiration point. Once I have the center stone in hand, I always try to think of like, what kind of color palette could I do with this? My accent stones are my painting, and I have to decide what colors are gonna pop with this piece. Then I'll just start freehand styling around it on either the iPad, sometimes I'll use pen and paper, but usually on the iPad. Upload the image and start designing around it until I have something that I'm really feeling. Sometimes that can be a day, sometimes that can be a couple of days designing around there. Once I'm really feeling something, I just get to town on it. The process goes from design to melting down all the metals into the piece components I need to fabricate. That all usually takes two to three days to make the piece then once I have the piece made, then I'll do the same thing with my engraving, I'll upload the piece into the iPad, and draw around, figure out what I'm wanting for engraving with the space I have available, then I'll do my engraving, which I can usually rock out a full back piece in a day, maybe two if I'm being slow. Then from there, I set all the gems and call it a day. But a lot of my inspiration comes from the psychedelic art scene of painting. So I'm really into that. I'm really into the freedom of expression that happens within the jam band scene. You know you hear the same song five times, but it's completely different every time, and that kind of inspiration and lifestyle, I feel really impacts my work," said Matt.

The piece he worked on for the Big Reveal was quite challenging but rewarding at the same time.

"It can be stressful, for sure I try to not really focus on that. I let the experience unfold. In my creative process, I do all hand fabricated work. I don't do any CAD or wax sculpting or anything like that. All my work starts out as little rolling gray of gold, I melt everything down, and I roll out all my sheet. But the designing process for this one was a little bit challenging because the gem is so big. A lot of my work is more small, it's not so robust. I work a lot in the two to seven karat range for center stones. This one is 18 karat. Trying to design something around this big gem still felt authentic to my style and represented me as an artist and something that someone could look at and be like, Oh, that's a Wolfmans Sun piece or something like that. It was an engineering challenge to come up with a design, but I'm happy with it," said Matt.

To see Matt's final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

To view Matt Fischer's work follow him on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Chandlyr Jackson with Freckled Fuchsia turned to  the craft of traditional printmaking after spending time as a UX/UI designer after graduating from Wentworth Institute of Technology.  She started her business in Providence, Rhode Island, and is now operating her small business out of a small studio in downtown Portland, Maine.

Chandlyr is originally from Connecticut and has been in Portland for a couple of years now. She continues to expand her network of craftspeople in the area as she has discovered that community is key here in this great state of Maine. 

From pillows to tea towels to prints to jewelry, you can find Chandlyr's illustrations on almost anything. Her focus on fruit has piqued many folks' interest. She even used the block print technique to craft my linen table cloth that features my wood grain logo. The craft takes precision and patience as you have to hand cut the design to place it on the material.

Chandylr continues to improve on her sustainable practices by utilizing eco-friendly packaging, inks, and materials.  She mentions that it is challenging to find eco-friendly materials in the United States and sometimes has to look outside the country.

To learn more about Chandylr and to view her products, please visit her website. Feel free to follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to get updates on new products and what's going on at the studio.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Spencer Albee. He is a nationally acclaimed singer, songwriter, and producer. Since 1995, he has toured internationally, signed multiple recording and publishing deals, and worked with artists ranging from David Bowie to De La Soul. His song Love's Not Lost was inspired by his tiredness of all the fighting and vitriol. He states, "I feel like we need to show more compassion and want better for each other. "

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

When I first heard of fly fishing I always thought of it to be a man’s sport but when I looked into the history of the sport a bit I discovered that women have been involved in fly fishing since 1496 —the way anglers tie their streamer fliers is attributed to a woman and the ‘bait and switch’ method anglers use to catch billfish on the fly came from a woman. And a woman was one of the most prominent guides in Maine when Teddy Roosevelt fished here in 1878. The story of women in fly fishing is huge and I want to add on to it with this series.

I headed up to Red River Camps with a group of amazing female makers and fly-fishing anglers. The roads were quite dusty, the map was quite handy and a road soda well when we hit those dirt roads was a must-have. You are out in the middle of nowhere and the cell signal completely shuts down. It's time to be completely unplugged. Just the way I like it. Once we got to Red River Camps we were greeted with open arms by Jen and Gloria who run the camp. Once we settled in the dinner bell rang and it was time for an amazing homemade meal crafted by Gloria. I provided Gloria with some fun cooking gear, Smithy Ironware and Nick Rossi Knives. I think she enjoyed playing around with them!

During dinner, we planned out the next day scoping out the surrounding ponds in hopes of getting some good fish. Thanks to Mary Zambello's father's fly fishing book, was a great resource to have when trying to figure out the best fly fishing spots. We decided to hit the sack early and got all comfy and cozy in our cabins as we looked out to the night starry sky.

The next day we visited a couple of ponds and didn't have much luck with the fishing. Some of us did catch some smaller fish that were near a spring but weren't truly noteworthy fish to capture on camera. It's okay better luck next time. A little too hot for fishing up north those couple of days.

After a day with lots of sun, vitamin D, fishing, an amazing lunch, and nature at its best, we quieted down to sit by the campfire to have a real conversation. To talk about the highs, the lows, the adventures behind everyone's make and craft, their inspiration for the outdoors, and their fly fishing passion. A couple of things that popped out at me during this conversation were how a community is important to everyone, how women can certainly get into fly fishing without feeling judged, and that people should get into something they enjoy whether it be a hobby, a full-time job or whatever it is just do something they enjoy and that brings them a full cup of happiness.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about these lady makers and fly-fishing anglers and how they all relate to one another.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“But when you are taking fashion illustration at FIT, you have to take a couple of painting classes. The most interesting thing that I've learned over time painting, is that painting is not drawing. That's one of the things that I do teach in my classes. It's not tracing something on a canvas and filling it in, you're actually painting light,” said Ric.

Kristan Vermeulen sat down with Ric to learn more about his craft of plein air art and the important light is for painters. Ric describes looking at various photos to create your painting but really noticing the light in each scene. 

It was Kristan's first time taking an oil painting workshop and it was a great experience and her painting turned out fairly well. 

I had to ask him, why plein air? He has done so many styles of painting, so why is this his specialty? He shares that this part could be because of where he lives, Maine. There are so many beautiful scenes to paint each and every season. I don’t blame him for wanting to paint these gorgeous scenes - especially the ones he sees from his private studio in Ogunquit. “One of my instructors told me that you have to love the process, as well as the final result, right? So I love painting outdoors, I want to share that love with other people.”

Ric shares what he has learned through the years in workshops at the Cliff House Resort. He also sells his lovely work at the resort and on his website. 

Also, stay until the end to hear local musician Liz Beebe's new track Try It Out.

Thanks to Berlin City Auto Group for the eco-friendly option when traveling to Ogunquit and for sponsoring this podcast. Also, thanks to Frances Mahoney for joining me and taking the photos!

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I had an amazing geology teacher that took us mining for crystals in Herkimer, New York for Herkimer diamonds, and fluorescent stones in Franklin, New Jersey, and this sparked a lifelong love of gemstones. I started collecting and mining all over the place including Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, kind of everywhere on the East Coast, even over to Arkansas. I had this huge collection of gemstones and I didn't know really know what to do with it. They were just taking up every little shelf that I had and a friend of mine had started making wire-wrapped jewelry. He showed me a few things and it seemed like a really cool way to be able to showcase stones that I found. I ended up going to different concerts and festivals and selling them and it kind of sparked this idea that this is actually something that I could do as a job and from there ended up going to a jewelry school in Tennessee called New Approach School For Jewelers. This is kind of really where, you know, it became less of a hobby and more of a career. Throughout the entirety I've loved, I just love what I do. I love making jewelry, it's like it's every day is a new adventure. Being able to make a living at it, which I've done, has been my only job for almost 14 years now. Being able to sustain me while doing something that I love is also something that I've really tried to encourage and pass on to others. Because I grew up lacking a lot of direction, always kind of having this artistic, you know, I loved art in many ways. But I went to college without any direction, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and not a lot of focus. And it's really as soon as I discovered jewelry and creating it sparked this, this need that I didn't even know that I had to be able to create, but also to sustain myself, you know, I think there's a starving artists kind of view of, of, if you want to be an artist, then you're going to be poor kind of thing," said Noyes.

Prior to Nick discovering his passion for jewelry, he didn't really know what activities he truly had a passion for and wanted to excel in for the future. Crafting jewelry is his lifeline.

"You know, I think if someone had asked me, Well, what do you want to do with your life? At that point, I would have said, I have no idea. I like hiking and coffee. So I didn't really know. And so at that point, you know, I lived in Florida for a little bit. And I just applied anywhere that I could get a job and I worked at Quiznos and I worked at a country club. I enjoyed both those places thoroughly. Even though in many ways I knew that this is not where I wanted my life to end up. And so you know, at the same time kind of recultivating my love for gems and minerals and reconnecting with an old friend that I had grown up with who had started making jewelry, it suddenly became this thing where it seemed not even necessarily like a way out, but just something that I could pour my creative energy into," said Nick.

Nick has crafted many pieces and some have been quite challenging. Between the materials and the process but the end result is always special.

"Well, as of late, the most challenging piece that I made was this all old gold custom it was all 18 karat gold, but 18 karat yellow, rose, and white gold. So it's just multiple-color golds. And what I've found throughout my journey, in general, is that different color metals don't love working together, I have to come up with different ways, you know, especially my first into that was gold and silver aren't just like mortal enemies you have to just kind of trick them into joining. Because metals heat at different temperatures. And certain things, you know, if you were to quench a piece, it can, you know, for instance, if you're soldering something and you don't let it cool down all the way, and you punch it in water, and it's gold and silver bullet cool at different temperatures, and one can crack. It's a horrible lesson learned. But the most challenging piece recently was this all-gold custom piece, just trying to get all the metals to work with was quite a challenge. Second behind that is the piece that I made for the main Mineral Museum, mainly for the anxiety factor of setting a huge one-of-a-kind stone. I work with a lot of one-of-a-kind gems, but they're one-of-a-kind in the sense of the way that they're cut. It's a little different when it's a one-of-a-kind stone that's 50 years old, that there aren't anymore if something were to happen to," said Nick.

Tune in to learn more about Nick Noyes and his maker journey.

Please visit his website here.

 

it, right. No pressure, no pressure.

Yeah. And that's, that's something you know, whenever I take on a custom project, I always like to remind people that there is a chance that something will break. And, and I try very hard not to and you know, luckily knock on wood that it's you know, I have not had too many experiences with anything custom that something has broken. But I always like to leave that out there. Especially because, you know, I work under a microscope a lot of the time, but there are things that you can't see with the naked eye that in a microscope, you might see an internal fracture that is just starting the anxiety of hammering metal over that is incredible.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I like to say that I make the world's finest razors pure and simple. I hand-turn wooden razor handles that fit modern cartridges like Gillette, Schick, and double edge blades. I'm still trying to get in Dollar Shave Club in Harry's but I'm so small, they don't know I exist yet. But one day, that's a good goal to have. I've always been a woodworker. More as a hobby. I was a social worker for 10 years in Maryland and I would come home every night stressed out from doing paperwork and meetings all day. The only way I could decompress was to go into my workshop in the basement, a very small basement and I started off doing the typical tables, shelves, things like that. Then I found woodturning and I absolutely loved it. I started making bowls, pins, various spindle things. I made some Harry Potter ones for my nieces. It's just relaxing. It's kind of an intuitive tool. I made a razor because I was looking for a double edge razor and I couldn't find one except in an antique store and they were usually pitted and in bad shape. I just couldn't find one. So I said you know what, I'm going to turn a wooden handle on a lathe and I'm going to somehow attach a double edge blade to it and I figured it out. I made one a friend saw it said “Will you make me one?” and my hobby turned into a very, very part-time business,” says Dan Janssen, Owner, and Founder of Imperium Shaving.

Dan has accomplished many things in his career including his time as a social worker but the meat of his career is when he started this shaving business. It started as selling razors here and there to his friends and now he is selling them all over the nation. People are looking for unique options when buying local and razors is certainly a unique craft.

To learn more about Dan's craft, visit his website, Instagram and Facebook.

To learn more about the featured musician, Cris Jacobs, visit his website, Instagram and Facebook. Also, the track that is promoted is Jack The Whistle And The Hammer.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

[00:02:12] Meditation and spirituality.

[00:06:52] Eye-opening experiences in Colombia.

[00:08:03] Colorful nature in Colombia.

[00:12:24] Incorporating nature in glass art.

[00:16:00] Artistic inspiration from family.

[00:19:59] Getting into meditation.

[00:25:38] Challenging glass projects.

[00:29:38] Changing creative direction

[00:34:21] Seattle becoming a glassblowing center.

[00:36:10] Passing on glass blowing.

In this episode, Kristan and Rob delve into the practice of meditation, emphasizing its dedicated and daily nature, which takes several years to truly master. Drawing a parallel, Rob compares meditation to glassblowing, explaining that both require consistent practice over an extended period of time. They stress the importance of having a teacher to guide individuals through their meditation practice and also mention the benefits of having a dedicated meditation partner. The discussion highlights how meditation cultivates a calm and joyful state of mind, which in turn enhances creativity. The guest shares that their meditation practice is separate from their glassblowing, indicating that the two practices are distinct yet complementary. Overall, the episode underscores the commitment and daily practice required for meditation, emphasizing its positive impact on creativity.

The episode also explores how glassblowing can serve as a meditative activity, creating a serene and joyful space for creativity. The guest shares their personal experience, describing how glassblowing feels like a form of meditation to them. They explain that combining glassblowing with meditation brings about a sense of calm and joy that they cannot live without. The host agrees, adding that glassblowing helps individuals enter a calm and creative mindset, enabling them to work joyfully with their teams. Rob further emphasizes that despite any frustrations that may arise during the glassblowing process, one can always step back and find humor in the situation. This suggests that glassblowing not only provides a meditative and tranquil environment but also fosters a sense of joy and lightheartedness in the creative process. The host deepens the connection between glassblowing and meditation by inquiring if the guest's meditation teacher helped them understand how glassblowing can be a meditative practice. The guest confirms that while the teachings of glassblowing and meditation are separate, meditation has played a significant role in their life for several years.

Nature serves as a major source of inspiration for the artist's work, influencing their projects in profound ways. The artist explains that when they practice or seek to be creative, they tap into a place in their mind or on paper where ideas and colors flow, and nature is their primary wellspring of inspiration. They express that most of their work is influenced by nature, as they believe it excels in providing ideas worth borrowing. The artist also shares a favorite project in Seattle, where they were tasked with creating 200 pieces for a building's entrance. The client desired an ambiance that evoked a connection to nature. The artist designed a piece consisting of 250 glass elements, incorporating flowers, leaves, and cattails to capture the essence of nature. Throughout the episode, the artist's passion for nature and their desire to infuse its beauty into their work shines through.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

About a year ago Kristan Vermeulen was sitting in her bedroom closet recording the first episode of her Makers of Maine podcast and today, she is sitting in the same spot recording her first episode of Makers of the USA. She can’t believe the time has come to expand this project she has worked so hard on. Kristan Vermeulen is a storyteller that enjoys interviewing makers of all sorts. She finds that the term maker can be very broad and she wants to keep it that way as many people think a maker is an individual that makes something with their hands. That definition is correct but she thinks there is much more to that. What about the folks who help capture the handmade craft such as the photographers and videographers? What about the musicians who bring life to the air and fills your soul? What about the innovators behind science and technology? What about the creatives behind marketing those handmade products? The list goes on. 

Join Kristan in her storytelling by subscribing to the podcast, following her on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribing to her e-mail list on her website. Also, feedback is always a plus so please leave a rating and review.

Thank you to the Makers of the USA band Natale as her music will continue to be a big part of this podcast as she is a good friend and partner in this project. Also, thank you to all of the guests that have already been on this podcast and for all of her followers who have continued supporting her from day one.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Hilary Crowell who is the owner and founder of The Cultivated Thread. She has a passion for farming but needed to find a hobby during the wintertime as farming tends to slow down in the colder months. Weaving became a passion and she recently built a business to showcase her skills and people enjoy her designs and products.

The second guest is Jami Bouley with JP Quilts. He started his craft of quilting by taking a class with a friend which turned into a hobby he will never stop doing. He also is a part of a quilt group where they take on projects together and learn from one another. He has built his business by going to craft shows throughout the state and even some out of the state. He's known for his Maine inspired quilts as well as his cardinal themed quilts.

The last guest on the episode is Greg Benoit with Benoit Design Co. Greg's family had a long history of selling apparel in shops across Maine but now he has decided to take the family name and turn it into something else. He took a dive into laser engraving, cutting, and dye sublimation.  He is also expanding his operations by hiring immigrants in the area. 

To learn more about the Makers Market at the Point and to view each of the guest's products, please visit their websites listed here: The Cultivated Thread, JP Quilts & Benoit Design Co.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Coyote Island. Mike O'Hehir was born in England and vacationed in Maine with grandparents when he was younger. His song "Here Before", lyrically was inspired by meeting his fiancé at a full moon bonfire party, He arrived late to the party and was experimenting with “psychedelic plant medicines”, it was a wonderful night! The chorus though was written years ago on his travels out west. That feeling of going places for the first time and wondering why it feels so familiar. “I’ve been here before, and so have you"

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“I started through studio art and just being creative and wanting to spend some time outdoors and allow for that to be done in a very grounded and observational way. So I have studio art practice and I'm also a Maine guide. I've been an angler for a long time. But mostly that's a way again to be outside and be looking around and feeling very innately human surrounded by nature. So I guide people fishing and I also founded the Confluence Collective which is all about accessibility to the outdoors, making sure that there's space for everybody on the water.,” said Bri Dostie.

Bri is all about the outdoors and she was the perfect maker to have on this podcast. She started her maker journey through studio art which is quite beautiful and unique.

“I grew up in pretty rural Central Maine, outside the foothills of Oxford County, and my family very much was in the outdoors throughout, which is a huge privilege to have that kind of access and also, like loving relationship to get to know nature through my mom, homeschooled me from like, first grade to seventh grade. So science class was moving logs to see if we could find salamanders and like taking different courses through local colleges just basically being outside and in a really hands on kind of way. And throughout that I really fixated on learning about birds, learning about all the living things that were in these places, and started doodling them quite a bit, did a bunch of ducks for the Federal Stamp Competition when I was younger, if you look back through the records might have one for me and a couple of times. But that was a really nice way to kind of build my interest and feel confident to like keep trying things and keep observing things and to continue practicing through studio work. So I really love that. As I grew up, a lot of my relationships were built around being outside. So when I was six, a way that I spent time with my grandparents was just tromping around the brooks in their backyard and around South Paris. That was something that they turned to for sustenance, like being able to feed your family with brook trout was something that we definitely relied on. And I was able to catch my like first fish with my mom on my grandfather's gear. And it was this beautiful brook trout, and it was delicious and corn meals. It was really a nice bonding kind of moment. And I got more into fly fishing as I got a little older to be spending time with more peers entered public school space, had my boyfriend and that was a nice way for us to get the okay from parents to hang out. And the joke's on them, we really did just go fishing. So I learned how to fly fish on a bass pond in Bowdoin with his parents, and that was just fuel to the fire to keep going, and keep exploring,” said Bri.

But her passion for fly fishing didn’t stop there as she started an organization that is all about inviting everyone to the water.

“I started fly fishing, and usually found myself as the only like, female-identifying person in that space, I would hang out with my boyfriend and his dad, which was great. And that's also a space that has limitations in perspective. And for me, and for probably anybody who's in like a relationship with someone, if you are trying to learn something from that person, there's emotional weight to that, and it becomes something else pretty quickly. So I recognize that there were probably other curiosities that I wanted to explore, and maybe trying to do so only through the way that they might teach me wasn't going to lead to the relationship that I wanted to foster with the sport. So in Maine, we are really fortunate to have some incredible fly-fishing community members. I remember being introduced to Evelyn King who started the Maine Women Fly Fishers Group, and I got really excited by what they were doing. And I've made a lot of friends learned a lot of things by being just a part of that community space, and also recognize the limitations in that where we're in Maine, it's mostly white, it's pretty cis heteronormative. And in those spaces, there were definitely, you know, assumptions and just like ways of going about things that felt like they weren't the most curious, or they weren't the most open. And I'm a person who has a lot of questions. And I think being able to really give some space to those questions required me to push beyond a little bit, which was kind of the impetus behind starting Confluence Collective, which is all about getting people outside and allowing that space for people to build their own relationship with nature. So it started with putting together ways for mostly female-identifying anglers to fish in new water. Most women, especially those who were in community groups, access the water through their husbands, their family members through some other connection, usually male, and there are a lot of these themes of not feeling confident enough in your skills or not feeling like you can blow a lot of money to go somewhere new for this thing that you kind of like and the whole trying to convince yourself of to even taking the time for yourself for fishing trips outside of your home waters tend to be run through fly shops. And that also tends to be very expensive. So we put together an exchange to go to Montana, which is on a lot of people's bucket lists of a bunch of Northeast women to then fish alongside a local community group in Montana, wow, and share their water together. It was incredible. And it was also not perfect like it was a lot of white women coming together. And we still had those limitations of perspective, we still were, you know, had a lot of privilege in accessing those spaces. And so the work that we do is to expand community-based programs decolonize, the way that we conceptualize the water and each other and really instigate that line of inquiry for everyone to be intentional and determining what their relationship is going to be to the water and how that then informs someone else's around them. So we do that in a lot of ways. We think about access, really, logistically in terms of physical access. So working with places like the adaptive Outdoor Education Center here in Maine, which does absolutely incredible work with the local community, expanding a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities. And there's a lot that fly fishing needs to catch up on a lot of like moose trails that aren't necessarily easy to get to or navigate, even if you hear about them, which is usually a secret. So yeah. So a lot of our work is like pulling apart the culture of exclusion, and also getting real tangible answers to access. So someone who may not even know that they will have a love affair with fly fishing has the opportunity to test it out,” said Bri.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Bri’s passion for fly fishing, her studio art, her being a Maine guide, and the various activities happening under Confluence Collective.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Fashion designer, Roxi Suger, came to Maine to continue and grow her popular apparel collection Angelrox in Biddeford, Maine. She went from designing in her home to relocating to Alfred Street where her flagship store is currently located then joining in with other businesses and designers in Pepperell Mill who are all a part of the revitalization efforts of the mill. She also has a sister collection called Suger where her focus is more on now and a tie-dye Tuesday initiative where she organizes Facebook Lives to showcase the lovely pieces and  donating $20 for every piece sold to the Greater Portland Welcome Immigrant Center.

Please visit Roxi Suger's website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, please reach out to them if you would like to check out their studio in Pepperell Mill and visit their retail shops in Biddeford and Portland.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Natále. Currently, she is working on releasing her first mini-album titled Giving All to You, mastered by the great Adam Ayan of Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. The mini-album  includes four original songs which she recorded with friends in a makeshift bedroom studio in an old farmhouse in Biddeford. She is in the process of crowdfunding on a secret Go Fund Me to get that album in the hands of those who wish to own a copy. Check out her tune Keep Me Hangin On on Spotify and iTunes.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"We run the Red River Camps up in Northern Maine, it's a traditional sporting camp. But that kind of means that our craft is sort of twofold threefold, actually, when we throw Gloria into the mix. The first is that we tried to craft the northern Maine experience for people, you know, maybe new people who haven't fly fish before, or new people who haven't even been to Maine before. We had some folks from Long Island the other week, they were great. So we try to kind of bring them in and give them the experience of visiting family in a place that you're just going to fall in love with. We have guests who have been coming here since the 30s. Since they were kids, we have had many guests who have been coming since the 60s. So it's really a place that you come in, you feel like you belong here, you feel like oh, I can be an outdoors person, I can, you know, go hiking and feel okay about that, and not be frightened or anything. So we really try to craft an experience that people are going to want to come back for. On the other side of that for me, is that we tend to say that we're a two-person operation Gloria cooks things, and I fix things. But in the realm of fixing things, I get to be very creative. So you know, parts of my days are spent plumbing parts, and some of my days are spent figuring out how to take an old dryer door and turn it into a window for a new bathroom that we put in. Part of it is marketing, I have to come up with all of our logos, all of our catchphrases, everything for the swag, and things like that. So I really get to be creative every single day in about 15 different ways," said Jen Brophy, one of the owners behind Red River Camps.

Red River Camps is quite the hidden gem as people make their way from across the nation to experience what Jen and Gloria have to offer. From the amazing hospitality to the home-cooked meals, people enjoy coming back to experience more.

"My craft is cooking and spoiling people. I started working at another sporting camp at one time and I watched a cook all the time. I've just taken care of the cabins. I was a cleaning girl and served the tables as Jen does now. But once I started seeing her cook and I kind of wanted to do that. And my mother was a cook for years. So I said okay, I can do this. And if you're cooking for somebody else or in somebody else's kitchen, you kind of feel a little weird, but when you make it your own kitchen, totally different. Then you just go with it. Right and that's kind of what I do. So that's my biggest thing and fly fishing. That's another story. I learned fly fishing from an elderly gentleman and he brought me to tears several times because I couldn't seem to cast -- get the fly to go where he wanted it to which was usually a spring hole and then I'd mess up the spring hole. So finally I got it. I actually got it and I've been doing it ever since I used to practice on the lawn. No fly, just the line. Yeah, so it took a lot of time but I've been doing it since about 1974. So it's a lot of fun and I miss it when I can do it. So I'll go out on this dock and just cast, just cast to say I'm out there fishing and whether I catch anything doesn't matter as long as I'm casting. So it's a lot of fun.," said Gloria, the other owner of Red River Camps and the cook behind their delicious meals.

Kristan's biggest question for Jen was how her family got involved in this property in the first place.

"So my Dad was guiding here from about 1974. Actually, he would guide for bears and deer in the fall time. He and my Mom were recently married. My Mom had one young child at that point, my brother. The owners were looking at selling and going into different ventures. My Dad convinced her that oh, we should run this just for a year while they find a buyer for it. Her big dream was to get to the big city of Bangor and become a real city woman. She's originally from Mars Hill up here and so she said, Okay, I suppose I could cook for people for a summer. Why not? Yeah, the rest is history. She fell in love with it. It was a great thing. I happened to be born that year. So I got to spend my first birthday up here," said Jen.

Red River Camps is all about community and making memories that turn into traditions. Kristan will certainly be coming back for more.

"Your traditional sporting camp in Maine tends to offer two different what we call plans. We all have a big commercial kitchen and a dining room where traditionally guests would come and enjoy breakfast together, talk about fishing over the course of the day, figure out where they want to fish, tell lies about what they caught the day before, things like that. Then we send you out with lunch so you don't have to come back. So you can spend all day on the water all day on the trail. Then we bring everybody together for a family-style dinner. And tradition, we just put a couple of big tables together and everybody from all the different groups will sit together and get to know one another. And as an aside, up in this area, people find that they meet friends, old friends up here without knowing it. We had a couple of groups a few years ago, one group was actually doing their own cooking, and we have a couple of cabins that have their own kitchens. And so one group had been cooking for themselves. One group was eating here with us in the dining room. And they had booked at different times they were from different cities, no connection whatsoever. And the group that was here in the dining room was looking at the dock while the other group was getting ready to go fishing and kind of did a double take and looked at each other and said, does that look like so and so and they turned around I said that is so and so. And turns out that they had grown up across the street from each other. Several times a year we started seeing just serendipity run-ins up here.

Tune in to learn more about Jen's family connection to the camp, Gloria's childhood of growing up around sporting camps and how she got connected to Jen's family, what their day-to-day looks like while tending to their guests and so much more.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Fashion and textile designers, Jordan Carey and Madison Poitrast-Upton, graduated from Maine College of Art and started a business while they attended the college which is called Loquat. Loquat is a fairly new venture and they have grown tremendously through their small collection of products including their top-selling handbags and facemasks. 

The skills they have obtained from college which have morphed into their own art and craft have truly gravitated towards the Maine community as people highly enjoy them. With help from their mentors including Jill McGowan and Kazeem Lawal, they come up with unique ways of standing out.

They give back to the community by collaborating with other artists to showcase their culture, lifestyle, and passions. They also support women in Portland by providing them with menstrual products that they can't afford and don't have access to. 

Loquat will continue to grow and prosper and we all should be excited to see what the future holds for them.

Please visit Loquat's website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. 

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Patrick from Just Plain Jones. Currently, he is working on new music that will be launched this fall. Check out his tune For Everybody with Kyle Jamal on Spotify and iTunes.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Bethany Field and Chris Korzen, owners and founders of Maine Flag Company and Original Maine, have been crafting flags for seven years in Portland, Maine. They started with the Maine Merchant & Marine Flag and have expanded to other designs including the popular and well-known Original 1901 Maine Flag. In celebration of Flag Day, I wanted to sit down with these two to learn more about the history of the first Maine state flag, the craft of flags and how Maine and its community helped their business grow. We also chat about the NY Times article that was recently released that talks about Maine's flags. Not only do they tell me that they recently produced their two thousandth Original 1901 Maine Flag, they tell me about their exciting sailing trip from Maine to Key West that took them six months.

Please visit Maine Flag Company and Original Maine's websites to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, check out their post that showcases their boat Woodpecker with all of their flags on the mast.

Also please check out my featured Maine musician, Dominic Lavoie, and his full track of Lime Butterfly and the rest of his beautiful music on iTunes. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Becky McKinnell is a female entrepreneur who is celebrating 15 years of business with iBec Creative, a full-service digital agency located in Portland, Maine, and has launched a side hustle called Wildwood Oyster Company. She was gifted a leather hide from her sister which turned into the first concept of her popular handbag. Her inspiration comes from the Maine coast with the smell of salt air and the delicious oysters she grows in Casco Bay. Not only does she tell me how she went about producing her beautiful products, she gives me a 101 lesson on how to start an oyster farm! Tune in to hear more about Becky McKinnell and how she gets down with her craft.

To find Wildwood Oyster Company products you can visit their website . Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and promotions. Also, check out Becky's full-service digital agency, iBec Creative.

Also please check out my featured Maine musician, Neal Jandreau, and his full track of Ashamed and the rest of his In Retrospect album on iTunes. 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

We've been in business for over four years and honestly, the craft of it has kind of progressed over time. When my husband and I started, it was literally just in our backyard. We had a bunch of pallets laying around and we were like, oh, we could make something cool with that. So he was like, just give me a little, you know, an afternoon and he used the jigsaw and he cut out a bunch of Maine signs. From there, we were like, well, this is amazing. Everyone from Maine loves being from Maine and kind of has pride in being from Maine. So people picked up on it. They were like, oh, I want one of those for my house. So we kind of continue to build on it. What started as Reclaimed Sign Company progressed over time, where I just kind of fell in love with designing all of these Maine things, what it was mainly, you know, trying to use, reclaimed and eco-conscious materials. And we've continued, obviously, to bring that throughout everything that we do. So what again, started as kind of just signs now is a full line of home decor items, Maine giftware, apparel, and continues to grow every year," said Mary Zambello, owner, maker, and designer of Reclaimed Maine.

Thanks to Mary's husband, the idea of utilizing reclaimed woods in her craft lifted off the ground. Her background is in architecture, design, and digital marketing, and with all of those skills in her back pocket, her business has been quite a success. 

"There's always a little bit of anxiety going off or by yourself. But I think because I did it on the side for so long. I really kind of pushed the limits of sort of pushing it as far as I could go being you know, having another full-time job, to the fact that you know, it wasn't, I had to kind of choose one way or the other. And I don't regret it a bit, being able to go out on my own honestly, it's just helped me to be able to continue to expand and put more time into it. And honestly just have more mental capacity to, you know, put more into it, and honestly have a little bit more time for myself, which is allowed me to get outdoors more. And really push that side of things and just get inspired more," said Mary.

Mary has recently partnered with L.L. Bean and they are now carrying some of her home decor items. It is a big accomplishment as Mary is a huge L.L. Bean fan.

"It's a dream come true. My dad worked at L.L. Bean when I was a kid, and so we kind of lived and breathed it and growing up, and I always just think back, you know, it was picking out your first L.L. Bean backpack as a kid, and then you know, growing up, it was L.L. Bean, boots, and flannels, and then, you know, getting into my adult life. Reclaiming my love for the outdoors, they were always my go-to, for my fishing and camping gear. So I think just from a personal standpoint, I was like, oh, my gosh, L.L. Bean, dream come true. Then from a business standpoint, I mean, what an iconic Maine brand and they've honestly just been such an inspiration to me, with reclaimed, and we have, you know, very similar missions and values. So, you know, from a brand and business side of things, it's always been a goal of mine, they've been kind of one of those companies that, you know, again, we share so many values that I just, it would be such a great fit, to kind of share, you know, the same love for the outdoors, and the products just seemed to coincide so well," said Mary.

Tune in to learn more about Mary's maker journey, her future plans for the business, and what community means to her.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

The episode starts out with Gabriel Frey sharing his thoughts around Maine craft and how it is important to share these stories with the community. He then jumps right into sharing the in-depth process of Black Ash basket weaving and how he continues to innovate the traditional practices by adding color and personal expression to his work.  Many typically think of basket packs when it comes to the traditional Indian-style baskets but Gabriel has taken these ancient skills and now crafts purses, face masks and so much more. He also uses plant dyes and locally sourced leather to add to his pieces to give it a fancier look yet still accomplishing the utility of the piece

To learn more about Gabriel Frey you can visit his website or Instagram. 

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Hawk Henries, and learn more about his craft behind flutes.

Photo credit: Brendan Bullock

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

[00:02:13] Exploring Seattle's local makers.

[00:05:22] The history behind London Bridge Studios.

[00:08:01] The London Bridge sound.

[00:12:31] Rock and roll influence.

[00:16:29] Local musicians in Washington.

[00:19:13] Recording and releasing music.

[00:22:10] Painting and creativity in music.

[00:26:58] Painting as therapeutic during pandemic.

[00:30:11] A spontaneous trip to Seattle.

 

The pandemic has had a profound impact on the mental health of musicians and those in the entertainment industry. Some musicians have found solace in their art, using it as a means of expression during these challenging times. However, for others, the pandemic has brought about deep depression as their livelihoods have been drastically affected. The cancellation of shows, the inability to rehearse with bandmates, and the loss of revenue have all contributed to the mental health challenges faced by musicians and those working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. This episode highlights the contrasting experiences, with some individuals finding inspiration in their art while others struggle with the changes brought about by the pandemic. Overall, the pandemic has had a significant and dual effect on the mental health of musicians and those in the entertainment industry, leading to both creative expression and emotional challenges.

The episode focuses on the presence and importance of makers and creatives in the United States. The host emphasizes that many people tend to overlook the numerous artisans, craftsmen, photographers, musicians, and makers of all sorts in America, opting instead to buy products from major online retailers. The host highlights the historical significance of makers in America, dating back to the Industrial Revolution and even earlier, and emphasizes their contribution to the country's economy.

Furthermore, the episode explores the concept of being a "creative" and delves into the comfort level and self-consciousness that individuals may experience when identifying themselves as such. The guest shares their own creative process and mentions their interest in reading books as a hobby.

Additionally, the episode delves into the role of a producer in the music industry. The guest emphasizes the importance of understanding and embracing the individuality of the artist they work with, rather than imposing a signature sound or style on them. They stress the need to help the artist become the best version of themselves and fully understand their artistic identity.

Lastly, the episode briefly discusses the concept of "magic" in the context of a recording studio. The guest describes it as an intangible moment when everyone in the studio feels a connection and realizes that they have stumbled upon something special. This moment of magic can occur during playback, in the moment of recording, or even when listening back to a finished record later on.

The transcript highlights the roller coaster nature of the pandemic for musicians. The speaker mentions that they are currently under a mask mandate again, indicating the fluctuation between periods of reopening and closures. This inconsistency in restrictions and regulations has made it challenging for musicians to navigate and find stability. Some musicians have been inspired to write songs and express themselves during these challenging times, while others have experienced deep depression and a significant shift in their livelihoods. The transcript also touches on the mental health challenges faced by musicians and those in the entertainment industry, as well as the loss of revenue due to canceled shows and the impact on production managers and operations roles. Overall, the transcript suggests that the roller coaster nature of the pandemic has had a significant impact on musicians and their ability to find stability in their careers.

The episode expands on the presence of makers and artisans in the United States. It highlights the fact that many people tend to overlook the craftsmanship and creativity that exists within the country, opting instead to buy from major online retailers. The host emphasizes that America has a long history of makers, and there are thousands of artisans, craftsmen, photographers, musicians, and creatives who contribute to the country's economy.

Furthermore, the episode explores the idea of labeling oneself as a creative and the comfort level associated with it. The conversation between the host and the guest delves into their creative processes and hobbies outside of their main artistic pursuits. The guest mentions reading as a hobby, emphasizing the importance of books and the pleasure of flipping through their pages. The host also mentions painting as a therapeutic activity, which they had done before but rediscovered during the pandemic.

Additionally, the episode discusses the challenges faced by artisans in maintaining their craft. The guest talks about their studio's equipment, specifically a piece that was built in 1974 and is difficult to maintain due to the scarcity of certain parts. They highlight the importance of expertise in preserving the integrity of the equipment and the unique sound it produces.

Overall, the episode highlights the presence and importance of makers and artisans in the United States, their creative processes and hobbies, and the challenges they face in maintaining their craft.

In the episode, the guest discusses how engaging in creative outlets, particularly painting, can be therapeutic during difficult times. They mention that painting was a source of therapy for them during the pandemic. They also attribute their passion for painting to their bandmate, Kate, who is a true artist. The guest explains that while painting was always something they did on the side, mainly for album artwork or other auxiliary purposes, it became a significant outlet for them during the pandemic. This highlights the idea that engaging in creative activities, such as painting, can provide comfort and healing during challenging times.

Additionally, the guest and the host discuss the labeling of oneself as a creative and the associated comfort level. The guest mentions feeling self-conscious about identifying as a painter, suggesting that there may be a stigma or pressure associated with being labeled as a creative. This conversation suggests that individuals may have different perceptions of themselves as artists or creatives, and these perceptions can influence their engagement with creative outlets.

Overall, the episode highlights the therapeutic benefits of engaging in creative activities, particularly painting, during difficult times. It also explores the influence of other artists in inspiring and encouraging individuals to pursue their creative passions.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Ramona studied psychology in college and focuses on crisis and trauma counseling. She has set out to be a trauma and crisis counselor and that led her to practice reflexology. It calms the nervous system opening the door for other treatments to work. 

She had a full schedule before the pandemic, seeing 15-20 clients a week. She shares that she was glad she picked up painting as giving all of her energy outward was taking a toll on her mental health. Painting was like self-care. She never considered painting professionally or creating anything that would be sellable. Who knew that not long after, her reflexology space would turn into her very own gallery. 

“As far as the healing arts go, you know, I really did miss that connection that I had with my clients. Yeah, not being able to connect with them hands-on, not knowing how long I would be good again, and missing that connection. So originally, Ramona Allen healing arts was my Instagram feed for my reflexology practice. And I would post different things relating to health and wellness, mostly with holistic or alternative medicine. So I began to share my artwork on there thinking that it might inspire someone else may be to explore their creativity, not thinking that it would be something that would move into a career with sellable art.”

Ramona’s art began bringing joy, hope, and light to everyone in a dark time. People began reaching out to her and sharing what they experienced through viewing each piece. This gave her back the connection she was missing from having clients. What I've heard from others who know Ramona is that she is great at listening to their stories. She takes their story and turns it into a piece of art.

To view Ramona's work visit her website and Instagram.

Also, stay until the end of the episode to listen to Caroline Cotter's track II est Jaune.

Big thanks to Zach St. Ward for capturing Ramona's wonderful craft.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Sam Kassirer is originally from Massachusetts and had vacationed to Maine quite a few times at a young age. He has always had a passion for music of all kinds but jazz is one genre that truly hits home with him. He has played for a variety of bands including Josh Ritter and many others. He decided to start his own music studio, Great North Sound Society, over ten years ago and the location that connected with him was out in Parsonsfield, Maine. An untouched farmhouse built in the 1700s that still has its original character.

Many musicians have used this studio as a writing retreat, to record singles, EPs, and albums and even artists have rented this space to hold workshops. It is a hidden gem that offers an unplugged environment for creatives. Kristan got to see the behind the scenes of a recording session and what she found interesting was that a single instrument was recorded in a different space in the house. From the bass in the attic to the voice recording in what I call the "singing nook", a small space located upstairs from the audio engineering room.

To learn more about Sam's studio please visit his website and Instagram.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Dietrich Strause. He is also featured in the promo video of this podcast series and is one of the guests on the podcast series.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I am a pastry chef, classically trained. I've been in food now for 14 years. I will say I've been cooking and baking since I was very little I grew up on a farm in Florida and always had really fresh produce and meat as well to use to cook with. And a lot of time with my mother in the kitchen," said Chef Tara Cannaday, head chef of Pot + Pan, "I was born in Florida and stayed there until I was 12 and then actually moved to New Hampshire, Southern New Hampshire with my mom and my brother. My mom's side of the family is from New Hampshire. So went to high school there and then ended up in Boston for music school. Music was my first career and enjoyed cooking and entertaining along the way. Like when I was in high school I was always in drama club and whenever we would have like, you know, team building events, if you will, or cast parties, I was always the one that was making treats and food. It certainly continued into college when we are at music school like poor college musicians, trying to do little potlucks and things I would always be like, you know what I got this guys I'm going to take my paycheck from the week and make a big spread of food." 

From there, Chef Tara Cannnaday took on many roles with five-star restaurants but eventually took her career to Maine. She started a food truck where she sold the best macaroons in East Prom in Portland and now is the head chef at Pot + Pan, a cannabis edible company that puts food first.

"I was still very heavily involved in my own business, leading up to COVID. My daughter was getting older at this point and I felt a little bit more of a need to be home with her more often and have a more consistent schedule, which I wasn't getting with my own business. And, you know, still love what I did, but need to kind of have a greater purpose in what I was doing. So Pot + Pan had posted an ad online that they were looking for a baker. And I was like, You know what, I'm very passionate about the cannabis space. Something that you know is medicinal and helps people and I love helping people. So I reached out and said, Hey, this is what I can do. I think I can offer this to you all. And yeah, they went for it. Kerry John, who's one of the owners actually had already known about my business and was a fan. So they told me they were very excited when, when my resume came through, I think they meant it. Yeah, I was just so thrilled to have the opportunity. And it really kind of created this new challenge for me food-wise. Sure, you know, cannabis is, is a medicine, but it's really just an ingredient. And I call it my like, little secret ingredient. Because that's, that's all it is. So I'm still creating food that I love and with, you know, purpose and thought, I have this little extra secret ingredient that makes you feel good, right? And that's, that's really what we're all about here. So anytime I'm planning menus, I approach it like I would if there was no cannabis. Honestly, I feel like I've finally found where I have been meant to be this whole time. I'm so grateful for the journey that has brought me here. But now I'm like, I'm really in it. And I'm loving all of the people that I'm meeting as a result of being a part of this business great. And being able to be the forward-facing person like, yeah, it really plays into what I did as a musician and a performer earlier on," said Tara.

Tara's goal is to not only bring her delicious recipes to the table with Pot + Pan but to educate people of edibles and how they can approach it through their lifestyle.

We're trying to take this unique approach to cannabis where Moms and people who are curious will feel like it's approachable and easy and comfortable. Not having to go into a store where it's a bunch of, for lack of a better term stoners who might judge you if you're only in there trying to buy a five-milligram gummy as opposed to 100-milligram gummy. We are trying to be approachable and say like, Hey, you can trust us -- like our products as they are accurately dosed always. They're delicious, and you know that you will have a consistent experience, right? It is very shareable. I think we're creating something really fun and different that no one is doing in cannabis right now. It feels exciting. It feels a little scary at times, because we're like, wait a second, are people going to see this vision as we do? And now we see the feedback and it has been great," said Tara.

Tune in to learn more about Tara, her past career, her experience as head chef at Pot + Pan and her future goals with the company.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

John and Tom of Lone Pine Brewing started their business in 2016 in Portland and quickly expanded to their location in Gorham and broadened its product line to include hard seltzer. The business idea stemmed from a conversation both longtime friends and former bandmates had. With help from the local community between financial institutions, other breweries, and much more, their growth continues to skyrocket and expand throughout the nation.

My husband and I visited the Gorham location thanks to Berlin City Lexus for supplying us with a vehicle to show up in style. The car was dark green and matched our Lone Pine Brewing experience perfectly. 

“I think beer is amazing in that it's very much a craft and it's an art form. In itself, it's a blend of science and improvisation. When you kind of get into the space where you’re building out a recipe and you have in your mind's eye sort of an idea of what the final product will be, there's a lot of factors that play into making that beer exactly how you envision it. That sort of that big combination of math and science and hard work and sanitization. Every day different and every day is very interesting. That's why we keep coming back and doing it every day.” - Tom 

Tom shared that like many brewers out there, and similar to my husband, he learned on his porch and in his basement. He spent six or eight years working at this before they ever even started a business. Tom shared, “I studied everything you could before taking the leap. There's a lot of high-quality brewers here in Maine,  we've got award winners and national recognition all around us. They say quality breeds quality. We kind of walked into the lion's den, opening up in East Bayside of Portland.”

Tom and John have grown at such a fast pace in size, geographically, product line and so much more. They were ever recognized for their fast growth in many renowned beer publications. Tune in to hear more about their experience and how they plan to continue their fast growth over the next five years.

Also, stay until the end to listen to Ghost of Paul Revere's latest single Good At Losing Everything. You can find their Q&A session with Makers of Maine here.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“One thing I really love about Great North Sound Society is that you can stay on site, it's a great place to hang out and then there are these two specific rooms that are primarily music making rooms. So, you also have a sort of focused area. It's like okay, now we're here and we're working on the record and all that fun stuff we did last night is over and we're working on the record again,” said Bridget.

Lake Street Dive has a big heart for Maine and continues to come back year-after-year to perform in Portland. They will be performing this fall at Thompson's Point. I was just in awe that they had recorded one of their most popular albums here in the great state of Maine at Great North Sound Society.

So how did Lake Street Dive find out about this awesome studio in Maine? “We knew Sam a little bit from his work with the Josh Ritter band. We're all big fans of Josh's music. We knew that Sam had had a big hand in what some of those records sounded like. Then, we heard that he had his own studio, which is remote, in Maine, kind of deep inland, like outside of town. So it sounded like a really great place to get away and kind of focus on the project of making the record, which for me has become a big part of how I like to make records. Making it kind of an event that is separate from your day-to-day, separate from what touring life is like and separate from what home life is like. You go to the studio and you're really able to kind of just stay in that zone for the space of the recording to take place,” said Bridget.

She shared with me that the most important thing to her when picking a studio to record at, is the vibe. There is always a concern for technical capabilities, but how the studio feels will always be top priority.

Her experience at Great North Sound Society, has been truly one-of-a-kind and she enjoys the vibe it brings. She continues to utilize it every once in a while as a writers retreat and who knows may she will come back one day to record a song or another album. 

Lake Street Dive recently came out with a new album called Obviously and a bit of their track Hypotheticals is featured at the end of the episode.

To learn more about Lake Street Dive please visit their website and Instagram.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

There are many potters in Maine but one potter you need to get to know is Jody Johnstone. She spent time in Japan with a master potter who specialized in wood firing which began Jody's passion for this particular practice. She went over to Japan to be a junior apprentice for Isezaki Sensei but wanted to get more out of the experience and was treated as an apprentice as she was very hands-on with crafting wood-fired pieces.

After her time in Japan, she came back to the states to launch her own pottery studio which led her to Swanville, Maine. Her property is a sanctuary deeply rooted in the woods with two log cabins. One that holds her beautiful artwork where people can  purchase and the other holds her potter's wheel, clay, and other tools she can put together her pieces.  As well as her beautiful home, 24-foot wood fire kiln, and a smaller wood fire kiln. 

She fires up her 24-foot Anagama Tunnel twice a year, once in the spring and once in the late summer/early fall, and fills the tunnel to the brim with many pieces of pottery that were made throughout the year ready to be fired. Sometimes these pieces are sitting in her studio for 4 months just waiting for the kiln to be fired up. The firing is more like a ceremony where a group of other potters and friends of Jody bring their pieces they would like to be a part of the firing too. The best part about this ceremony is to see what the pieces look like after the firing is complete.

To learn more about what Jody will be doing for Maine Craft Weekend and to view her products, please visit her website. Feel free to follow her on  Instagram to get updates on new products and what's going on at her studio.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Velocipede with Julia Plumb and Baron Collins-Hill. Julia came to playing music by going to contra dances and wanting to play. A friend of Baron’s family gave him a mandolin to borrow and taught him a few chords. They both met in 2008 at Maine Fiddle Camp in Montville and loved making music together right away. They both love the tunes found in traditional dance music from a variety of places - Ireland, Québec, England, the US, and Scandinavia. Part of this music tradition is playing together with friends, which is part of how they got to know Jody at the Irish session in Belfast. You can check out their Facebook and YouTube to see more of their music but please stay until the end of the episode to hear The Birdhouse written by Baron and the second, The Cat After Sausages written by Julia.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Frances Mahoney is a born and raised Mainer as she grew up in Portland. Her passion for art and design started at a young age as she drew up fun  illustrations. She attended Maine College of Art (MECA) and started out her college career going the illustration route but then made the decision of majoring in graphic design where her heart truly gravitates towards. She has worked for many renowned businesses including Sea Bags and Pulp + Wire but found her true calling with her independent design studio, I Before E Design (Frances will fill you in on how that name came about).  She has worked with a variety of clients including small businesses located in Maine to national clients located on the West Coast. Frances and Kristan met while working at Sea Bags and became close friends and they continue to be close to this day. Frances has partnered up with Makers of Maine on various photoshoots including Maine Craft Association's Maine Craft Weekend, Makers Market at Thompson's Point, and recently with Mahoosuc Guide Services in Newry. To view more of her work visit her website and Instagram.

Music produced by Natále.

Photo was taken by Coco Mccracken.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

In this episode, host Kristan Vermeulen sits down with Bobby Miller, a highly experienced asset developer in Maine, to discuss the current state of the housing market, the lack of inventory, and the development landscape throughout the state. Bobby shares his journey from his upbringing in Camden to becoming a key player in Maine’s real estate scene.

Key Topics Covered:

The Housing Crisis in Maine:

• Bobby talks about the ongoing shortage of inventory in Maine’s housing market and the impact it’s having on potential homeowners.
• He shares his insights into the causes behind this shortage and explores possible solutions to ease the crisis moving forward.

Bobby’s Experience in Maine’s Development Sector:

• With years of experience in asset development, Bobby discusses the various projects he’s been a part of in Maine and the unique challenges and rewards of working in the state.
• He highlights some of his most memorable developments and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

Growing Up in Camden:

• Bobby reflects on his childhood in Camden, Maine, and how it influenced his values and approach to both business and life.
• He shares stories from his early years in Camden and how the community spirit there shaped his outlook on development.

Why Bobby Loves Kennebec County:

• As a developer in Kennebec County, Bobby explains what draws him to the area and why he enjoys working there.
• He discusses the balance between maintaining the area’s charm and supporting growth to meet the demand for housing and infrastructure.

Insights into Asset Development:

• Bobby offers a deep dive into the asset development process, offering advice for navigating the complexities of developing properties, especially in Maine’s more rural areas.
• He reflects on how the industry has evolved over the years and provides a glimpse into future trends that may shape the housing market.

Personal Reflections & Future Outlook:

• Looking ahead, Bobby talks about his future plans in asset development, what excites him about Maine’s real estate market, and the potential for growth in both urban and rural areas.
• He shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in Maine’s development sector.

Tune in to hear Bobby’s insightful reflections on Maine’s housing market, his development experiences, and the bright future of asset development in the state.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Nebo Lodge is quite a charm. A charm that will be a part of your memories and traditions. A charm that holds makers handcrafted adornments. Once you visit, you want to experience it all over again. 

Before Nebo became Nebo it was a part of the Mullin House which was a popular spot among the community and many non-residents of the island would stay. Life on an island can get lonely and the little things matter so much to the community including a visit from the President of the United States. An interview of a popular radio show called Yankee Yarns tells a story of how President Grant came to North Haven after a long sail off the Maine Coast as he needed a warm place to rest and a good meal. He stayed the night at the Mullin House and the word spread quickly that he was on the island which turned into a big crowd right outside the Mullin House. His stay ended by taking a drag of a cigar in the lounge of the lodge and leaving his cigar-butt in the ashtray which has turned into an artifact David Hopkins, Eric's brother, has possession of.

David shares the history behind the lodge and his family's memories in the early stages of Nebo Lodge. He also shares how the artwork that is a part of his gallery is displayed at Nebo Lodge and that he owns various artifacts that came from the lodge back in the 1900s.

Then Chellie Pingree, the owner of the Nebo Lodge building, shares her personal story of what it's like to live on the island, how she is a maker herself, and how she purchased Nebo Lodge to keep the landmark alive.

Lastly, Angela Ruffolo, the Operations Manager at Nebo Lodge, shares her experience of managing and taking over the lodge, the traditions that are taken place at the lodge, and the people who have stayed at the lodge and who are a part of the Nebo family.

To learn more about Nebo Lodge and to see his one-of-a-kind artwork, please visit their website. Feel free to follow him on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new artwork and what's going on at his studio.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Sean McGowan. Sean is a fingerstyle jazz guitarist who combines many diverse musical influences with unconventional techniques to create a broad palette of textures within his compositions and arrangements for solo guitar. His song October is a favorite and blends very nicely with the journey of North Haven.

Thank you to Justin Smulski and Amy Bouchard for joining me on this amazing adventure and capturing the experience through your creative skills and channels.

Also, please reserve your spot to attend the Hey Day Maker's Faire which takes place November 29th. Avril has worked hard to put together this wonderful event that showcases a variety of makers and to provide you with Maine made gift ideas.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

[00:02:45] David Seery's artistic journey.

[00:05:28] Selling milk at age seven.

[00:08:00] Land investments in North America.

[00:12:55] The elephant trailer.

[00:18:03] How long does it typically take you to make a piece?

[00:21:20] Dealing with pandemic challenges.

[00:25:02] Wine making.

[00:28:18] New stories wind their way.

David Syre's artistic practice is deeply rooted in spirituality, with their strongest mentors being the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa. They believe that spirituality forms the foundation of their art, equating it with love, compassion, and forgiveness. Their art goes beyond aesthetics, aiming to evoke emotions and create a sense of awe through vibrant colors and a "wow factor." The influence of their mentors and spiritual beliefs is evident in shaping their artistic practice.

In the episode, David Syre emphasizes the importance of daily meditation and yoga practice. They believe that this routine sets the tone for their art, allowing them to tap into their subconscious mind and find inspiration. Living in the present moment and harnessing the energy from their core and heart brings forth images and ideas. The speaker also mentions the significance of daily walks, meditation, and breathing exercises in fueling their creativity. Their dedication to these practices is further highlighted by the presence of a dedicated yoga and meditation room on their property.

David Syre, shares his personal journey of transitioning from a career in business development to becoming an artist. Encouraging listeners to follow their passion, he believes that everyone has the potential to be an artist, regardless of their background or previous career. Seery emphasizes the importance of courage in pursuing a creative path, urging individuals to step forward and make their artistic aspirations a reality. Drawing inspiration from spiritual mentors and incorporating daily meditation and yoga, Syre's art is a testament to the power of embracing one's creativity.

Overall, the episode underscores the significance of embracing one's artistic side and having the courage to pursue a creative route. It highlights the role of spirituality, daily practices, and influential mentors in shaping an artist's journey.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"So my craft is something that I call the contemplative process of candle making. The process of getting here or the route to getting to this place is a bit long and winded so I'll try to make it as brief as possible. I was an artsy kid, I was born in the bustling metropolis of Danville, Virginia. That's a huge laugh line for your listeners. It's not a bustling metropolis, but it's Southern Virginia right on the North Carolina border, and had a wonderful childhood. However, there wasn't an affirming environment for an artsy kind of kid growing up in rural Virginia in the south. So I kind of left those longings except for music and those desires kind of along the way as I grew older and couldn't imagine a life for myself as an artist or as a maker. But still had this longing. I would literally be driving in my car as an adult and I would look at my hands and say, I'm supposed to be doing something with my hands. I would have just kind of this inner knowing and you know, I used to play piano for churches, I used to draw and make paintings and do all kinds of artsy stuff, but just got older and just got farther and farther away from that. Long story short, about six years ago, I was in a department store and the candle section is always the first section that I go to because candles have been a part of my content. My writing process, my meditation process, my unwinding process for as long as I can remember. So went to the candle section picked up a candle and I don't tell everyone this because some folks may turn their heads a little bit. But I literally heard a voice that said, you can make this, and making a candle was nowhere on my radar. But as clear as I can hear my voice, I heard that voice and I went home like a madman and got on Google and "googled" -- how to make a candle. And, you know, watch tons of videos, I went to Barnes and Noble and scrounged around for books and got a few candle making supplies and ordered some things online and made some things for myself and friends and family and said, hey, you know, what do you think about this, and didn't know what I was going to do with it, but knew that I wanted to be a maker and knew that I wanted to do something with my hands. So just it was just itching to come out of me.," said Kendal Brown, owner and founder of 228 Grant Street Candle Co.

Kendal was continually searching for something to do with his hands and stumbled upon the craft of candlemaking. His studio and storefront are in the heart of Baltimore off of 228 Grant Street. The scents within his collection remind him of memories with his grandmother, she was quite the baker and canner. There was always something on the stove or in the freezer that could be magically put together for sustaining nourishment at his grandmother's. Her front porch served as a neighborhood therapy office. Candlemaking was quite the fit for Kendal with his upbringing in mind.

Tune in to learn more about Kendal's journey building 228 Grant Street Candle Co. You can learn more about his business by heading over to their website and visiting their Facebook and Instagram.

Also, tune in to the end to listen to Deanna Bogart, the featured musician of the episode. Her single Still A Girl In The Band is one you don't want to miss.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

When Nick Rossi was starting to learn the craft behind knife making in the late 90s, early 2000s, there were not a lot of places around that you could go and learn how to do this, there were only a few seminars. He said especially in Maine, there was not a lot to help move you along through the craft. The luckiest part of his journey was meeting knife makers when he got a job in a retail cutlery store. These coworkers offered to show him the mistakes he was making and examine what he was working on. 

Nick was lucky enough to have mentors right from the start. When he was 15 years old, he got his first job at a knife store in Freeport, just wanting to help out. 

“I have always been knife obsessed. I grew up in the 90s and there were a lot of action movies. These action movies had these knives that were kind of like stars in and of themselves. Right? For like an eight-year-old kid, it was like, oh my god, that is just so cool!” - Nick Rossi shares. 

The very first knife he had made had a cord-wrapped handle and then he later got into the woodworking aspect of knife making. He saw a few people do woodworking before, picked up a few books, but felt like he was on his own. Again, it was trial and error for him. He loves uses wood sourced right from Maine for this portion of the knife. 

Nick feels super lucky that his parents moved him to Maine when he was young. He believes that being in Maine has helped his business. He told me, “Maine has some of the best craftspeople in the world. All the jewelers, the metalsmiths and the potters and the good fiber artists out there, it’s kind of overwhelming. Being a part of that scene has really, really helped me and it's inspired me to reach for more. I'd say that that would be the big thing about me is just being surrounded by super talented people.”

To view Nick's work visit his website, Instagram and Facebook.

Also, stay until the end of the episode to listen to The Ghost of Paul Revere's track We Were Born Wild.

Big thanks to Erin Little for capturing Nick Rossi's wonderful craft.

 

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I guess in my particular case, the wood sculpture would be more of a definition of what I do. A traditional wood carver uses chisels and gouges only that are very specific. I've found that using some electric tools and sanding, I can sometimes bring the piece to the point that I like. So I'm more of a wood sculptor than I am a wood carver so to speak. A traditionalist would be a wood carver, I'm a wood sculptor. I've always been intrigued since a young child, I've always enjoyed drawing. My grandmother was a tremendous drawer and painter, my Dad loved to draw and I love to draw. I've always wanted to carve but of course, life gets in the way of so many things and work and life and children and families and that sort of thing but was able to retire early. I said you know when I retire, which was proximately nine years ago, I'm going to start carving and I've been carving ever since," said Phil Costello.

Phil and his wife had a store in Maine where they sold beach decor and home furnishings. The manager at Cliff House, Nancy White, came to their store to buy some of their product at one time when they were doing some renovation at the Cliff House. She saw Phil at the studio and she said, "I'd like you to do a seven-foot carving for us for our Discovery Center." And Phil said "a seven-foot carving is an awful large carving. Nancy, said, "I just like some height, because I'd like it to be a focal point in the middle of Discovery Center." A beautiful whale that Phil crafted now sits in this space and it's a beautiful piece especially when the daylight shines in through the windows and hits it perfectly showing its beautiful markings. He absolutely loves what he does and the craft seems so simple yet it can be challenging.

"Okay, first and most importantly, what are we going to design on? What is our design, what's our sculpture going to be? Sometimes we'll even do it in clay to kind of get a handle on what we think is best. And once we get a good idea as to what we want to sculpt or what we want to carve in the design and then we decide on the wood. There are probably half a dozen woods that are used for carving. There are a few that I've kind of prioritized over the years. Mahogany is one of the best woods to carve because it's very hard. It's very dense. It's got beautiful grain, but because it's very hard and very dense it's very difficult to carve and it's also very hard on your tools you have to sharpen more often. The other woods that you'd use would be butter, not basswood, I use a lot of Spanish cedar spanish. Cedar is a little bit lighter than mahogany, but darker than basswood, which are butternut, which is very light-colored wood. And it's got some beautiful grains to it. But most importantly, it's very soft. So the selection of wood would be the first one. And then what I would do is quite often when I design I try to bring my design in proportion to whatever I'm trying to design. Right now I'm working on an eagle. Obviously, I don't have a six-foot wings spread, but the eagle that I'm working on now is a four-foot wings spread. So then you have to proportionate correctly. Problem is when you're doing a large carving it is very difficult if not impossible to find a large piece of wood. So what you have to do is buy wood I buy it actually rough sawn, I then have a shop where I bring it down to edge. What I do is glue the blocks together in the form of the shape of what the carving is going to be starting with tools to take the major wood away what we call boasting or taking the larger pieces away till we get a rough, rough idea of what the actual carving is. And then we started with the finer tools to bring it down and hone it to the shape and size and detail that we want. That's basically it. And then most importantly, which I sometimes have a challenge with is the finishing of it is as good a woodcarver as I like to be or, or progressing towards, I still haven't perfected the art of finishing. So either my wife who is a painter, and finisher, or I'll bring it to a finishing shop and let them do the finish coat on it. Because when you spend a lot of time you've completed a beautiful carving and if you're you're it's time to have the finish, you can't go guessing as to the right thing to do you have to have somebody that's a specialty at that doing that type of work for you," said Phil.

To learn more about Phil's wood sculpting career, who inspired him, and what he plans for the future, tune in to this episode.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Kyle Lamont is an award-winning producer and the founder of Good To Go Studios, a multi-media company based in Maine. She also recently worked as a commercial Producer/ Director for Matador Network, the largest producer of branded travel content in the world. 

Her short film “Passive Aggressive Dads” won the best comedy at the Beaufort Film Festival in 2019 and her work for TravelNevada and Airstream was screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Storytelling Series, winning four Addy Awards in Nevada as well.

Her storytelling skills work naturally not just in the film world but through her podcast as well. Concert Cast is a sonic road trip to America’s best music venues. The show includes conversations with notable venue owners and popular bands that make for entertaining stories about travel and music.

She recently launched Season 2 of her podcast where she talks to thought leaders in the live music industry who are creatively adapting and recalibrating the next rendition of concert going and culture.

To learn more about Kyle please follow her on Facebook and Instagram. She is working on Season 3 of Concert Cast this summer and it's going to be epic.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I asked for a tape recorder when I was seven years old, and I got a camera instead. I'm like, this is a tape recorder...my grandmother gave it to me and said you can record with that too. At the time, my parents had gotten divorced, and my parents were from DC and then we moved to Cambridge. The camera was a way for me to stay connected. I take photographs, I only use the camera when I went to DC. I never took photographs in Cambridge. I take all of these photographs and for some reason, I get back and I process them. I would put them up on the wall and kind of paginate them and map out my summer or holiday or whatever it was. So I was like creating this stuff. I just kept on doing and as time went on, I started to take more photographs. It was just something that clicked with me and then I saw some stuff in the darkroom and I was, mind blown. Then by the time I was nine years old, I had a Pentax K 1000. I just understood, it was something about it. I just could see." said Séan Alonzo Harris.

Séan currently lives in Maine but before venturing up north he attended the Art Institute of Boston, which now is the Lesley School of Art Design and he also had an incredible opportunity to intern with photographer John Hewitt.

"I ended up working with him and so my last semester in college... John was a little bit ruffled because I became part of his team. I went off, and I photo assist a lot. What I learned in grad school with photography, it all applied, and then put it into practice. So I did that for many years. I did that in New York City, to establish myself, and it took a really long time for me to establish myself, but I was always producing and creating work and, either personal projects, they call it commercial world, fine art that I've created over the years and got into a lot of shows. You know, grinding and just doing what I do waking up every morning, like, how can I attack this problem? You know, what's going on? Who can I get in front of? said Séan.

To learn more about Séan Alonzo Harris and his journey behind the lens, listen to the episode or visit his website.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

For Kazeem, craft is a very broad term because he touches on it in so many ways between curation, fashion design, and showcasing his own life through his brand. He wants each customer to have a unique experience when they come into his shop. His shop reflects anything he is into at that moment from food, to travel, to cultures, to his own journey. Kristan chats with Kazeem about his past life before coming to Maine, how he got to Maine, the inspiration behind opening up his own shop, and what the future holds for his business.If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"So my craft is music, I am a creator, I'm a composer, a bandleader. Those are like the main things that I'm focusing on but play the trumpet. I've been playing for about 15 years and how I got into it. I used to play the drums, I used to bang on pots. First, I used to bang on pots and pans when I was growing up. My mom and dad were still together and then I went to elementary school, the first instrument that I wanted to play was the drums. I had focused on that instrument for a whole year and I felt like by the end of the school year, I still didn't get anywhere on the instrument. I didn't really progress. I didn't see any progress. So I had this talent competition...I had this music teacher in elementary school named Mr. Freeman, and he said, you know, go ahead, do the talent competition, like even helped me out, you know, practice on some music for the talent competition. So I did it. And then I just did awful, did an awful job, and then there was like this older kid that ended the whole talent competition that also played drums, and he won. So wow, that broke my heart. I was like, how's that? Oh my gosh, not even just that he won. I was definitely happy for him. But the fact that I did, I thought in my mind that I did a terrible job in front of hundreds of people in my elementary school at such a young age. I was like six, seven years old. I just stopped playing the drums and then took a summer off of music in general. Just like playing a lot outside and then that September, whatever year that was that I went back to elementary school probably like third grade. I was probably eight years old. I had the choice to pick between saxophone and trumpet. still wanted to, you know, be involved in music. I think the main thing that made me do that was because last year when I was playing drums, I was getting butterflies, like, you know, five minutes before band rehearsal, I would always get these butterflies in my stomach. I didn't even know what they were. But just like the kind of nervous, kind of passion like really hard passion feeling of like, something that you are just getting into, but you really love it and you still don't even know what it is. Right? So I still had those butterflies next year. So I was like, oh, yeah, definitely got to still make music and trumpet just had fewer keys on it. A trumpet only has three vowels. The saxophone has endless keys. So I just thought it would be easier to play trumpet, honestly. And it wasn't, definitely wasn't, I couldn't take the instrument home, I couldn't, I couldn't read the instrument and take it home until I made a sound on it in school. So I would come in early every day for like two whole weeks trying to make a sound on the horn and I finally made a sound on the horn after two weeks and he allowed me to take it home. I lived in apartments, you know, all my life for you know, a lot of my life, especially after I started playing the trumpet because I was just living with my mom and my brother. My mom and dad split up like a little bit before that. But, uh, you know, people in apartments are, you know, they're not trying to hear a young kid playing the trumpet when they got whatever they got, not knowing that, like, you know, these hours that I'm putting in these apartments are really changing and affect my life for the, for the better. It was crazy, because anytime that I would, this was definitely an example of my mom's love, advocacy, and hard work, and strength, as a single mom as a single black mom in Baltimore. You know, anytime somebody in an apartment building, you know, would knock on the door, whatever, she would just curse them out. You know? And I would keep practicing," said Brandon Woody.

Brandon is a highly talented trumpet player who grew up in the heart of Baltimore. He went from learning trumpet in middle school to performing with trumpet playing legends and now starting his own fashion line with major national brands. Kristan learned about Brandon's life growing up in Baltimore, the milestones in his music career that got him to where he is today, and even the struggles he went through being a black musician.

To learn more about Brandon Woody's craft, visit his website and Instagram.

Photo Credit: Megan Elyse

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"Most of our theme is maps and charts, we are map and chart people. So wherever that little corner of the world is special to you or to somebody you love or somebody wants to give well wishes to, we can pinpoint it down to a street address or we can design an entire country from an actual nautical chart, graphic, map topo, aerial map, aeronautical map, anything that's close to your heart," said Janice Sears, Owner of CHART Metalworks.

Founded in 2008, CHART Metalworks has been handcrafting beautiful jewelry, accessories, and home decor pieces that are all about charts and maps put together with boat resin in the heart of downtown Portland. Janice Sears took over as owner right before the pandemic and while it was challenging their customers grew as they wanted more one-of-a-kind pieces that tell a story of one's life journey.

 "I have to tell you, that the community and I don't know if it's just Maine or just Portland or just the women in Portland, but everybody is so supportive, so friendly. 'How can I help?'  It's so quick to become a friend, you know, so quick to help when I asked for it. Especially because six months later, we entered into the COVID scene. The city of Portland just came to our rescue and did everything they could to help us and I just can't say enough about the people of Maine. I am proud to live here. I'm proud to say that I'm from here and it is my mission to go to every place," said Janice.

Not only has the small business focused on jewelry and charts and map designs. They have also expanded into new designs.

"One thing we just launched was, instead of an actual graphic piece under the resin, we're taking mussel shells that we collect on the beaches in Maine, we crush them up, and every piece is different. We'll put it under the resin and pour the resin on top of it. So sometimes it might be a little more of the opalescent side of the muscle or sometimes it's more blue but that blue after the sun has drenched it is beautiful. After you put that resin on top it's a pretty shade of blue and it has become really popular. We put it in all our pieces. barware, jewelry, men's gifts, anything, and we crush all those shells up on your own," said Janice.

Janice has expanded the team to four which is the perfect size for the small-batch collections they make. She has also made processes a bit leaner and has partnered up with many artisans that best fit her brand to showcase their work in their pieces such as photography and art pieces. But the one thing captured from the interview that Kristan found important was Janice's passion for Maine and she will always keep the business of CHART Metalworks in Portland.

"Maine, New England, you know, has been a part of CHART Metalworks for years. It was going great, but it needed a little love. I chose Maine because the business was here, and it's my happy place. So it's a win-win for Janice. But like I said before, Maine has been fabulous. It's the most beautiful state in the world, in my opinion, the rocky coast. I can't get enough of it. And the people are so supportive and wonderful. Our longest-standing repeat customers are Mainers and yeah, they love the fact that we're here," said Janice.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about CHART Metalworks and how Janice has continued its legacy.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I'd never heard of Smith Island, I'd always heard of Tangier Island. And when my kids were little, my husband said let's take the kids to Smith Island. And I was like, well, where's that? So he brought me here and I fell in love with the place," said Kathey Jones, owner and baker at the Smith Island Bakery. 

Kathey Jones grew up in Baltimore and always had a passion for baking. She didn't think she would venture out to this tiny island located in the Chesapeake Bay but it is now her home and her bakery is the popular tourist spot as the Maryland state cake is baked their everyday. 

"When I moved to the island, the women of the island were the hardest working bunch of women I've ever met and they taught me how to bake these cakes. My first two attempts were complete disasters, and I always bought them from one of the women. But once they showed me all the little tips and tricks and secrets that they knew it, it kind of became very easy for me with my baking experience already," said Kathey.

Prior to Kathey taking over the facility she bakes in today, another company was baking Smith Island cakes there but they decided it was easier to bake and ship cakes on the mainland. When Kristan decided she wanted to go out to Smith Island she wanted to make sure she interviewed a baker who was baking her favorite cake on the island. 

"I opened it in hopes that I could create more jobs so that more people can move here full time and stay living here," said Kathey.

Kathey ships out tons of cakes per week and it isn't the easiest job. She delivers the cakes to the mail boat and then the mail boat takes them to the post office to get shipped. While its a challenge, it keeps things authentic and many of her customers keep coming back for more knowing that the cakes are being handmade on the island the recipe originated from.

To learn more about Smith Island and the Maryland state cake, tune into the episode and visit their website at, https://smithislandbakeryllc.com/. Also, for more information on the Smith Island Inn, the inn Kristan stayed at, visit https://www.smithislandinn.com/. You can find more information on the coffee roaster and local restaurants on the island here.

Lastly, here is more information on the featured musician, The Dangerous Summer. Kristan went to high school with the lead singer.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I love burning candles. I've always got one going and then I kind of you know started doing some research into how to live like a healthier lifestyle and how to kind of clean up your life. One of the articles that I read was like, oh, you know, candles that have paraffin in them are bad for you. So I never realized that and then I got down a rabbit hole. And this was, mind you at the beginning of COVID. I was like, you know, locked in the house, and I needed something to do other than work and really, you know, sit by the TV or something. I needed that other creative outlet. So I was like, why not start making beeswax candles? Like I burned enough candles as it is. And yeah, I guess that's how that started. I was just really trying to clean up my life in these little ways. I started making beeswax candles and just found that it was so relaxing. Gave me a point of creativity. And I said, well, why not start a little business out of it and see how it goes," said Loren.

Loren's full-time job typically has her in front of a computer screen for more than eight hours a day. She wanted to find a creative outlet, a place to do something with her hands. Candle making was her first go-to side hustle and then CBD oils was her next.

"I had some contacts in the cannabis industry and you know, to be completely honest, I was dabbling at first with the idea before I did CBD of doing full-on THC tinctures. It turns out that there's not a ton of demand for that particular THC product. So I learned all about that. And then decided to you know, still make the oils but instead of THC just use CBD, it's in Maine, and it's less regulated. It's more readily available to purchase. And, you know, it has these calming effects, such as it makes you sleep better. And that's also you know, why I wanted to get into making this stuff myself is because I was going and spending money. And you know, not a ton of it. But I was still spending a good portion of money on these CBD really sleep aids for myself. So I really wanted to start figuring out how to do that. Just to save some money.," said Loren.

Loren certainly did find a successful way to make her CBD oils and she sells them to various distributors in Maine. Loren has always had craft in her life from a young age to now and it's something she encourages everyone to do especially when you are in front of a computer screen all day.

"I fondly have memories of doing craft days with my grandmother. And, you know, we would go outside and gather pine cones, and is a very crafty woman. She taught us how to make these like intricate pine cone Christmas trees out of them at one point. My Step Dad paints a lot. But that's, you know, an honest time. But yeah, we were creative," said Loren.

Tune in to learn more about Loren's full-time career and how that experience is soul-sucking how she needed to find a creative outlet to give her a slight escape, what advice she would give to others who have a full-time job and want to get into a craft, how the outdoors inspires her and much more.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Jemma Gascoine has such a unique technique when crafting her pottery. She pays attention to every detail  while on the potter's wheel, is inspired by the breathtaking environment surrounding her studio in Monson, and  uses bold, simple colors to give her pieces the final touch. She was taught by the famous potter Barry Guppy yet she has created her own style of artwork that has Jemma written all over it.

Jemma is originally from England but has been in Monson for quite some time and people in her community know her very well for her work as well as teachings to students and adults in the area. You can find her student's work displayed on the shelves in her studio and their items are available for purchase.  Jemma loves supporting her students as they find their own style of pottery and some even help her in the shop with painting pieces, manning the shop and so much more.

Jemma also tells me about the wonderful town of Monson. It is located near Moosehead Lake but is known for the Appalachian Trail as many hikers that go through tend to stop at this small town. The mountains are breathtaking especially when the leaves are peeping.

To learn more about what Jemma will be doing for Maine Craft Weekend and to view her products, please visit her website. Feel free to follow her on Instagram to get updates on new products and what's going on at the studio.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Half Way Home. Their music genre is acoustic, indie, traditional folk, soft rock, and originals with beautiful harmonies. Dick Dutson, Kermit, and Alexandra Bennett are located in Monson and enjoy getting together to jam. Their song Zoom Zoom Zoom  is about local Maine backroads and nearly hitting certain animals. It is quite comical.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I think our craft is just fun, partying. It's about playing music that we love with people that we love. I feel like a place called home is kind of the best representation of what we do, because I think we are a family. No matter whether anybody's here or not, we are going to be just laughing our asses off having a great time smiling at what everybody's doing. It feels like home every time that we play on stage. I think that we provide that for people that come through....we've been best friends since first grade, and second grade. And then we make a new best friend through our best friends who are all super talented and awesome and great to be around," said Lyle Divinsky, one of the founders and lead singer of  Model Airplane.

Model Airplane is a collection of musicians that comes together every year to perform an ultimate show right around Thanksgiving, I find it quite unheard of as you would think musicians want to do their own thing or play with their band because they're used to it. They jibe with one another. It's their thing. Not only does the band see the curation of amazingly talented artists family, but they consider the audience family too. I've seen them three years in a row. And I truly feel this connection, the connection is unreal. And I want you to listen on what that connection entails. The band started as friends who knew each other growing up to then adding more members that are new friends.

"I'd say if there's one common denominator, it's relationships and word of mouth. People who know people refer those people and it's all just a mess, like, now a lot of it can be helped with like, online and stuff. But like, we are old school, it was totally just friends of friends. If it wasn't this core right here is just a referral kind of thing, but nothing formal about it."

The show is quite the production as the musicians are coming together from all over the nation. But in the end it's all worth it.

"I come here and this is how I hang out with my friends, we make music together. We're lucky to do it at a really high level, you know, make really great music together. If the vibe is right, then you're in the family, and that's where you stay, you know, you do your work, we all work really hard. I mean, we've got this kind of monster rehearsals and these weeks are always really interesting. Like Thanksgiving week is like two, five or six-hour rehearsals and then two, like full day long kind of shows that go on and on and on. It's long days, but there, but it's like a family reunion the whole time. You know, like, these are my people,"

Tune in to this episode to learn more about Model Airplane. 

They will be performing at Aura on Saturday, November 25th at Aura. Doors open at 8pm and the show starts at 9pm. Tickets are sold here.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

“As a child, I collected costume jewelry, and I would put it in ice cream cone boxes because they were festive and colorful. When I continued on in my education, all of my teachers recognized my talent and my gift and they kept coming to my parents saying we think this child needs art lessons. My mother's friend has her master's degree in painting and she said that I can teach Paula. I started initially as painting and printmaking and drawing and sculpture more than I did jewelry and graduated with honors from VCU in Richmond, Virginia. Then went on a full scholarship to the University of Wisconsin Madison, for my master's degree in fine arts," said Paula Crevoshay, fine jewelry designer.

Paula Crevoshay, the Queen of Color, is known for her one-of-a-kind vibrantly hued creations in a dazzling rainbow of gemstones and enamels. She has traveled to many interesting places including India where she practiced her craft outside of jewelry making. Then when she came back to the states, her passion for gems and jewelry was brought to life. 

“I had one woman shows in India I got whisked away to India, where the jewelry part starts to become important in my life. We were there for years without coming home and I was exposed to so much antiquity and brilliance. I cannot describe how infinite India and Sri Lanka and Thailand were, the history of art and anything from textile to a jewel to a painting, it's just very inspirational. I did one-woman shows to show my paintings and sculpture work, and the British Council for the Arts bought some for their permanent collection. When we came back home, we weren't sure what we were going to do. So, we decided we'd help the Tibetans because my late husband, George was a Ph.D. in Buddhist philosophy and linguistics and that is why we were there. We did vegetable-dyed handwoven Tibetan rugs and shipped them out by sea and by the time they reached his mother's home, in Boston, and by the time we got back, she had already sold all the carpets. Then we sold carpets and were doing very well. But George decided it was killing his back and he wants to do something different. He went off to Burma on a research project for his linguistics and things that he was working on and he went to an ancient holy site and met a gentleman, at a mountain in Burma, overlooking 1000 stupas, it's a holy place for Buddha. And he said, You're obviously American, and you have a Tibetan jolla on what are you doing here? And he said, Oh, I'm going to invest in a rupee mine and my friends want to take me on a tour of it. George says That sounds cool. Can I come along? So a simple twist of fate. George comes back from that trip and says, we need to go into the gemstones,” said Paula.

Paula is inspired by nature when she crafts her pieces and she believes artists today must understand and apply the underlying science to their work.

I had to know my geomorphology in order to make what I want to make, what's available, and why and how durable is it. I started long ago making stories through the jewelry, through the stones that I selected to reveal something about the science of that gem location, the science of that, that mineral. For example, George started cutting for the very famous Stewart Lithium Mine in Southern California, outside of San Diego for a three-year period. I accumulated a lot of material from that landmine location. What I decided to do is make a bracelet for example, of like three or 400 stones, and it's all flexible. To tell the story of one of our greatest minds in most famous lines in the terminal in the field because the Empress Dowager the last Empress Dowager was exporting tonnage of our very vast and beautiful terminal aids. Their favorite stone and most auspicious and lucky stone in the Chinese culture is the rubellite tourmaline. I had exposure to mine locations, I would say George spoke and wrote seven South Asian languages reading, writing, speaking, and many other Western ones as well. So everywhere we went, we would go right to the heart of everything. The world was my oyster. I do things to tell the story of homology. I also use refractive indices in my work to do like a spectrum of light pieces. I've done five one-woman shows for museums. The last one was the shown shape of matter through an artist I, and I had about 75 pieces, and I set them up all by the seven-crystal system. There are only seven that creates this whole planet we have and I did that so that I could teach children and adults alike when they would view that there's something behind these pieces. I did what I call my symphony of light collections, where you have some stones that are highly dispersive. Then you have others that are more gentle and prismatic. So I would put all these things together into something highly ornamental and exquisitely beautiful. But when you turn it in the light, it shoots back to the human eye on many different levels, like a dance of life, or a disco ball. So, I've always been fascinated by science. My father was a great scientist, with many, many patterns and I do have a bit of his wiring. My mother's side was the more artistic and creative side. He was creative, because he got a lot of patents, but it was science,” said Paula.

Paula also talks about her Big Reveal piece and how she uses her skills and style to make it hers. Tune in to learn more about her story and the piece that will be displayed at the October 8th fashion show event.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Linda and Ken Perrin have quite the story of how they established their Atlantic Art Glass studio. Their relationship started while attending a class at San Francisco City College and their love for one another grown further through the many creative endeavors they took on. Their journey took them to Maine as they were driving around Ellsworth and stumbled upon a beautiful brick building which is now their studio that houses their beautiful glass blown art and other art materials including lots of yarn donated by a fellow community member for their non-profit Artsworth.

The process behind glass blowing is quite lengthy as there many steps yet the pace is super fast when you see it done in person. From the high temperatures of the furnace to the gathering of the molten glass to blowing into a steel pipe to give the glass its shape, it is a great sight to see.

When visiting their studio, Linda and her team of artisans were putting together glass blown pumpkins for their Maine Craft Weekend event. They used unique tools to form the indents of the pumpkin and they used a spiraling technique to form the stem of the pumpkin and used a blow torch to give the piece of art a final touch.

To learn more about Atlantic Art Glass' Maine Craft Weekend event click here. 

Please visit Atlantic Art Glass to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and events happening at their studio including what they will be doing for Maine Craft Weekend.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, Caroline Cotter. She came from a musical family and always loved to sing. She watched her older siblings play instruments and wanted to play too. Her track Eternal Light is about her first time being in Alaska and it was around the summer solstice. Eternal Light is inspired by her experience of the midnight sun, the art and stories of Alaskan natives, and the amazing wildlife of Alaska. You can check out her Facebook and Instagram to keep tabs on her new music planned to launch in 2021 and where she will be playing locally.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I wanted to be an artist so I went to school to study art, primarily painting those years ago. Then, over the course of my career as a student. Eventually, things started to change, and then I just sort of fell in love with the process of making miniature sculptures eventually leading into jewelry, which is what I currently try to make, I consider them miniature wearable sculptures," said Gerardo Gonzalez, fine jewelry artist based in New York City.

Gerardo has won many awards for his unique craft of using tools and gadgets you would typically see in machines and some children's toys. He uses the hand as a canvas and the skill of sculpturing to create something magnificent.

"There's a long, long process in my head, before I create something, I think of it primarily as a sculpture, that wearable aspect is sort of part of the concept. But I also have to make it go both ways. It can just be a sculpture that you can throw on your finger or vice versa. I call it sculpture, even though it can't meet both criteria. So I'm sort of in an interesting location where, you know, it could go both ways. Although I have, when I show my thesis to galleries or people in the sculpture department, they don't consider my work to be sculpture, they see it as jewelry, and jewelers think of the scope of my pieces as being sculpture as opposed to jewelry. So I'm sort of in an interesting spot, sort of kind of like that, it can lead to quite a bit of rejection from either," said Gerardo.

Gerardo had quite an interesting idea with his Big Reveal piece and the process behind it seemed complex yet worth it.

"I thought maybe I should create something more traditional. But then I felt like that would be going away from what I enjoyed doing. So then I sat there for, I don't know, hours, you can say over a course of a few days holding the stone in my hands, doing drawings, spinning it around, looking at all the things that make that stone special like inclusions, reflections, etc, with some study drawings of it. Just spinning it around in my fingers. Then in my head, I was like, it'd be cool if somebody would see this on a ring, so they could spin the stone and see it from 360 degrees at any angle they want. That's sort of what led to the mechanism that is incorporated into the piece, which allows you to spin the stone, and 360 degrees. Then also the ring incorporates a mechanism on it so the shank can be adjusted. Because in my pieces, once I pick the size, it's very difficult to go back and modify the size if it doesn't fit a person. So I've been asked a lot of times if I would be able to sort of change the size of it to fit somebody else. But changing the base can mean changing the whole look of a ring. So in this case, I did something that was you know, gives you some adjustment," said Gerardo.

Tune in to the episode to learn more about Gerardo's life prior to becoming a maker and where he sees himself going in the future.

Please visit Gerardo's website to view more of his work.

To see Gerardo's final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

"I started making jewelry about 10 years ago, I'm 30 now, so I started around 19. A friend of mine, I had no idea that I would be led down the jewelry path. I don't have any family that's really ever done jewelry. I have some family that maybe have done some art stuff, but nothing really as a full-time job always as a hobby. A friend of mine brought home a wire-wrapped piece of jewelry from a music festival when I was 19. I was working full-time at the time and I was really excited to see it because I was I wanted to go back to school for biology. I was really, you know, interested in that realm of things that was kind of the path that I was on like are I'm gonna work a little bit, go back to school, learn more about biology and maybe become a doctor or something at some point. You know, I wasn't really sure what to do. But my friend brought home a piece of wire-wrapped jewelry look like an anatomical heart, which I thought was really cool. It got me really interested in the biology stuff and I was like Oh, where did you get this? He's like, I brought it home from a festival. And then I was like, Where can I get one? Because I also want one of these. And he's like, Oh, well, you can't. And I was like, Oh, well, now that's a challenge. I have to figure out either if I can get one or I decided just to start making them. So one day when I was at work, I left at the end of the day, I actually think I left a little early that day because I just didn't want to be there. I ended up getting some rocks and some wire at Michael's and a little stone store local to Milford, New Hampshire and ended up just starting to wire up. It was really, you know, something I was doing in my spare time. As I started doing it more and looking more online, I wasn't really able to find a lot of people doing it. But I found a couple of really cool, interesting styles, and started just trying to mimic it and figure out how to do these very interesting styles, wire wrapping. Then people started buying them. And I was like, Oh, I could, I can sell these. Then I started just posting online pretty consistently on like Facebook at the time. And then yeah, they kind of spiraled," said Steven Manchini, lapidary artist  and jewelry designer.

Steven continued to refine his craft once he started getting to wire wrapping. He learned from others and took classes as well. He also continues to discover more of his style through new techniques and gems and minerals he has never worked with before.

"Something that's inspired me throughout my time of, I guess making jewelry is the visual arts community. There's a lot of psychedelic art, I've definitely been inspired by the first half of me making jewelry was me traveling to different music festivals, and meeting people in person with me just, I didn't really like to do vending booths a lot of the time because I don't really like to stay in one place. When I have my jewelry, I like to meet and connect with people. So I'd be walking all over these different festivals just yelling, hey, I have shiny rocks, wants to look at them. People would come to my case and be like, Oh, these are really cool. I made a decent living that way during like the summers and stuff. Then during Christmas and stuff, obviously the holiday season is great. But I really enjoyed progressing in, you know, I, I just get really passionate about the jewelry and where it comes from and the people that inspired me. Also, a lot of my friends have inspired me throughout the years, like all these different artists that make jewelry that I've been able to connect with online, and now have met in person just by traveling to now jewelry events, rather than festivals. And, traveling to those different jewelry events, I've been able to meet like Matt Fisher or Matt Tuggle, who are now friends of mine and are fantastic artists by who I'm also inspired. There's just been a lot of different bits of inspiration. Like I know, one thing I'm also really inspired by is just the process of the art, I don't usually tend to look for inspiration and everything, I just try to find some inspiration in the process as well, especially in those days where maybe I don't want to be sitting at the bench. And I'm like, but I have to get this project done. So I started a little bit and then I find the groove and the vibe again. That allows me to create, but I guess as far as my style is, it would be more like a visual artist's style. It's kind of hard for me to describe, I'm not really sure," said Steven.

Tune in to learn more about Steven's maker journey and how he crafted his piece for the Big Reveal project.

Please visit Steven's website.

To see Steven’s final piece follow the Makers of the USA on Instagram and Facebook and Maine Mineral & Gem Museum on Instagram and Facebook as well as the images will be posted on both of those social media platforms.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.

Geoffrey Warner, owner, and founder of OWL Furniture has been a furniture maker his entire life. He started his woodworking career crafting guitars and then went to school in Rhode Island to study the craft of furniture and learned from a Danish master, Tage Frid.  

In 2008, he met with a group of furniture makers and came up with the idea of crafting an ergonomic wooden chair. His father had always been an inspiring icon in his work and told him to take this idea to life even if others thought the idea was crazy. Now he has gone through an ergonomic study thanks to Maine Technology Institute to help complete his craft and offer it to the public, sold thousands of stools to customers looking to better there back and one of his stool seats has been patented.

Thanks to Geoff's sister, Jenifer Warner, you can see how these stools can better your back through her graphic expertise. Who knew that the two holes in his stool would provide such comfort for one's back and it gives the stool a look of an owl. While he continues to receive many orders for stools every week, he is also crafting rocking chairs, chairs, and custom pieces for his customers as well. While visiting his shop we got to see Geoff and Madison, a close family member of Geoff's, put together one of his beautiful chairs where the joinery fits like a glove.

Please visit OWL Furniture's website to view their products. Feel free to follow them on Facebook and Instagram to get updates on new products and events happening at their studio including what they will be doing for Maine Craft Weekend.

Also, please check out the featured musician of this episode, who is Geoffrey Warner the guest on the podcast, and one of his tracks with Heather Jellison, Gotta Stay Home.

If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.