Welcome to the world of Automata, a form of sculpture this episodes guest Tom Haney specializes in. What is Automata? It is kinetic figurative sculpture that tells a story. And the figures are powered by an equally artful system of handmade gears, and springs that resembles a watch movement. An incredible degree difficulty that extends to just pronouncing the word Automata. A task me, your humble interviewer struggled with mightly. Listen carefully to this episode and you too will be a cool cat and be able to pronounce it flawlessly. We joined tomorrow in his Studio in Black Mountain North Car
I have always been amazed by detailed meticulous objects because I know I am not capable of such work myself. I do not have the attention span or patience to manufacture and assemble hundreds of pieces of anything into a detailed mosaic of an idea no matter how compelling that idea might be. But as this episode’s guest Vivian Chiu clearly states she is not afraid of time nor repetition in fact there is something very comforting and enjoyable in figuring out the process of boring hundreds of accurately placed holes and then boring said holes. And the results of her labors speak for themselves,
This episode is the story of two artists, two very different approaches and a almost two hundred year old photographic process called Cyanotype or blue printing. Join us as we journey to take a look at an exhibition at the Visions of Museum of Textile Art in San Diego California called Cyanotype with two of the participating artists Patti Gaddis and Morgan Ford Willingham. As we once again explore the world of modern fiber art.
Haystack at 75 An Experiment in Community and Education Why Make Today we’re sharing a piece we are calling “Haystack at 75 - An Experiment in Community and Education” in celebration of the school's 75th year. A conversation with Haystack executive director Perry Price. We talk about the history of Haystack and the iconic campus that is perched on a cliff above the Atlantic Ocean. Why it still calls itself a school of craft and not art. How the craft school experience differs from an academic institution and finally how has Haystack approached teaching technology. So take a listen, breath in t
This is the final episode of the 2025 season of Why Make and fittingly the concluding episode of our series on the Emma International Collaboration. Why Make was invited to attend and document the 2024 edition of this event which happens every two years. Our previous episodes on Emma are Episode 59 “What is Emma”, 63 “Impressions of Emma”, 67 “What if” with one of Emma’s founders Michael Hosulak , 68 with Miranda Jones a long time participant and finally this episode we are calling “Emma and the Art of Collaboration”. When I first entertained going Emma to document it two years ago I had not a
In Episode 74, my sister Johanna Zorn turns the tables and interviews me about the podcast. This should be a familiar name to those who listen to the credits at the end of our episodes. She has helped edit many of the episodes we have released in the last two years and was in the background making suggestions years before that. She is a veteran of radio and the audio documentary format having worked at WBEZ public radio in Chicago and then founding the Third Coast International Audio Festival, an organization dedicated to audio storytelling. She is now a freelance editor and producer. So take
In 2009 I attended the Furniture Society conference in Boone North Carolina and sat in on an artist presentation by three young amazing makers whose work left a lasting impression. Sylvie Rosenthal, Katie Hudnall and Yuri Kobayashi. Sadly Sylvie passed away on October 14th and that bright shining light is no longer with us. In remembrance of Sylvie please take a listen to the wonderful conversation we had with her in October of 2020. Sylvie Rosenthal is a Madison, Wisconsin based artist and educator. She maintains a studio practice making commission furniture, work for online sales, and fantas
In Episode 73 of the podcast we talk with Teresa Audet an artist and educator based in Pittsburgh PA. Her journey as an artist took it’s first turn in college when switched from being a painting major to spending all her time in the wood shop. She then spent the 10 years after graduating making cutting boards, furniture, working in a hardware store and working one day week for a wood carver named Cecilia Schiller who creates Automata. Kinetic whimsical wooden characters that move through a system of gears and hand cranks. Graduate school led to an exploration of performance art and participati
In this episode of Why make we are going to literally talk about something close home, both my childhood home of Pittsburgh and my mom who was a fiber artist. That is the 2025 Fiberarts International produced by the Pittsburgh Fiber Arts Guild, of which my mom was a longtime member, Contemporary Craft and Brew House Arts. We will talk with two of the artists involved in this years show Akudzwe Elsie Chiwa and Chieko Murasugi And two long time members of the Pittsburgh Fiber Arts Guild,which has produced this exhibition for over 50 years, Patty Kennedy-Zafred and Risa Nagan. Take a listen as we
Fully automated, remote controlled fighting tables that compete for ultimate supremacy, seems to be a good place to start any conversation. Especially when that conversation is with artist ,woodworker, educator and humorist Annie Evelyn. From fighting tables we move onto the merely absurd, like what it means to be a conceptional functional furniture maker. Her time as a resident artist at the Penland school of Craft. And the work she produced participating in two ground breaking exhibitions for women craft artist
This is the story of how a seed of an idea sowed years ago becomes a ground breaking exhibition of women chair makers. The exhibition entitled Seating Assignment happened in March of 2024 at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston Salem NC. It’s chief instigator was the then artist in residence at Sawtooth Rebecca Juilette-Duex. In this Mind of Maker episode we look at the inspiration for creating this exhibition, learn about the Chair Library at Winston Salem College and talk with Elsa Hoffman one of the artists in the show.
How Do You Measure Your Worth is a metaphorical question Paul Sasso posed in a 1990 sculpture of the same name. Paul passed on to that great measuring tape beyond in March of 2025. So here are some previously unpublished thoughts Paul had on the topic and many more from a conversation we had in 2023.
This episode of Why Make? is brought to you by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.Thanks to Haystack to becoming our first sponsor and partner. Haystack currently has open spaces in select Square ONE Workshops for beginners and Summer 2025 Workshops! Spaces in workshops and housing are limited, and applications are processed on a rolling, first-come, first-serve basis. Applications for these open spots will be open the public starting Wednesday, March 26. To see workshop details and to apply, visit haystack-man.org or go to haystack-mtn.org/summer-workshops-details#workshops-how-to-apply On th
In this episode the last episode of 2024 a special treat, the first of our many recorded interviews from the Emma International Collaboration which took place in August of 2024. This conversation is with Michael Hosulak the brainchild behind Emma though he takes no credit for being founder. We talk about two of the many pieces Michael was involved in making during Emma and also talk about the beauty that is “cocktail hour” and the “junk pile”. Sit back and listen as we contemplate the possibilities of “What If”.
In this episode, we are returning to our “Mind of a Maker” mini series with furniture maker and sculptor Ellie Richards This story starts with an idea that was brewing for years before Ellie began making the piece we talk about in this episode, and that idea was a fascination with the fantasy coffin practice that exists in Ghana. Fantasy coffins, as the word implies, are fantastical, large, hollow, sculptural forms built almost entirely with hand tools that can be just about anything from a jet plane to a tomato… basically trying to capture a person's passions as they pass on and they are, qui
In this episode of why make I talk with sculptor, furniture maker and educator Jack Larimore about how his background in landscape architecture. What led him down the path to discovering a love of design and eventually making furniture. Furthermore how a lack of a formal education In the arts really allowed him to explore sculptural ideas with few preconceived notions. Then we get into a deep dive about in his most recent exhibition called Bonding that was held at Rowan University in the spring of 2024.
On this episode of Why Make we have Jim Roberts a percussionist, producer, artist and educator who resides in Chapel Hill NC. Jim plays the drum set, djembe, congas, and has many recordings under his belt. He has just finished a 17 year teaching stint at Elon University where he taught percussion and directed the Elon World Percussion Ensemble. Jims journey in percussion dated to his earliest years playing in band class to marching band to drum and bugle core to African music traditional fiddle music and so much more. Please join us for a percussive journey with Jim Roberts
In this episode my first impressions of the of the Emma International collaboration, which took placeJuly 31 to August 8 in Big River Saskatchewan. I you need a little more background on Emma take a listen to episode 59 of the podcast “What is Emma” When I returned from Why Makes great adventure to Emma earlier this month and knew that upon returning I needed to sit and collect my thoughts about my experience before they started to drifted away. This short episode is just that a collection of thoughts about having attended my first artist collaboration. I promise you there will be much more to
In this episode we introduce the first in our Mind of Maker series inside of the Why Make Podcast. With our guest Steve Fishman. Steve is a printmaker and a painter in many mediums, as well as being skilled with pen and ink and the mighty pencil. He is also a teacher and someone who really knows how to think about the process of making art. So journey back with me a little bit to May of 2023 and I'm thinking about how to put some new elements in the podcast and I come up with the idea of trying to follow the thought process of creating a specific piece of art. And the name that came to me for
Episode 61 of Why Make? is the conclusion of our conversation with Carrboro, NC musician Jonathan Byrd, who, along with being an award winning song writer is also a story teller, a poet, a photographer, a painter, a teacher and now a student in Physics at North Carolina State University. Enjoy Part Two of our wide open discussion on a host of topics from song writing to physics with Jonathan Byrd.
On Episode 60 of Why Make? our guest is Jonathan Byrd a Carrboro, NC musician, who, along with being award winning song writer, is also a story teller extraordinaire, a poet, a photographer, a painter, a teacher and now a student in Physics. Erik has known Jonathan for a long time and has watched his career blossom over the years. After discovering that Jonathan had taken a hiatus from touring to go to school for physics it became evident that it was high time to get him on the podcast to find out more. Enjoy Part One of a wide open discussion on a host of topics, from song writing to physics,
As Why Make prepares for it'e journey to the Emma International Collaboration in Northern Canada. We talk with Emma board member Brian Gladwell to find out about the history of this event and to humbly ask for your help for our travel expenses .
Welcome to the first episode of season 5 of the podcast, which we’re calling Mind of a Maker. We are going to take a slightly different approach to the podcast this season by focusing more on the creative process itself. Each episode will examine a specific piece of work or body of work of our guests and take a deep dive into how that work evolved . Also along with each podcast, we will be producing a short films to take the highlights from our conversations and put them in a visual form. These will be available on the website and our Youtube channel In this episode we start with a bang as we
On Episode 57 of Why Make? we talk with Brad Reed Nelson, a Glenwood Springs, Colorado woodworker, furniture maker and product designer creating magical pieces made from metal and wood. Brad, aka BRN, and his better half Ann, run Board By Design, a functional design company making such brightly colored amazingness as Knuckles, The Good Pot, Elefunction, Blokkey, Bling Pong tables and the steadfast Winsorrondack chair. We talk with Brad about his years in school and learning about life and making with the likes of Wendell Castle, Garry Knox Bennett, Paul Sasso, Sam Maloof and Gail Fredell. Brad
Episode 56 of Why Make? is a conversation 50 years in the making! Erik sits down sit with his childhood friend, the amazing metalsmith, jeweler, sculptor and teacher Boris Bally. Erik last saw Boris sometime in 1974 when they were 12 years old. Originally, like Erik, from Pittsburgh, Boris now resides and works in Providence RI. A maker from the early days of his youth, Boris fell in love with the magic of working metal and never looked back. Growing up in a Swiss family he took advantage of an opportunity to do a 1 year apprenticeship in Basil Switzerland in metal smithing after high school.
