CraftSanity Podcast

Practicing psychologist and crochet designer Sandra Eng recognizes discusses her new book “Crochet Kaleidoscope: Shifting Shapes and Shades Across 100 Motifs,” and the role handcrafts can play as a means of coping with stress and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Interview with Josie Gamper, who sells her own brand of popular watercolors under the name RedwoodWillow. Josie shares the story of how she built her business as a side gig and now operates it full-time from the living room of her Connecticut home.

We go behind the scenes of the fascinating art career of Drew Sheneman, a nationally syndicated political cartoonist who started writing and illustrating children’s picture books a couple years ago.

Bethany Nixon, owner of Reware Vintage and co-organizer of the upcoming Detroit Urban Craft Fair (DUCF), discuses last-minute tips for handmade business owners who are vending this holiday season and talk about what it takes to produce a large-scale craft fair like DUCF which is celebrating its 12th year. The Detroit Urban Craft Fair is at the Masonic Temple Dec. 1-3. Check out more at craftsanity.com

Interview with Gloria Kirk-Hann, who takes us behind the scenes of her 2017 ArtPrize entry “Fragments of Old Bones; New Soul” a fiber art installation that is a visual manifestation of her artistic journey through divorce, loss and grief and finding love again. Check out more at craftsanity.com

Interview with Patricia Constantine, who entered a piece titled “Sineater” in the 2017 ArtPrize competition that makes a bold statement about American politics and education.

Melodee Jackson discusses the creation of her intricate ArtPrize 2017 work, “Early January on the Pearl Street Bridge.”

Some artists make art to entertain and amuse, while activist artists like Ti-Rock Moore and Keyon Lovett make art to challenge and raise awareness about injustices in society. Both artists discuss their ArtPrize entries inspired by the continuing Flint water crisis.

Self-taught West Michigan abstract painter Mary-Catheryn Baker discusses her life and her entry into ArtPrize 2017.

Interview with Jeana Eve Klein, about her surprising path to ArtPrize 2017 in Grand Rapids.