Wednesday 19 November 2014

Six good podcasts to listen to while embroidering

When I go through stages of embroidering for a number of hours every day, I vacillate between listening to music, listening to podcasts, stitching in silence while my thoughts wander and most recently, listening to audio books.


I listened to some entertaining interviews a little while ago in which embroidery and textiles obviously feature. And as I've recently started embroidering again for another big project, I'm catching up on podcasts.

Here are six good ones, in no particular order:

Lotta Jansdotter speaks to Christine Cyr Clisset
Known for her clean style, Lotta Jansdotter was way ahead of her time when it came to the Scandi design trend, so it was interesting to hear about her design process, collaborations and future plans. It was also interesting to hear her take on designing versus production, and on which she felt her time was best spent.

Arianne Foulks and Alicia Paulson speak to Abby Glassenberg
Alicia Paulson of Posy Gets Cozy completely overhauled her online presence recently, including a new logo. And she got Arianne Foulks of web and graphic design studio Aeolidia to do it for her. It's a frank and honest talk about when, how and if a craft business owner should take on a redesign, and what exactly a website will or will not do for your bottom line.

Denyse Schmidt speaks to Christine Cyr Clisset
A maker of modern quilts, Denyse Schmidt has been on my radar for years. I love the simplicity of her quilt designs and am inspired by the way she's gone about creating and sustaining her quilt business.

Claire Danes speaks to Marc Maron
Although this interview with Marc Maron is largely about Claire's upbringing and acting career, there's an unexpected twist in the second half where she speaks about taking up embroidery and getting involved with her make-up artist friend Matin Maulawizada's venture to uplift widows in Afghanistan through embroidery, called Afghan Hands. So even though it's not a needlework or even a craft podcast, it was a nice easy listen to a fellow embroiderer.

Kristin Link and Kathy Mack speak to Abby Glassenberg
Kristin Link is the founder and owner of Sew Mama Sew and Kathy Mack is the owner of Pink Chalk Fabrics. Both of them have had to make tough business decisions involving a fairly radical change in direction. They talk candidly about making financial decisions, the emotions involved in changing tack and the day-to-day of running a craft business.

Spoonflower's Stephen Fraser speaks to Christine Cyr Clisset
If you're not already familiar with Spoonflower, they're digital textile printers from North Carolina that'll print your designs on to as little as a yard of fabric at a time. This is a fascinating listen about how Stephen and his partner, Gart Davis, started the business and what it's done for indie fabric designers since launching.

So there you go, some good listens if you're so inclined.

7 comments:

Paula Marcondes said...

Thank you! Very nice theme for a post.

Robbie said...

Interesting! Will bookmark your post for my future 'idle' sewing times! Thanks!!!

Kelly Fletcher said...

Pleasure Paula. Hope you enjoy them.

Kelly Fletcher said...

They're good listens for "idle" stitching...

Anonymous said...

Great idea!

Misty said...

These sound really interesting, thanks for the tip!

Kelly Fletcher said...

Pleasure!