Sustaining Craft - Episodes Tagged with “Stories”

Episode 22: Stacey Bowers: Stamping an Edge on the Delicate

Elizabeth Silverstein — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:00:00 -0500

Stacey Bowers wanted to make her friends laugh. She used some of her previous knowledge of jewelry making and learned how to stamp metal to make delicate pieces with interesting phrases on them.

“I think it has a lot to do with my own personal taste in jewelry,” Stacey said. “I typically wear things that are small and discrete, and I think a lot of other people appreciate that, too. But my attitude is not small or discrete. It's a little combination of the inner and outer me.”

She worked full-time as the communications director for the Thea Foundation while making jewelry every hour she wasn’t at work. As of February 2019, she decided to transition to jewelry design full-time with her company, Bang-Up Betty.

Find more of Stacey’s work:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bangupbetty/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bangupbettyjewelry
Website - https://www.bangupbetty.com/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/BangUpBetty/
Stifft Station Gifts - https://www.stifftstationgifts.com/

Sustaining Craft is a passion project of Hew & Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends).
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcraft/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/sustainingcraft

Find more from Hew & Weld:
Website - https://www.hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Stacey Bowers.

Episode 21: Joshua Kurtz: Socializing through World Building

Elizabeth Silverstein — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:00:00 -0500

Joshua Kurtz joins Elizabeth Silverstein of Sustaining Craft for a follow-up interview.

Over the years, Joshua has found that simply asking might lead to unexpected results, like when he asked his drama teacher if the school could perform the musical he wrote at age 17. Or when he needed to raise his rates as a professional Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master.

“I realized at that point, ‘Huh, I’m a very niche market, this is a very niche market, I’m not charging enough for my services,’” Joshua explained. “And it’s hard, because I’m asking people to come back over and over and over again, and I’m asking an audience and it’s mostly kids. But I did wind up raising my rates, which got very little resistence. Everyone was very supportive, especially when I said why.”

As of January 2020, Joshua is a full-time dungeon master, teaching Dungeons & Dragons and other table-top role-playing games to audiences of all ages.

Find more of Joshua’s work:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dndforhire/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dndforhire/
Website - https://dndforhire.com/
Email - dndforhire@gmail.com

Sustaining Craft is a passion project of Hew&Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends).
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainingcraft/
Facebook - http://facebook.com/sustainingcraft

Find more from Hew&Weld:
Website - hewandweld.com/news
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hewandweld/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hewandweld/

Special Guest: Joshua Kurtz.

Episode 4: Brittany Oaks: Painting the Miracle of Birth with Light

Elizabeth Silverstein — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 13:00:00 -0400

Brittany Oaks made a few friends in Conway while a single mother and was invited to a home birth. “It was really, really incredible to see,” Oaks said. “And I’d given birth by that point myself. But this was an unmedicated home birth. She started out in the water and ended up going to her bed. And just the raw power and just the fact that she invited only those people she wanted there was really, really interesting to me. That’s who was in that house and I was invited. And someone threw me a camera while she was pushing and the rest is history. I was just in love with it. This is a story, and I want to tell this story. I want to capture these sacred moments because there are a lot of things worth capturing in life - momentous moments, but to me in that time, it made it really clear to me. I spent a lot of money on my wedding photography. The wedding was annulled. I can’t show those photos or care about them because you know. But it doesn’t matter what happened with that child. When you take photos of that new human being born, that’s always your child, no matter what happens. There’s nothing that’s going to annul that.”

Oaks soon remarried into the military and was stationed overseas. Unable to work, Oaks practiced her photography skills, homeschooled her three sons, and traveled with her family. “But I knew when we got back to the states, I wanted to hit the ground running,” Oaks explained. “I knew what I wanted to do. So I did. We got back in August last year and I immediately filed for my business, got insurance and all the stuff that makes a business. … I knew what I wanted and I’ve been hustling ever since to make it happen.”

Special Guest: Brittany Oaks.

Episode 3: Melissa Diller: Using Drama to Build Confidence

Elizabeth Silverstein — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 08:45:00 -0400

Melissa Diller at first transferred her Verizon job and then quit and started Drama Kids, a franchise that has existed for the past 30 years. “We teach educationally-based drama to all school-aged kids,” Diller explained. “Basically all we’re doing is building confidence in public speaking through fun drama activities so that kids have the confidence to be whatever they end up being, whether it’s a doctor, or stage performer, actress.”

Working with a franchise framework still meant that Diller had to develop her business from the ground up, building relationships, growing her outreach, and finding business mentors. “As a business owner, you have to think outside the box, and my mentors were the ones who really taught me that,” Diller shared. “[It’s] thinking outside the box, [and] not listening to the voice inside your head that says ‘really?’”

Special Guest: Melissa Diller.