Making Problems to Solve

This week I talked to Dan Chiaccio founder of First Proof Press, a community print studio in Brattleboro Vermont. We learn about Dan's discovery of printmaking, and how he decided that starting a print shop was the right way to go.

Sean Farbolin - Maker on the Move - has since settled down. He has a maker journey that goes from animation, takes a historical detour into spiral ham and inventing, to freelance set and prop building. We learn about the Fix It Fair, meeting local makers, and what Sean is exploring these days.

Linsday Liboiron creates fantasy landscapes with creatures that combine elements that make them part of the landscape. Imagine if I tree pulled up its roots and explored the forest, or if a the ground cover combined to become a deer. With color palettes that draw you in, the paintings invite you to explore more deeply. We chat about Lindsay's beginning studying piano and a focus of music, to her discovery of painting, her work at the Ripley's museum restoring wax figures, and how she uses background music in her studio, as well as the combination of sight and sound by playing the sounds inspired by her fantasy landscapes in the gallery.

This week I talk to Angela a sewer and knitter (among other creative pursuits) about the story of her Maker Community Quilt from a simple project to use up scraps to a global collaboration. Along the way we talk about community, creativity, and the value of learning from making mistakes.

This week I chat with Leah Houghtaling, a woodworker from the Finger Lakes region of New York State. We discuss her philosophy of using every scrap as much as possible, out of respect for nature. Leah loves the process of figuring things out and learning from mistakes and sharing what she has learned.

This week's I talk to 3 time returning guest Morley Kert about making YouTube videos, and keeping it fun. Morley makes creative projects and focuses on storytelling through the process in his videos. It's all about experimenting and learning by doing.

This week is a great conversation with David Picciuto of Makesomething.tv on YouTube, who is all about exploring creativity. We chatted about his recent video with some more creative tips for honing your own personal creativity. We talk about where his creative journey started and a bit about where it might be going next.

Mary Doctor has created "Show and Tell for Grown-ups", a live show where presenters get five minutes to tell new friends about their particular niche interest. From an interest in musical theater and comedy, through tech, non-profit, and a bunch or varied experiences, Mary has learned that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Bringing people together through curiosity is the key.

This week I talked to Mark and Donna from Rockin' K Creations. They're a husband and wife team making their interesting creations mostly from wood. You might know them from the "Maker on the Street" video series documenting the "Maker Camp Maker Swap" in 2024. We had a great conversation about what they make, and why they make it, and how they got involved in Maker Camp and the Maker Swap.

Matt Holmes is working to bring new life to the craft of letterpress with the future of digital fabrication. We talked about the progression of letterpress from an industrial production process to its current status as a craft and art. We discussed his research in sharing and advancing knowledge and community of traditional craft through technology and his work at the Hybrid Print Lab. We also talked about how cast iron letterpress equipment seems to multiply once you start collecting it.

Anna Koplik discovered her love of art and creativity when her Dad volunteered at an art center. She explored jewelry making, but ultimately found blacksmithing as her choosen form of expression. We talk about craft schools, teaching, and whether a sword is the best project for a beginner blacksmith.

Chelsea is an designer, maker, and veneer artist. We chatted about her recent feature in Fine Woodworking magazine, teaching and community work with Dykes with Drills at Community Workshop NOLA. We also discussed some of her great veneer and furniture projects including some coopering.

Sarah McAnulty is a squid biologist, an artist and the founder of Skype a Scientist which connects classrooms with scientists. We chat about Sarah's involvement in public art projects Squid Facts, and #Nearbynature which encourages folks to create and share art about their local wildlife.

Shane and I have a great conversation about conservation and restoration of furniture and other wooden artifacts. Shane is working on a series about the various materials and techniques of wood finishing called "Finished: The Art and Science of Wooden Surfaces". Please note we mention a number that should be 476,000 instead of 4.5 million but the point is consistent. We discuss the importance of sharing and passing on knowledge, and there's a fun bit about dairy products as well.

Woops, uploaded the wrong file! Here's the real one.

Mark and Nick and I chat about the joy of working with contractors, volume printing, content creation, and potential motorcycle adventures.

Looking back a little bit, looking ahead a little more. Then we chat about books a little bit. We went all over the place, this is just the first half. We'll back back next week as well.

Check out my guests

Erin Winick Anthony is the founder of science communication company STEAM Power Media which works to share the creativity in science and engineering, and help others tell their science stories. We talked about her beginnings from sewing and journalism with her high school newspaper to engineering school to reporting for the MIT Technology Review and science communication and outreach for the International Space Station. We discussed starting a 3D printed jewelry company and her interest in competitive pinball!

Xyla Foxlin is a engineer by education with a passion for the arts and making things like an LED-powered party kayak, an aluminum electric violin, and a rocket-powered Christmas tree. We talked about the origins of the creative problem solving mindset, learning from others and sharing what we learn, and remembering to learn room for boredom to fuel creativity.

Justin Mabie and Mark Adams chat about their motivation and creative process is recording makers at Maker Camp or in their own shop environment from a split second to a 50 minute epic story.

This time is a full episode chat with Jason Nix, layout artist for Mark Adams "Five Years of Maker Camp Book" and tool rescuer. We talk about collecting tools, and selling the ones you don't need right now, to fund the next hobby. We go on a bit about art, museums, overlapping skill sets, and permission.

Bonus content aftershow with Jason Nix, Mark Adams, and Nick Toga where we chat about Maker Camp, Pottery ASMR, Instagram Rants, and problem-solving!

It's a super Maker Camp retrospective with Mark Adams, Sarah from Rosie's Woodshop and Matt from Ndrizzimakes. We discuss the Catskill Mountain Maker Camp from four difference perspectives and mention a lot of cool folks along the way. Learn about what it's like to experience Maker Camp for the first time, and the first time with a kid in tow.

This week I talk to Sara from Wartooth Designs about the ancient history of the maker community and art for everyone! We discuss the differences between design and art, and Lego and Playdoh!

This week I chat with Ryan Smith and Shane Mooney about the shenanigans we are going to get up to this year at the Catskill Mountain Maker Camp in the "Diresta" print tent! This year we are back with a new poster, even more block printing and new for this year, tree ring printing! Come check us out this weekend!

This week we go through the maker history of Wes Swain of Geeksmithing, from his discovery of video game art with Mario Paint to school for game development to working in games and beyond to the online maker community and YouTube. We chat about his Mario Kart themed nursery and block printing techniques from the traditional to CNC router and lasers!

A freeform chat with the creative team behind the new photography book "Five Years - Maker Camp Portraits" by Mark Adams! Mark Adams took the pictures, Jason Nix did the layout, Nick provided critical feedback, I pressed the record button, and the maker community provided the inspiring people! We learn about the challenges of picking out some of the best photos from approximately 30 thousand taken over the last five Maker Camps and the process of self-publishing an art book with Amazon.

Annika is an entomologist who loves talking with anyone and everyone about the fascinating, beautiful, and bizarre world of arthropods! She has painted murals around Ithaca, NY and makes block printed art featuring bugs, the plants they live with, and occasionally sharp objects. We talked about the importance of curiosity and communication in her work, including acting techniques for science communication and insect body language.

On this round of "Mark and Nick, Art, Life, the Universe, and Everything" we talk about Mark's maker portrait book, Nick's outdoor kitchen, and the most recent strike of creative workers, We also respond to Woodworking is Bullshit Podcast on perfectionism.

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Tina has a creative family, and after an early retirement went to school for carpentry. These days she loves the scroll saw, even for unauthorized uses and makes and sells cool sewing projects. She loves music and has even taken a guitar building class at the Nazareth Guitar Institute. Of course we talked about the Catskill Mountain Maker Camp and the wonderful instructors.

This week my guest is Shawn from Geek Builders. Shawn has been around the online making scene for a while now, sharing projects and co-hosting the Making Geeks podcast for 300 episodes. We chat about his path to becoming an animation art teacher, and learning maker skills from woodworking around the house to digital fabrication.

Liz Melchor focuses on exploration and discovery in the creative process, whether it's drawing freeform monkeys or instructing a robot to create something just a little bit unexpected. We discuss the maker community and getting over the need to get perfect in the pursuit of making something new and interesting.

Donovan creates maker content with an emphasis on family and storytelling. We discuss his history of building things, background in filmmaking, and his journey as a geek, a dad, and a DIY content creator. His tagline is "Build a Good Story" and his goal is to inspire people to try to make their own stuff with a story.

Aaron Dietzen's Instagram and Substack mailing list have the perfect title, so I re-used it for the show! Aaron is a Sketchup guy by day, and an abstract painter. 3d printer, and all-around maker the rest of the time. We chat about his artistic journey, and his goal of starting a creative conversation about inspiration.

This week is a conversation with STEAM Advocate/Engineer Tamara Robertson and Artist/Designer Rob Ray inspired by the Mad Art Cast, I attempt to bring together art and science, and it leads to an interesting conversation! We end up talking about teaching, design, curiosity and peer-review.

This week I talked to James D'Ambrosio who leapt into the maker community last year with a gas-powered Mac G5 coffee maker, combining things every maker loves, coffee, Apple products, and unnecessary complexity. We discuss his discovery of welding and metal art, along with the evolution of his gas-powered inventions.

This time we tackle a couple of listener questions, in our usual rambling style. We might complain a teeny tiny bit about the state of social media, and ponder a bit about what might be a solution. We talk bout how/when credit or compensation is appropriate or possible for inspiration, reference, or remixing of art.

This week my guest is Ahsley Pieper from Shallow Creek Woodcraft. She's a studio furniture designer and maker who combines traditional practices and contemporary design in her work. We chat about using motion in her designs and creating an expressive, playful environment with furniture, and the advantages of learning from books.

We're back with Mara (like Mara-thon) from Silver Hair and Sawdust! Mara is woodworker who loves to build beautiful and useful objects for her family. We talk about her exploration of creative pursuits that lead to woodworking, marquetry, the community, and finding inspiration to learn new things through maker challenges.

Mark and Nick are back for another whirlwind tour of our brains from museums to travel and reading. We answer a listener question from Griffin Makes!

Send in your question for the next "Art Talk with Mark and Nick". We'll revisit the themes of trying to make art in a world of distractions periodically.

Johnny Tromboukis is known for his Kumiko projects, kits and jigs. He also teaches Kumiko woodworking classes, and was part of the team that brought us the giant flaming dinosaur and jackalope for the Maker Burn at Catskill Mountain Maker Camp!

We're back for the thrilling conclusion with Mark and Nick! We talk about creative journeys, motivation and passion, exploration, sharing, and you guessed it Maker Camp. Along the way we cover design school and learning creatively.

We all know Mark Adams as the black and white photographer of makers. Nick recently is probably best known for his support of the WGA+SAG strikes with his clever protest art. We have great conversation about doing your creative thing, learning and communication. We went pretty deep. This is the first half of our conversation. We'll have the conclusion next week!