Why Make? Podcast Why Make? Podcast

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 discuss making art with disabled guns with Boris Bally. Boris is a jeweler and metalsmith. Who  describes himself as a discriminating sculptor, and a clever cultural critic. 

Please join us as we explore the how and why of turning guns into meaningful art

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 also reminds us about the importance and necessity of community, collaboration, listening and communication, fostering relationships and being vulnerable. And how these all pile up to the create the mountain from which every single person is made.

So join us as we lean in and get all twisted up in Brad Reed Nelson’s humble sense of humor and wicked sense of design?!

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. Upon returning to the U.S he enrolled in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and finished his degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Always the practical artist Boris has fashioned his career by teaching, doing commission work and designing and producing a number of very successful production items, along with his own more personal work. Join us as we catch on the last 50 years and find out what just what Boris Bally has been making.

We had the privilege of having this conversation with Boris while he was teaching a workshop at the Pocosin Center for the Arts in Columbia, NC in June with Bob Ebendorf our guest on Episode 54. Many thanks to the good folks at Pocosin for allowing us to spend some time on campus.

In Episode 55 of the Why Make? podcast we talk with Mia Hall, a maker, former educator and current executive director of the Penland School of Craft, one of the oldest and most prestigious craft schools in America. After growing up in Sweden Mia moved to northern California at the age of 18 and explored for the next 10 years. When a close friend became a buyer for Pottery Barn that possibility as a career excited Mia and she  found a path forward through art school. Eventually enrolling at San Diego State University in the interior design department Mia found her true passion upon discovering the furniture design program where she earned both her undergrad and graduate degrees. Always knowing that she wanted to teach Mia became the first Furniture instructor at the new crafts program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. During her time teaching there she also became the director of the program. In 2017 Mia became the executive director of Penland and took on the job she always really wanted to do. Morphing from a worker in wood to a worker in paper, spreadsheets in particular.

From Sweden to the mountains of North Carolina join us as we talk with Mia Hall about her path in the arts and the future of craft education.

Retired educator, jeweler and metalsmith extraordinaire Bob Ebendorf joins us on episode 54 of the Why Make podcast. Originally from Topeka Kansas, Bob was a star football player and wrestler in high school who had the choice of a big time college athletic scholarship or attending art school. Lucky for us he made the right choice! After spending his undergraduate and graduate years in the art department at the University of Kansas Bob then went on to spend a fair amount of time in Norway honing his technical skills in metal smithing before returning to the U.S to teach.  Bob is a self proclaimed radical in the jewelry and metals field, often choosing to work in found objects, thrift store finds and junk instead of precious metals and stones. After a long career in the arts Bob’s work is in the permanent collection of many museums and at 83 he still enjoys teaching, creating and just being curious.

We had the privilege of having this conversation with Bob while he was teaching a workshop at the Pocosin Center for the Arts in Columbia NC in June. Many thanks to the good folks at Pocosin for allowing us to spend some time on campus.

Welcome to Episode 53 of Why Make? On this episode we talk with Robert Lyon, a woodturner, artist and educator who lives and works in the Columbia, SC area.

Literally climbing the walls with handmade ladders as a small child, the sky was the limit, as Robert explored model rockets and building theatre sets, before landing in art school for college.

His lifetime in the arts started in ceramics when he discovered he could spend the whole day at the wheel and not notice the passage of time. No matter what he did Robert always wanted everyday to feel like that flow state.

We talk with Robert about being an assistant professor at Louisiana State University where he helped to set up one of the most vibrant ceramics programs in the U.S at the time before discovering the lathe.

After 5 years in administration Robert returned to teaching in the art department at the University of South Carolina until retiring in 2017. Robert has continued with enthusiasm to teach, and explore the lathe, making his outlandish turned forms during his full-time art practice.

Join us as Robert Lyon takes us back and forth across the Rio Grande, flowing through his minds eye, into those places where he finds inspiration.