Craft podcasts to inspire you at home

20 March 2020

Offering everything from creative ideas to tips on selling your work online

Crafts magazine

The last decade or so has seen a boom in the world of audio journalism. Crafts magazine has selected a range of podcasts – some more loosely craft-related than others – to inspire and inform you.

After social isolation, the main question on most of our minds is how our work and livelihoods will continue in the coronavirus era. In its Culture in the Time of Coronavirus episode, the FT’s Culture Call podcast discusses how the arts landscape might change, with travel, live events and experiences on hold for the foreseeable future.

This podcast by online platform Etsy offers tips on how to improve a creative business, for the many makers who already sell their work online and the others who will feel the need to start.

Material Matters is hosted by Crafts magazine’s former editor Grant Gibson, who moved from print to audio just in time to stack up a healthy back catalogue of interviews with makers to entertain us all in solitude. Big names such as Simone ten Hompel, Eleanor Lakelin, Junko Mori and Edmund de Waal discuss materials and how they work with them.

The 99% Invisible podcast is about the thought that goes into the unnoticed design and architecture that shapes our world. Recent episodes include clever hacks for cyclists, building architecture for your cat and the history of cardboard boxes as playthings.

The hosts of The Modern Maker podcast chat about materials – wood, concrete, leather – as well as making things by hand and what it’s like to be a maker today. They focus on specific projects, as well as addressing questions like 'is hemp wood any good?'

A show about living ‘meaningful lives with less’, The Minimalists often has a craft bent, including an episode about storing and displaying collectibles, how to focus, creativity and balancing professional and personal life. Its insights into decluttering, interior design and slowing down might also be welcome while spending time at home.

Seek inspiration in design consultant Justyna Green’s On Design series, featuring conversations with a range of fascinating figures in the world of art and design, from artist and ceramicist John Booth, to artist and designer Camille Walala, to designer Yinka Ilori.

The Craft Room host Dawn Lewis discusses all manner of making, including card-making, quilting, crochet, stamping, painting, embroidery. Episodes include crafting in a crisis and getting the best out of craft retreats.

The entire back catalogue of episodes of this eternally popular Desert Island Discs radio show is available to listen to via the BBC. Artists such as Lubaina Himid, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst are among those telling the story of their lives through the music they would take with them to a desert island.

For Thread Cult, Journalist and sewing blogger Christine Cyr Clisset interviews crafters doing textiles, sewing and fashion – including independent pattern and textile designers to couture experts and curators.

This series from This American Life, the pioneer of the podcast genre, brings you a weekly range of stories, journalism and interviews set around a theme. Martha, My Dear, author David Rakoff’s ode to the crafts department at Martha Stewart Living magazine, and Life in a Bubble, a glimpse into artistic rivalries in the world of animal balloon-making, are some craft snippets to get you started on its archive.

The Case of the Cutoffs, which charts the history of a pair of cut-off jeans, and Dress of Choice, which dives into the world of children who do drag, are a couple of the craft-related episodes on Nancy, the podcast about the queer experience today.

Created by podcast maker Gimlet, StartUp is a series about entrepreneurial life. An episode you might enjoy is Alex Talks to Fashion Icon Dapper Dan, an interview with the Harlem-born fashion designer and haberdasher, who made a name for himself in the 1980s by creating unique leather designs covered in counterfeit logos from brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, and eventually made it to the top of the industry.

Dear Handmade Life is a bi-weekly podcast by US-based illustrator and maker Nicole Stevenson, featuring interviews, stories and practical advice about creativity and building a life and business ‘filled with intention and purpose’.

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Craft podcasts to inspire you at home

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