As I begin fiddle lessons (!), I see so many connections between my desire to learn folk music and my fascination with handcrafts.Di Kim Werker

I had seven minutes of relative quiet for recording, and I tried to make the most of it. Featuring: me, playing the violin, very badly. (And some crochet for challenging times.)

Wherein I learn to play Happy Birthday on the ukulele for a tuba duet and rekindle my commitment to dismantle the patriarchy. Really, there are no show notes other than that. You... are gonna want to hear this one.Di Kim Werker

We're gonna be in this for a long while, dear listeners. We'll be experiencing waves of grief over a long time. So it's time to focus on tiny joys, and on how our creativity can help us create some of those joys for ourselves. Show Notes That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief The 100 Day Project Discussion thread about our 100 Day Projects My firs…

Time is so weird right now. It's movings so slowly, and so distantly, so fluidly. There are no good words for it, really, but I think we can all agree we're living in a Twilight Zone. In “normal” life, I talk with folks a lot about finding and making time for creativity and creative projects in our daily lives. But when time is all screwed up, and …

We're nine days into self-quarantine because the last person we saw before going into self-isolation last Monday called a few days later to tell us he'd been exposed. In many ways, this isn't any different an experience than what we'd been expecting, except we can't go shopping for groceries and the like. Which, at this point, actually seems like a…

My friend Erin has been keeping me sane these last few days that have felt like centuries. She's a new friend. We've only known each other for a few months. But meeting her felt like we were always meant to be friends, and we started texting each other daily pretty much from the start. So in these days when I'm thinking about all the folks whose fr…

Di Kim Werker

Di Kim Werker

Di Kim Werker

Di Kim Werker

Di Kim Werker

Betsy Greer is a writer and maker who lives in Durham, North Carolina. For the past fourteen years, she’s written about craftivism, the place where craft and activism intersect, and she loves discovering the ways in which people use (and have used) the two together. Currently, her main craft project is You Are So Very Beautiful, in which people mak…

In this first episode of Compulsory in two years, we return to our roots with an honest conversation with quilter Cheryl Arkison about the power of habit in creative life, and about embracing the mess of, well, pretty much everything. Show Notes and Links Cheryl’s article about Morning Makes Sophie’s Universe blanket pattern Cutting up jeans Swatch…

After two years on hiatus, Compulsory Podcast is coming back! Listen for a brief update about what's changed (and what's staying the same), and how you can help keep the show going long into the future. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you get the next episode as soon as it's out (here are the iTunes, Stitcher and Soundcloud links). To get unedi…

Lauren Venell is an artist and designer specializing in editorial props and product development. Her work has been published in titles by Chronicle Books, Klutz/Scholastic, Uppercase, Monsa Books and Quarry Books, among others, and featured in several media outlets including The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Everyday with Rachel Ray …

Rachael Herron is the bestselling author of the novel Splinters of Light, the five-book Cypress Hollow romance series, and the memoir, A Life in Stitches. As we discuss in the podcast, I've read Rachael's blog for about a decade. So much is my admiration for her dedication to her writing, craft, job and family that I interviewed her for my book Mak…

Joel Watson is a cartoonist who writes and draws a webcomic called HijiNKS Ensue, which he describes as "a semi-autobiographical comic about a lifelong geek and aspiring artist who turns his back on an unfulfilling but financially stable career in order to pursue art full time and set a better example for his daughter." My conversation with Joel fr…

Joel Watson is a cartoonist who writes and draws a webcomic called HijiNKS Ensue, which he describes as "a semi-autobiographical comic about a lifelong geek and aspiring artist who turns his back on an unfulfilling but financially stable career in order to pursue art full time and set a better example for his daughter." I’ve read Joel’s comic for y…

Isaac Watson is a project manager, grand-scale organizer, and maker of things like jewelry and homes. In 2014, he launched Maker’s Nation, a nonprofit educational program and community platform for independent creative entrepreneurs. He's also the production manager for the World Domination Summit, co-producer of Pioneer Nation, and a hired gun tha…

Miriam Felton is a knitwear designer and all-around maker living in Salt Lake City. She has been self-publishing since 2004 and now teaches and designs full time. In 2013, she committed to what she called a Year of Making – every day that year, she documented something she made by sharing a photo of it online, with the hashtag #yearofmaking. To get…

Meighan O’Toole is a digital media strategist who is passionate about connecting people to objects, art, and ideas that better their personal or professional lives, and she derives great meaning in her own life from fostering those connections. In today's episode, we talk about Meighan's compulsion to share, and about the connections, conversations…

Soft-toy designer Abby Glassenberg runs a successful online pattern shop and blogs regularly about the business of craft. In today's show, we discuss the siren song of immediacy and impulsiveness, the focus of identifying a very narrow niche interest, and the value of practice. Plus: the tensions between imperfection and perfection, and serving you…

Artist Rachael Ashe makes cut-paper works of intricate, repeating designs. In today's show, we discuss focus, repetition, tediousness, and more. Relevant links: Rachael Ashe's website and portfolio Rachael on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Vancouver's Eastside Culture Crawl Hot Talks at Hot Art Wet City Podcasts: This American Life, Serial, 99% In…