Making Conversation Making Co.

Hello, makers! Super excited to bring you this episode with our pal, Catherine. Just a heads up, there are parts of this episode that are a little more visual as we give a shop tour. Click to watch instead!

Brooklyn General Store has been the go-to place for crafty supplies of all kinds for NYC makers since 2002. We sat down with the Queen of Union Street, BGS owner, designer, maker, event planner extraordinaire–Catherine Clark. Get to know her maker journey, the story of how Brooklyn General moved from the waiting room of Catherine’s midwifery office to the current location, how her and Aimée of La Bien Aimée became besties and more!

Brooklyn General Store
https://brooklyngeneral.com
128 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Brooklyn General Store is tucked away on a sweet block West of the Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill neighborhoods and North of  Red Hook.  This commercial block on Union Street used to be a thriving shopping block for all types of foods and goods.   Brooklyn General’s home within the Old Frank’s Department Store is a throw back to that era, with its preserved floor to ceiling shelves, rolling ladders and classic old wooden floors.  The vintage interior is not reproduced, just uncovered, cleaned and painted.

Brooklyn General Store was created in an effort to provide the highest quality materials to a community of devoted artists and craftspeople and to promote making things by hand through inspiration and education.  Not only is it a place to feast your eyes and hands on glorious colors and patterns and textures but it is a place that respects and honors a time when a trip to the country store was a way of life.  It is a place where a quick trip for a yard of fabric or a skein of yarn turns into an hour of sharing, teaching, inspiring and encouraging all the amazing and creative makers that are also out for that quick trip to the General Store... 

Following its mission to promote all things handmade, Brooklyn General offers a wide variety of classes in knitting, sewing, quilting, felting, spinning, rug hooking and embroidery.  Classes are limited in size in order for students to have ample individual attention.  Studio time with our fantastic BERNINA classroom machines is also available. BrooklynGeneral.com was created to share our carefully picked goods with all the creative souls outside of Brooklyn, NY.
Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.

Author Jane Cooper joins us to talk all about her book, The Lost Flock: Rare Wool, Wild Isles and One Woman’s Journey to Save Scotland’s Original Sheep. Jane and Jen chat about why the Orkney Boreray sheep are so very special, Jane's maker journey, lambs...lots of lambs, and what it's like writing your first book.

About The Lost Flock
Purchase Paperback
Purchase Audiobook
From Viking times to pastoral Highland crofts to odious research experiments, this is the untold, real-life detective story of the remarkable little horned sheep known as the Orkney Boreray and the determined woman who moved to one of Scotland’s wildest islands to save them.

About the Sheep
https://orkneyboreray.com
https://www.instagram.com/orkneyboreray
The sheep who eat seaweedOrkney Science FestivalThe Lost Flock's launch eventYarn
https://northronaldsayyarn.co.uk
https://www.blackeryarns.co.uk
http://www.woolsack.org
Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.

In the final episode of this series, we get to hear from a few more makers that we chatted with during our last visit to NYC! Get to know some very special humans that we invited to join us for our Brooklyn General Store booth Meet and Greets at Vogue Knitting Live and also from our special maker meetup that we hosted with Brooklyn General Store and La Bien Aimée!
This episode’s guests:
Jennifer Wiese
Workroom Social
@WorkroomSocial 


Kassandra Sustaita
@Kassandra.Sustaita

Amanda Solomon
Melanated Boho Bae
@MelanatedBohoBae
Featuring special guest: Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée

Lauren Ireland
ByLaurenIreland.com
@LaurenClaireIreland

If you prefer to watch, check out our YouTube channel. 


Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.

We're continuing our Making Meet and Greets from NYC with crafty friends, old and new!

The lovely Catherine of Brooklyn General Store and Aimée of La Bien Aimée asked us to bring a bit of our Meet and Greets to their 2024 Vogue Knitting Live booth and we also co-hosted a maker meet-up at Brooklyn General Store.

Lots of great conversation, stories, and even a dance break. We've got it all, folks!  And course, stay tuned for the next few weeks of more awesome NYC-created content to get to know more special people from the maker community. Hope you enjoy it.

This episode’s guests:
Cris Bertoluci
@CrisBertoluci 
https://crisbertoluci.com.br

Special guest appearance by:
Nara Takeda of KnitLeaks
@knitleaks
https://www.knitleaks.com

Cris shouts out to Portfiber.

Gregory Chrysler
@GregoryChrysler

Stephanie Earp and Naomi Endicott
@espacetricot
@EspaceTricotPodcast
https://www.espacetricot.com
Knits from the LYS: https://www.espacetricot.com/us/knits...

Images of Ernesto Neto by albert sanchez & tom dubrock via MFA houston instagram account

Our episode touching on the history of Art vs Craft: https://youtu.be/s7Fpe0ZEOAs?si=clGFt... 
Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.

In this episode of the podcast, we’re taking it back to New York City! If you’ve been following along for a while you know that we’ve been visiting events around the world, collecting and then sharing important stories. (Mostly fiber arts related but we want to expand that. Hey other maker events, hit us up!)

This time we did things a little differently. The lovely Catherine of Brooklyn General Store and Aimée of La Bien Aimée asked us to bring a bit of our Meet and Greets to their 2024 Vogue Knitting Live booth. So we set up shop and gathered some crafty friends, old and new. We laugh. We cry. We get really honest.
Stay tuned for the next few weeks of more awesome made-in-NYC content and get to know more special people from the maker community. Enjoy!

This episode’s guests:
Mariah Stanford
@mariahknits
Mariah's Making Conversation Episode: https://youtu.be/kJF7rTbCGxQ

Julie Robinson
@JulieAtWork
Julie's Making Conversation Episode: https://making.buzzsprout.com/1875689/10012761

Sky
@SeamsBySky
+
Marina
@DesdeLaMarina

Emma
@theNewYorkYear
+
Ally
@AllyOoperLooper

Sidney

Derek Rollberg
@Knit.Top89
Katia Yarns
@KatiaYarns 
Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.

During Vogue Knitting Live 2024, Jen took the stage with big names in the fiber arts and maker industry to talk about how we can adapt to the ever evolving world of craft-what has changed, where the opportunity is, and advice on what to do when things are challenging. 
Our Panelists
Jonna Hietala is the co-founder, creative director and CEO of Laine Publishing and the editor-in-chief of Laine Magazine. Jonna has worked in lifestyle and crafts magazines both in Finland and in Sweden. Before Laine, she also ran her own yarn shop. In 2021, Jonna won the prestigious Taito-Finlandia award for her groundbreaking work on handicrafts and applied arts. Jonna lives in Tampere, Finland with her two children, cats and dogs.  

Aimée Gille was born and raised in the United States, in Kansas, and later moved to France, where her passion for knitting was reignited. In Paris, where she now lives with her family, she first opened L’Oisive, thé a wonderful knitting café, and later La Bien Aimée. Established in 2015, La Bien Aimée is an artisanal dye studio located in Paris, France. Aimée and her team dye beautiful and sophisticated colors of yarn that reflect a unique and vibrant point of view.  Her book, Worsted, was published by Laine Publishing in the fall on 2021. Her latest book Neons & Neutrals was published in March of 2022.


Ashley Yousling is the founder and CEO of Making and started our podcast back in 2014. She is an award winning designer with over 15 years of experience, leading and executing product + content vision and strategy in tech and consumer industries. Her work has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company. She resides in Boise with her three boys, pup, and you can always find her in her art studio.

Joji Locatelli is an Argentine knitwear designer living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After studying as a physician, in 2004 she rediscovered knitting. She is a Mom of two boys, and a wife to a loving non-knitting husband. She hopes to inspire with her knitting patterns and loves draped fabrics, beautiful details, simple lines.


Moderator
Jen Joyce is the Head of Marketing and Podcast Host at Making. She’s been a marketing professional for the past 14 years and has worked for tech startups, hospitality, fintech, and even an agency. She lives in Seattle with her partner, her dogs, and her 21-year-old cat. Jen can always be found knitting and watching “bad” TV, enjoying lovely Seattle but also traveling as much as possible and lifting heavy weights for that extra serotonin boost.
Photo credit for Jen’s pic: https://www.jacobpritchard.com

If you'd like to watch this episode...
https://www.youtube.com/@making_co




Music by Despatches. 💖
Download the Making app and join our amazing community of makers by visiting themakingapp.com

If you'd like to give a shout-out, have a question that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, or are interested in sponsoring Making Conversation, email us at hq@makingco.com.

See you in the Making app!
ps- We talk about our values a lot. Just in case you're curious, take a peek.