INSTRUCTORS

Renee Beaudoin grew up wandering through meadows and dreaming up what her next meal would be, so it is no surprise she ended up working with both food and flowers. Renee spent two years out on the Olympic Peninsula in the heart of the forest, where one’s local grocery is the nearest farm stand and oysters are a cliffside descent away. There she developed her deep love for foraging, botany, and fire-side cooking, leading to the creation of FOREST TO VASE, a wild-focused floral company. At the Pantry, Renee runs all things wildflower, leads farm camp at Quillisascut Farm, and teaches culinary and craft classes.

Lydia brings patience, professionalism, skill, dedication, humor, integrity and impeccable timing to every photo shoot. She works full-time as a photographer in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. She hangs out mostly with the people that frequent her couch: her husband, 13 year old daughter and dog. Aside from photography, her hobbies mostly involve roller skating, rabbits, holiday decorating, all things 1960’s era and David Bowie.

This is Lydia’s third year attending Camp Thundercraft as an instructor and camp photographer.

Sanae Ishida writes, draws, sews and takes photos almost every day. She lives with her husband and daughter in beautiful Seattle, WA. Both she and her daughter have too many handmade clothes. She has authored and illustrated the Little Kunoichi Ninja book series as well as Sewing Happiness, a memoir/craft book hybrid. Her forthcoming book, ANIMAL FRIENDS TO SEW will be released in May of 2020 and she is currently working on another sewing book due out in 2021. Find more of her work at SanaeIshida.com.

Gwen Kohl is an entrepreneur, educator, and explorer who works with business owners to navigate systems. She loves crazy big ideas and challenging the status quo. After years of teaching entrepreneurship and watching people struggle with the money side of business, Gwen cofounded Money Moxy to help business owners find freedom in their business decisions.

Experienced Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Business development professional with a Bachelor’s degree focused in Marketing major and Entrepreneurship minor from Seattle University.

Robert Mahar is an artist, designer and maker who develops and teaches imaginative crafts and clever do-it-yourself projects through high-quality video tutorials on Bluprint, CreativeLive and YouTube and in-person workshops. He’s also a proud alumni of the inaugural season of NBC’s creative competition show Making It with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. The crafty content Robert develops and presents to his online audience and workshop attendees is often rooted in nostalgia. His talent for reinventing old-school crafts with a decidedly modern twist is evident in the gift line he developed with Knock Knock and has gained him a loyal following. With an education in studio arts and art history, he has worked in a variety of creative fields including 13 years as an appraiser of modern and contemporary art. When he’s not working in his studio, Robert obsesses over vintage craft books and schemes ways to make it big as a doughnut connoisseur.

A recovering lawyer, coauthor Hilary Meyerson is a professional writer and social media marketing expert. She has written feature stories for several regional national and literary magazines including Seattle magazine, Seattle Metropolitan and McSweeney’s. She also runs a social media/marketing company, Little Candle Media, where she advises many startup businesses on how to best leverage social media in their marketing efforts.

Anna Osgoodby is a Co-founder of Bold & Pop, a social media, branding, and Squarespace design collective. As an industry veteran with over 10 years of experience, she has represented everyone from start-ups and small businesses to major TV networks and A-list celebrities. While a Pacific Northwest native, Anna actually spent most of her career in New York City where she discovered her entrepreneurial ambitions and met her business partner, Mallory Musante. Today, they help lifestyle business owners shine by launching engaging social media and influencer marketing campaigns as well as building impactful brands from the ground up through branding and website design.

Digital marketing professional with extensive background in marketing/advertising industry. Focused on strategic planning and content curation with a Bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication major and Marketing minor from Washington State University.

Kristen Rask has been craft show vending for 20 years, participating in everything from small house shows to large craft shows like UCU, Crafty Bastards, Maker Faire and more. She has also been organizing the Urban Craft Uprising for the past 9 years.

On her off time she enjoys reading books, thrift store shopping, cooking and crafting…obviously. She currently is most interested in making her own clothing.

Kristen Rask has been published 8 times with both F+W Publishing and Becker&Meyer which is a subdivision of Chronicle Books. You can find her books at local booksellers as well as Barnes & Noble, Costco, Sam’s Club, Aldi’s and more.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Lindsey Ross has been organizing the Urban Craft Uprising for 14 years, and craft show vending for 15. She is also the owner of Yarnia, a custom yarn shop in Portland, which she recently transitioned from a brick & mortar to an online-only business out of her home. She loves finding ways for businesses to run more efficiently, and designing systems to make that happen. She also loves spreadsheets…A LOT.

On her off hours you may catch her biking around town with her husband and a jambox, catching live local bluegrass, clocking her 10,000 steps with her pitbull Tucker, or knitting simultaneously with any other activity that doesn’t require both hands.

Celeste owned a downtown Portland boutique, Radish Underground, for 10 years. She now owns Thunderpants USA, a line of organic cotton underwear that are sold online and in independent stores in the US and Canada. She also teaches classes at Portland Fashion Institute and for Portland Community College’s Retail Builders Program.

Chelsea Snow is an artist, entrepreneur and educator living in Portland, OR. She is the founder and creative force behind SnowMade, a laser-cut gift and card business. She holds an MFA in Applied Craft + Design from PNCA and OCAC where she explored the connections (and sometimes disconnections) between making and self-help. She has taught hundreds of people how to sew, but is now more interested in creating workshops about listening, seeing, feeling and doing nothing.

Lisa Solomon is a mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited and collected all over the world. She received her BA in art practice from UC Berkeley and her MFA from Mills College, and has been a professor in the Bay Area for 15+ years. As a Hapa [her mother is Japanese and her father is Jewish Caucasian] she is profoundly interested in personal identity, and all things chroma. Her work reflects this as well as an incredible love for textiles. She regularly uses “craft” materials and techniques in a “fine art” context. Another passion is bridging the gaps between being creative, living creatively, and making a living as a creative.

Kim Werker is like a camp counselor for grownups. She is the author of Make It Mighty Ugly and a half-dozen crochet books, and she leads workshops on creative experimentation and slaying creative demons. She works as a writer and freelance editor and hosts an online community of creative adventurers (which you should join, just saying). Kim lives in Vancouver, BC. Say hello at www.kimwerker.com, and be sure to sign up for her weekly newsletter.

As editorial director of Sasquatch Books, Jennifer Worick seeks out and works with the most gifted writers, chefs, naturalists, artists, and thought leaders in the Pacific Northwest and brings their talents to a national audience. She’s also a New York Times-bestselling author of more than 25 books, including The Prairie Girl’s Guide to Life, Backcountry Betty: Crafting in Style, and Simple Gifts. She is also the co-founder of The Business of Books, where she helped hundreds of burgeoning authors develop book proposals.

Liz Wright is a multi-disciplinary creative entrepreneur and educator located in Portland, Oregon. She is currently the founder and Chief Creative Lady of Assembly PDX, a storefront studio that hosts modern craft and DIY workshops that focus on skill building and inspiring creativity and fun. Liz has a long history of creative projects and pursuits as a professional fine artist, clothing designer, video producer, stamp maker, craft fair founder, and museum researcher. She identifies as a lifelong learner who enjoys the challenges and thrills of learning new skills and supporting others to do the same.

Sarah Yakawonis has a passion for paper art and a desire to share her knowledge in person, in kits and online. She Graduated from the Maine College of Art in 2009 with a BFA in design. She is enamored with paper flowers and is obsessed with creating perfect paper flowers. Experimenting with innumerable combinations of papers and techniques, she takes all of that expertise and puts it into kits so people can skip all of the hard stuff and enjoy an afternoon making truly amazing paper flowers. She loves sharing that special joy that comes from making something beautiful with as many people as she can!

Margo blends a passion for art, design and the people who create it, with an understanding of specialty retailing, manufacturing, and the challenges of being an independent artist. Margo’s love of possibility has taken her on an adventuresome creative path. She has had her own retail, wholesale and manufacturing businesses, and has held several creative leadership roles at such industry stand-outs as Creative Co-Op, Studio M, Midwest-CBK, and Hallmark. Margo has always kept one foot in her own studio as well. Alongside Lilla Rogers, Tantau teaches “Creating Collections for Home Décor,” part of the popular Make Art that Sells series. She also has her own creative consulting studio – helping artists, entrepreneurs, and companies develop brand presence, grow business, and thrive in the creative space. Margo has been described as “Fairy Good-Mother to Artists Everywhere” and loves to live into that personality. It is this passion that guides her creative spirit.

Born and raised in the PNW, Robyn Bradley has always been a creative at heart. After the market crashed in 2008, she turned her focus to starting a business with a focus on products that were good for the environment. After moving to La Conner, WA in 2013 she opened a retail shop, expanded production, and added several new product lines. With plans to continue this growth, Robyn is now offering consulting to other business owners, custom products formulation, and is always looking to find new ways to get more information about living a clean and natural lifestyle out to the public.