The Storyteller's Tavern

As all magic must, WORKBENCHcon had to come to a close. As the booths started coming down and folks made their way to closing ceremonies, we were honored to get to sit down with Kristin Stockdale.

Kristin is the owner and host of WORKBENCHcon along with being a full-time event manager.As she tells it, she brings WORKBENCHcon to life in order to ignite creatives by giving them connections, education, and inspiration to live a life they love by doing what they love.We got a chance to thank Kristin in person for everything that she and her team does to support this community year after year at WORKBENCHcon and beyond. We also got to talk about the genesis of WORKBENCHcon, the growth and reconnection of the Maker Family and its focus on Community over Competition, and about being Bold and Fearless.

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The sun was literally and figuratively setting on the last real day of Workbench Con, and the stars aligned such that we were able to connect with Luke Gelman and Justin Bailey.

Whenever there's a gathering of makers, for some time now you can be all but sure that there will be some Epoxy People in the crowd repping TotalBoat… and whenever there's TotalBoat out in the wild, you're all but guaranteed to see Mike and Kristin. Workbench Con was no exception!

Jess Crow is a teacher, epoxy artist, and maker from Fairbanks, Alaska. When we showed up at our first Maker Camp, one of the first people we met was Jess, who physically ushered us into the Total Boat tent and culturally ushered us into the Maker Community at large. This warm, effortless welcome had a huge impact on us, and we were not just absolutely delighted to reunite with her at this year’s Workbench Con for the first time since we saw her at Maker Camp, but also very grateful to sit down and hear her stories.

This is a heavier episode than normal here at the Tavern: abuse, drugs, alcohol, and addiction all come up, so if those are topics with which you are uncomfortable, you might consider skipping this one.

That said, we heard some powerful stories about Jess’s transformation from a maker on the outside of the fray to welcoming new makers to the inside of it, persevering through the good and the ugly, what happens when you don't ask a question, and how to teach how to take risks.

Some stand-out quotes from this episode:"When you don't ask a question, you rob someone of the ability to educate you""Niche Down On Your Weird"

More Jess:

As the first Full Day of WBC came to a close, we ran into our new friend Rex Krueger: a writer, content creator and furniture builder in Cleveland, Ohio, who builds Early American furniture (mostly) by hand, makes videos on YouTube, and writes books. His most recent book is Everyday Woodworking: A Beginner's Guide to Woodcraft with 12 Hand Tools.

Rex tells us the story of leaving the classroom and entering the woodshop…and leaving the woodshop; yins and yangs, and the impact of outsiders on an industry; his secret supplier of grandpa's tools; and his favorite childhood cartoon.

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One of the best parts parts about attending Workbench Con was seeing familiar faces, and we got a chance to do just that when we reconnected with Chris Giffrow and Justin Dietrich. Chris is a self taught woodworker and Japanese Tool Enthusiast, and Justin is a high school woodshop instructor at Lincoln Community HS in Illinois. The two have joined forces in the past to lead major timber-in projects at Maker Camp and were on the team that built on the Gong Stand at this year's Workbench Con.

We told stories about Making the world a better place, in and out of the workshop; the therapeutic applications of a lathe; whether a clarinet is a clarinet, a guitar is a guitar, or a saw is a saw; and he story that a chisel, a slick, or a fork can tell.

More Chris:

As we explored more of Workbench Con, we found ourselves suddenly in what felt like someone's living room - replete with comfortable chairs, tables with treats strewn about, and what looked like a homemade bookshelf full of books on the wall. Before we fully understood where we were, we were being welcomed into House of Esperanza, and started learning about the journey and the community building that Monica Chavez, Erinn Bagnaschi, and the rest of their crew are sharing.

Monica, the CEO and Creative Force behind House of Esperanza shares educational, entertaining, and inspiring stories, and Erinn spends her days juggling parenthood, projects and everything in between. We sat down and heard stories from them about rediscovering identity, influence vs Impact, and finding & filling cups with our communities online

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Char Miller-King is a professional woodworking teacher at the Decatur Makers makerspace in Atlanta, GA. She has shared her teaching and woodworking skills across the country as well as online for folks like This Old House, Magnolia, Rockler, Home Depot, and Power Pro. We met Char unofficially as part of our Newbie Welcome to Workbench con, and got a chance to talk more in depth the first night. What started as a nomal couple minute "hi nice to meet you" chat quickly turned into a half hour conversation about our shared passions, histories, and aspirations. Needless to say, we were tremendously excited to continue the conversation to share. Char tells us stories about how she comes from a family of makers, with shout-outs to dad and Uncle Greg, using a table saw to grow confidence, and the responsibilities both of being a role model in a makerspace and being true to yourself online.

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Mush and Leigh recap Chapter 2: Queen City Makers and preview Chapter 3: Workbench Conference.

Another mighty, heartfelt thank you to all of our storytellers and friends new and old from Chapter 2:

Joel Bonasera (@makingthingsclt)

David Taylor (@fablabdtaylor)

Jacob Daugherty (@otherdogdesign)

Madison Dunaway (@mk_dunaway)

Super Daft Bros (@superdaftbros)

Andrew Thiessen (@branchandfoundry)

Jbird the Vandal (@jbird.the.vandal)

Grant Maginnis (@maginnismade)

In our final episode of this chapter, we talk with Grant Maginnis a woodworker and maker in Concord, NC. Perhaps more than any other guest we've had in the Tavern so far, Grant helps drive home the importance and power of the stories behind making, in this case, in the stories of the wood he uses in his pieces. As we talk, you can hear in his voice the love for the materials, and respect for their past lives. We also talk about the magic of tables, Cheerwine, and what to do with the wood from a 176 year old oak tree.

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We were introduced to Jbird the Vandal through Joel, another Queen City Maker who you may remember opened this whole chapter up. Joel described Jbird as a tinkerer, and indeed, his Instagram profile starts simply and all-inclusively with "I make things." Jbird has street art, murals, and graffiti all over Charlotte, and stories and skillsets that have taken him much further than just our city.
We hear from Jbird about ignoring the instructions; being content with Wheel of Fortune; and the Wilderness Survival, Streetlights, Taco Shops, and other experiences that mark his journey so far.

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This episode is a little different than normal: Later this week Leigh and I are headed to Atlanta for WorkbenchCon 2023, the fifth gathering of its kind for makers and content creators. So to get maybe our only chance to talk with her in advance of the craziness of the weekend, we zoomed with Tiff Marchand, aka nightcarverdesigns, to hear about her story, and to get a sneak peak of what to expect while we're at WorkbenchCon. We got the opportunity to hear about her journey into, out of, and back into art; what it's like to find and celebrate members of the Maker Community; and what to look forward to this year's WorkbenchCon.

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Madison Dunaway (she/her) is an artist, leader, and self-professed ambiguity lover. She grew up in Charlotte and has created and run makerspaces for nearly a decade, most currently at Boston College. On top of all this, she is an official #friendofthepod.

Normally we meander through a number of different themes in these stories, but our overarching topic this time around focused around the self-reflective journeys of finding and growing communities, and importance of representation in every space - especially makerspaces.

This is a great episode to listen to if you want to start to learn about the experiences Madison, Leigh, and Mush have had in starting their respective makerspaces.

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David Taylor is a middle school Engineering and Computer Science teacher and Fab Lab instructor at Charlotte Latin School, where he's passionate about student-led design and developing an environment where students can learn through making and prototyping.

We talked with David about the critical element of vulnerability in learning how to learn, and being OK with not knowing; the Kevin Baconing of the Maker Community; and the challenge and responsibility of enabling failure.

You can find David at

Our guest in the tavern today is Joel Bonasera. He, like all our storytellers this chapter, is a maker based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. After spending over a decade in science and technology education, Joel turned his focus to digital fabrication to make things. Now, he spends his time on e-commerce sales, commissioned work, and ongoing support for educators and institutions interested in learning the basics of 3D printing and design.
Joel shares with us about the good and the challenging of what the pandemic did to Making in Charlotte, how to make science fiction aspirations a Maker Reality, and his meandering road to Making.

You can find Joel at

Episode 11, in which we close out Chapter 1. Leigh and Mush look back on some of the highlights of this chapter, discuss our plans for what's next, and celebrate one last time with all our friends from Maker Camp '22.

Much love to:

Jimmy Diresta lives in in East Durham, NY and is affectionately referred to by many in the community as the Godfather of Making.

Grant Alexander is a maker and Youtuber based out of Ottawa, and is the host of the Creating, Living, and Making Projects Podcasts - aka the Clamp Podcast.

Jimmy and Grant visit the Tavern to talk about why and by whom they were inspired to begin making, the beauty and magic of tools that come with a history, the long road to get to East Durham and Maker Camp, and the realization that we're all grown ups who can buy the grown up tools and toys we've always been fascinated by.

You can find Jimmy online at JimmyDiResta:

Andrew Szeto is a maker and skateboarder who hails from Ottawa. During his time in the Tavern, he shares with us the challenges and joys of finding fellow Canadian Makers, celebrates the memory of his mentor Richard Scott, digs into the value of failure, and teams up with Leigh to hijack the episode to transform it into an ad hoc hockey podcast.

You can find Andrew online:

Dave Miao, or 3D DIY Dave is a maker from Long Island, NY, who spends a good deal of time playing in between the worlds of digital 3D  design and traditional hand-tooled woodworking. Dave tells us about the magical and practical elements of 3D scanning, rediscovering lost passion, and making friends for life in the woodworking and maker community.

In this episode:

Our storyteller this time around is Lindsay Zeulich, known as Woodbrain. She’s a mixed media maker and artist from LA, and you can find her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Youtube, and all the things at Wood_Brain. Today she tells us about inventing her own art style, fighting about the dictionary, and the importance of having your homies’s backs.

In this episode: