7 TV Shows For Makers, Craftsmen, Woodworkers and Other Artisans
It’s always fun to find a tv show that focuses on the same interests as the ones you have. I don’t really find myself getting too invested in the newest drama or reality show, and sitcoms these days? Don’t get me started, haha! But when I find a show about a skill-based competition or a series that showcases talent and creativity, you can count me in!
Over the years I’ve come across some that I’ve enjoyed watching. Keep reading to learn more about 7 of my favorites!
FRAMEWORK
Back in 2015, SpikeTV (now known as Paramount Network) launched a show called Framework. Supposedly, it was the first show of it’s kind where furniture designers competed for a $100,000.00 prize. Throughout the competition, the contestants were asked to design and build various pieces of furniture. From sourcing materials in a junkyard to crafting high-end pieces using the finest walnut lumber, they really turned out some interesting and creative builds.
Of course, being SpikeTV, there had to be some drama. Occasionally one contestant would say something about another contestant’s work and tempers would flare, words and dirty looks would be exchanged, blah blah blah, you know the drill. It was SpikeTV. What else would you expect? Even still, I enjoyed the show and it was easy to get inspired to build stuff.
Check out the Framework promo/trailer on YouTube here:
Currently you can purchase/view Framework on Amazon Prime/Prime Video.
BRITAIN’S BEST WOODWORKER / GOOD WITH WOOD
Somehow I came across this show called Britain’s Best Woodworker. As the show starts, it kind of reminds me of The Great British Baking Show with cutesy fun music playing and all the contestants walking into the set looking like they’re best friends.
Like I said, I don’t remember how I found Britain’s Best Woodworker in the first place but I ended up finding what seemed to be somebody’s personal channel on YouTube that had 2 seasons (linked below). During my search I looked on IMDB to find more info and I found a show called Good With Wood and somehow it was the same show as Britain’s Best Woodworker, but a couple of the hosts/judges in the thumbnail were different than on the actual show I watched.
Anyway, this show is shot and edited nicely and while the contestants are competing for the title of Britain’s best woodworker, I think the word “best” is used pretty loosely. A lot of the contestants are extremely novice woodworkers. One of the contestants mentioned that he’s never used a router before, while another said it’s been 20+ years since she’d built anything and wanted to see if she could still do it. In any real shop, the pieces they were asked to build would need at least a week to to do a decent job but on the show they were given two days, and that included a separate immunity challenge that pulled them away from their main build. The immunity challenges were always something piddly like whittling something or using a wood burning pen, which are all fine things to do, but really silly for the show. There were designated assistants in the workshop so I’m thinking the assistants did most of the work but even still, with such a short window of time to build these things, the completed pieces always came out pretty rough and most had an incomplete look about them.
If you’re anything like me you’ll still enjoy the show, especially if you like blurting out things like “What?? You gotta be kidding me!”, and “Did you see how he was holding that tool??” and of course the age-old exclamation “C’mon, I can do better than that!!”. I don’t know if the title Britain’s Best Woodworker is really the most appropriate title. Maybe something like “Britain’s Best Newbie Rushed For Time Woodworking Competition” would’ve been better suited for this show. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it and maybe you will too.
Currently you can find 2 seasons of Britain’s Best Woodworker on this YouTube channel but I created a playlist of each for easier access:
Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker / Good With Wood Season 2:
Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker / Good With Wood Season 3
MAKING FUN
A lot of makers who use social media may already be aware of Making Fun on Netflix. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. Jimmy Diresta, one of the internet’s most popular creatives, teams up with several other makers in this series where they take crazy wish lists from kids imaginations, and figure out how to build them in real life.
Having followed Jimmy Diresta on YouTube and Instagram for several years, I already knew he was capable of doing A LOT. When he announced he’d be doing this show with Paul Jackman, Patrick Laperriere, John Graziano and Derek Forestier I knew I’d be interested right away.
Making Fun takes place in New York and is filmed on Jimmy’s property in his recently built barn, which I believe he built specifically for the show. The whole team has such a unique sense of humor and sarcasm and their interaction with the kids on the screen was pretty funny (the kids were on a screen because it’s like they were doing a zoom call because you know….the plandemic I guess). Some of the kid’s ideas were entertained while others were shot down immediately. Pretty funny. I wish however, that when they did the big project reveal, the kid who asked for it could’ve been there to see the reveal in person, but they still only got to see it remotely which was a bummer.
Something else I really enjoyed about Making Fun was the way some of the segments were shot and edited. The show itself was shot very well with great camerawork and creative angles but there were also little vignettes, inserts and transition shots that went creatively and cleverly above and beyond what other shows have done. SO good! After the first episode I thought “there’s no way they’ll keep this up through the whole series” but they did! The cast of makers weren’t the only ones making this show great….the crew, camera operators, and editors played a major role in making this show a success (in my opinion).
Check out the trailer for Making Fun here:
Currently, Making Fun is available to stream on Netflix.
MAKE IT AT MARKET
Make It At Market is a show my wife and I just recently came across on Prime Video. We recognized Dominic Chinea from The Repair Shop, so we clicked it to see what it was like.
The idea of the show is to help people take their craft (art, woodworking, pottery, metalworking, etc) from being just a hobby to more of a full time business. Dominic (a metalworker) is the main host, but he brings in other creative professionals to mentor the up-and-coming makers. So for instance, if one of the makers is a woodworker he’ll have a professional woodworker as the mentor. If the maker does upholstery or textile work he’ll have an interior design or fabric artist as the mentor. If the maker does pottery, he’ll have a professional potter come in. Spoiler alert: when there’s a potter on the show he’s got Florian Gadsby as the mentor. If you haven’t seen Florian’s pottery work, it’s simply beautiful. He’s also got a successful YouTube channel and the content is created so well, I’m sure his audience retention rate is through the roof.
Each episode is formatted the same way. Meet the maker and see some of the work they do. They explain what areas they struggle with when trying to turn their hobby into a business. The mentor makes suggestions and recommendations and then the maker is tasked with a few things that could help them to bring in a more steady income.
Of course at the end of each episode we see that the maker has tried all these things and now they’re making much more money and have quit their regular jobs to do their craft full time. It's just that simple right? Haha! Well, I don’t know if I can see some of their items selling enough to make a full time income, but you never know! People like unique stuff so maybe there’s a market for it.
Being a woodworker/maker myself, and someone who is always wanting to bring in more income with my skills and creativity, I can honestly say I’ve been inspired and motivated by watching Make It At Market. My wife has also been inspired to start doing more with her artistic skills and talent and I’m excited to see how we both grow and succeed in the coming years.
You can watch a Make It At Market trailer here:
Make It At Market has 2 seasons. Season 1 is streaming on Prime Video, but season 2 is streaming on BritBox which you can subscribe to within Prime. Fortunately you can do a free trial of BritBox for 7 days, so we did that and binge watched season 2 and canceled before we got charged for it. Genius.
THE REPAIR SHOP
I don’t know how the British have so many good shows but The Repair Shop is another one. If you’re not familiar with it, people will bring in their old family keepsakes, most with a very sentimental story behind it. The keepsake has been damaged or has become neglected over the years and The Repair Shop has several craftspeople who specialize in a certain area. For instance, a couple ladies are experts at repairing dolls and teddy bears. There’s also jewelers and silversmiths as well as art restorers and woodworkers. And as I mentioned above, Dominic Chinea from Make It At Market is the on-site metalworker.
The Repair Shop is definitely a slow-paced show suitable for sipping tea, but it’s really interesting to see the unique items that come through the door. It’s also very interesting (especially if you’re someone like me) to see how they go about the repairs. Watching the item get disassembled and cleaned, and seeing the inner workings of the item and what does what as they put it back together….all very interesting! Of course most of the items that come into the repair shop haven’t worked properly (or at all) for years or even decades. When the owner of the item receives the item in refreshed working condition, you can see the emotional impact it has as they experience the sights and sounds they remember from so long ago.
Such a wide variety of items come through The Repair Shop. Watches, furniture, old doctors bags, instruments, toys, paintings…the list goes on and on.
You can check out the Season 7 Repair Shop trailer here:
The Repair Shop is currently streaming most, if not all of its seasons on their YouTube channel.
WORK OF ART: The Next Great Artist
Several years ago a friend was at our house and she told my wife and me about a show called Work Of Art. We ended up binge watching the whole season and I remember really liking it at the time. I felt like it was the only show of it’s kind and it was interesting to see the art the contestants created.
Like I said, we watched this show several years ago and haven’t seen it since. In fact, we’ve lived in our current house for 13 years now and we watched the show prior to buying this house, sooooooo yeah. Off the top of my head I don’t recall how many contestants there were or any specific pieces of art that were created, but the thumbnail for Work Of Art popped up on Amazon Prime Video a few days ago and I thought to myself “oh yeah, we should watch that again!”. Unfortunately, it’s one of those shows where, even though I’m paying for Prime, you can only purchase a single episode or the whole season for an additional price. It’s like 8 or 9 bucks. Worth the price? I don’t know. Maybe. But I have good news!
As I was typing this blog entry and researching stuff, I came across Work Of Art Season 1 and Season 2 on somebody’s YouTube channel. I’ve created a playlist for each season below:
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist Season 1
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist Season 2
UPDATE: My wife and I started watching season 2 and a couple of the contestants seemed familiar, so maybe we actually did start watching this at some point. The format of the show is identical to the reality tv format of Project Runway, but I’ve never understood why some artists always feel the need to put a sexually perverted twist on their art. I guess it’s a result of the fallen world we live in, but again, if you’re like me and you like to blurt out things like “How is that art?!?” or “What in the world is the point of that?!?” and other exclamations of that nature (of course there are actually some interesting pieces of art the contestants create) then I think you could find interest in this show.
METAL SHOP MASTERS
When I first saw there was going to be a competition show for metal artists, I was pretty excited. I’m well aware of Forged In Fire (sorry I didn’t add it to this list) but Forged In Fire is pretty much the exact same show every episode. Metal Shop Masters is different. I also figured if Netflix was behind it there would at least be some production value. The set, the camera work, the edit. All great quality. The contestants…most are super skilled and talented. The host….ehh, well. I don’t know. I guess Jo Koy is supposedly a comedian but I don’t think he’s funny.
Anyway, with shows like these you’re always going to have that fabricated element of drama and suspense like “is it going to work? will they finish in time? ohhhh noooo!!!!” But if you can just watch and appreciate the work being done, it’s a really good show. Get pumped by watching the trailer here:
I like seeing people come up with stuff that I feel like I could never come up with myself. I think that happens a lot if you primarily work in one medium and see somebody do something in another medium. For instance, I mostly work with wood but when I see somebody throw a mug or a vase, I really appreciate the craft and wish I could do that. Or when I see somebody using a plasma cutter to create metal art or sculpture I always think how awesome it is, and even though I can weld and have done some metalwork, I’m still somewhat of a novice in that area.
Anyway, Metal Shop Masters is streaming on Netflix. Definitely worth a watch!
***BONUS LINK***
STUFF SETH MAKES: YouTube Channel
Of course, if you’re into helping the little guys gain traction and get some views (and make a few cents per view), you can always jump out and support yours truly by subscribing to the Stuff Seth Makes YouTube Channel and playing a bunch of the videos and shorts over there. I know one maker in particular who would appreciate that very much! :) Jump out to my YouTube channel here:
THE WRAP-UP
Have you had the chance to see any of these shows or check out any of these YouTube channels? If so, what's your favorite? Are there any I missed that you think I should’ve listed here? I’m sure I don’t know about ALL the great shows so please tell me by leaving a comment below! I’d love to hear from you regarding other shows for makers, creatives, woodworkers, and artisans. Thanks for stopping by! :)
