Since the announcement of Berea College Student Craft as the Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award winner for product design last week, we have been humbled by the number of people visiting our site in search of more information about Berea College and the Craft program. To help our new supporters understand the program more completely, we are sharing the short video above as a primer on the program and our mission. To learn even more, please visit us at bcstudentcraft.com.
#handwork2026
📸 @seandoesfilms
📸 @evelynmedley
Diliara ’26 joined our Craft Outreach team her first year before switching to ceramics in her second year. A computer science major from Nizhnekamsk, Russia, Diliara has already secured a job teaching and running ceramics workshops in Suzda, Russia, after graduation. Congratulations, Diliara!
📸 @acetone.archive@di.zero.ceramic
Bayla ’26 is a studio art major with a focus on both fibers and ceramics, and she has been a powerful creative force in the studio. Last summer Bayla designed and made all the butter dishes for Boone Tavern’s Crafted restaurant and has been a key producer of this year’s Crafted Collection of mugs and bowls. Congratulations, Bayla!
📸 Tristan!
Arav ’26 began his time in Student Craft with the woodshop team before joining ceramics. A computer science major, Arav developed a deep love and connection to making and always brought positive energy and excitement with him into the studio. Congratulations, Arav!
📸 @acetone.archive
THE ANY ROOM BROOM - ALL COLORWAYS AVAILABLE NOW! (Link in stories)
This collection of brooms is the result of our student design challenge. Leveraging the robust education they received from director of Broomcraft Amanda Lee Lazorchack and director of fellowships Hunter Elliott, students developed specific dye recipes allowing them to achieve these magnificent contemporary colors. A utilitarian broom with a woven flourish. Student dyed broomcorn, bound to a regionally sourced hardwood handle, plaited and stitched in matching colors. A broom for any room.
Maple, broom corn, wire, stalk and cotton. 52” x 10”
📸 @evelynmedley
📸 @seandoesfilms
Nursing major Jack ’29 has been working hard finishing up a run of Cobweb Twills under the watchful eye of student designer and broom shop manger Cole ’26. Jack is just completing his first year with us and has already become an essential part of our broom making community.
About the Cobweb Twill:
Designed by Cole ’26, and influenced by the dignity of labor, this broom is the story of student skill building. Bound to a spoke-shaved handle harvested from the Berea College Forest.
Maple sapling, broom corn and nylon. 49-57” x 2”
📸 Tristan!
Baella ’26. It is always bittersweet when our seniors graduate but we are so glad that Baella will be staying right here after graduation as the new College Ambassador and Public Education Associate within the College’s new Visitor Center. Congratulations Baella!
📸 @acetone.archive
The Intersections Cutting Board.
With lessons learned in Berea College’s women’s and gender studies program in mind, Sharon Ngassa ’21 explored intersectional feminism and the works of Berea’s own bell hooks. She was mindful of Berea’s fifth Great Commitment to the kinship of all people and the sixth to gender equality in her design work.
Based loosely on diagrams Sharon had seen in class depicting intersecting circles of color as a means of representing identity, her charcuterie-board design provides every student maker to customize each board, creating a product as wonderfully unique as the student who made it.
Cherry, walnut, maple, mahogany ~18” x 12”
Link in stories for purchase.
Luke ’27, an engineering, technology and applied design major from Kentucky, is featured assembling frames for storyboard panels for the new Visitor Center. Each year a portion of the work completed in the woodshop stays here on campus. In the next few weeks, we will finish a special run of tables for campus use, and we have spent considerable time this semester developing fixtures for Berea College’s new Visitor Center that will open in mid-July. It is an honor for Craft staff and students alike to see their work placed in service to the College’s mission here on campus.
📸 Tristan!
Today we are dropping fresh inventory of our Rise Couch Throws and naturally dyed Rachel Placemats and coasters. Each celebrates a dynamic mix of tradition and innovation. We believe that by honoring the craft technology of the past, we can more creatively design the craft of the future.
Available for purchase at bcstudentcraft.com, link for purchase in our stories.
📸 @acetone.archive
A position at Student Craft teaches students more than the acts of designing and making. Anita ’26 is a studio art major pictured here ensuring a loom is ready for her fellow students. Keeping the studios running smoothly provides the ideal educational platform for our students to learn the essential skills of problem solving, critical thinking and communication essential to their success after Berea.
📸 @ciahbelle
📸 Tristan!
