My name is Mari Miller, and people have always been telling me that I’m doing it wrong. That science has no place in art. That I shouldn’t write poetry in an art class. That DIY is not serious design. That industrial designers should only learn enough typography to get by and instead focus solely on industrial design. That I don’t need to relate so much of what I make to world history. That if I were serious I’d focus on improving my drawing skills more.

I am a maker. Over the years, I’ve identified with the terms artist, sewer, knitter, crafter, and designer. But as I’ve come to realize that there is very little difference between art, craft, and design, I’ve come to identify more as a maker. Not ‘maker’ as a more masculine term that separates people who 3D print and tinker with arduino from people who engage in traditional crafts (which are often seen as feminine), but ‘maker’ as in a multi-disciplinary creative who does not place a hierarchy on their various skills.

– Mari Miller