Bay Area guide
Bay Area artisans: 12 working makers, in their own shops
These are 12 artisans in San Francisco and Oakland who make a living from a handmade trade: architectural blacksmith, bootmaker, butcher, candlemaker, ceramicist, chef, florist, jeweler, leather artisan, leatherworker, ornamental plasterer and woodworker. Every one of them sat down with The Trades Show in their own workshop, so what is written here comes from a conversation on location rather than a directory listing. Each entry links their episode, their page on this site, their own shop, and — where they have one — their profile on The Corral.
Updated July 2026 · Ordered by most recent episode
Lorna Kollmeyer
Owns the last plaster shop in San Francisco, works out of the Hunters Point Shipyard, and keeps an archive of thousands of salvaged pieces she calls the city's collection rather than her own.
Béatrice Amblard
April in Paris
Trained four years at Hermès, left in 1988 to build a bespoke practice under her own label, and has taught more than a thousand students in fourteen years.
Amanda Luu
Studio Mondine
Came to flowers from economics and marketing by way of an $11-an-hour apprenticeship, and studies Ikenobo Ikebana, the 600-year-old Japanese practice behind her minimalist forms.
Jefferson Mack
Mack Metal
Self-taught, fifty years at the forge, making what he calls antiques from the future. His ironwork ran as a Restoration Hardware spread.
Stuart Brioza
Started as a dishwasher at fifteen and now runs State Bird Provisions, The Progress, and The Anchovy Bar. He built one of those restaurants by hand.
Sarah Larson
Often Wander
Builds a scent the way other people build a recipe, moved the business from two retail stores to e-commerce, and is turning her studio into a storefront.
Frank Beneduci
Beneduci Shoe Design & Instruction
Grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, once the shoemaking capital of America, left advertising for the family trade, and now makes shoes and teaches shoemaking in San Francisco.
MaryMar Keenan
MMClay
Thirty years in clay, a storefront and small-batch production studio in Hayes Valley, and a working rule that a piece isn't finished until somebody uses it.
Ian James
Left Parsons, sold on Etsy, opened a San Francisco shop and workshop under his own name, and has since turned the work toward fine art.
Lindsay Knox
Ladha
Left corporate retail to carve wax and polish gold by hand in Oakland, making heirloom-inspired pieces and scaling the business slowly on purpose.
Angela Wilson
Avedano's
Runs the neighborhood butcher shop Avedano's, sources from local farms, uses every part of the animal, and makes the case that paying more and eating less is what preserves a food system.
Luis Peña
Peña Made
Came to furniture through graphic design and filmmaking, and builds pieces meant to carry a story.
How this list is made
Filmed first, written second
Nobody pays to be on this page. Everyone here was a guest on the show, which means we spent a day in their shop with a camera before a word of this was written. Season 2 is set in San Francisco through the end of 2026, so the list grows with the season. If you know a Bay Area artisan who belongs on it, the fastest way to get them here is to point us at their work.