Stephen Burks Man Made

Chicago native, Stephen Burks is an acclaimed industrial designer, product development consultant, and educator whose innovative approach to design synthesizes craft, community, and industry. Independently and through association with various non-profits, he has collaborated with artisans and craftspeople in over ten countries on six continents. His socially engaged practice seeks to broaden the limits of design consciousness by challenging who benefits from and participates in contemporary design.

Stephen Burks Man Made is an internationally recognized hands-on collaborative design studio deeply invested in the transformative power of craft techniques that challenge the limits of new technologies within industrial production.

They believe in a pluralistic vision of design that is inclusive of all cultural perspectives and backgrounds.

They bring the hand to industry through a community-driven, workshop-based practice.

Their projects include furniture, lighting, interiors, exhibitions, and product design.

Heidi McKay Casto creates objects that explore the intersections of utility and sculpture, and feature a variety of playful design elements, anthropomorphic animal portraits, and vibrant colors. Her work explores similarities between instinctual animal behaviors, and behaviors learned through her lived experience as a woman, artist, and mother, gaining insight and inspiration for living with fewer insecurities and societal pressures. Heidi desires for the work to be a synchronistic exchange of connection where care and beauty are more present in daily life for users, and where complex human emotions might be made more discernible through light-hearted depictions of anthropomorphized animal subjects.

I am a clay artist, humanitarian, and global trotter. My work and passions center on the lives of little girls who were and still are my mentors as I traveled the world. I am concerned about their ability to live full, healthy lives without the burdens of war, child marriages, sex trafficking, displacement, and harmful ritualistic practices. My intention is to bring awareness to the human condition beyond the comfort zones that we may or may not live within. I, along with 8 girls, formed the Apron Project in Cambodia, which is a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into the commercial sex industry. We create beautiful, one-of-a-kind aprons that I sell on my Etsy store. I have volunteered in Cambodia since 2007, and would like to for the remainder of my life.

In recent years, I’ve made a departure from bodies of work that were incredibly heart-wrenching and decided to focus on work that simultaneously contains social commentary and is heart-warming. Clay is my primary material using the sculptural language, in addition to mixed media materials, like cloth, dirt, glass, etc. My dominant subject matter is little girls and women. My work is fueled by their human stories.