Welcome to another installment of Brandish, a Pyragraphic portrait series featuring artists of all energies along with the unsung tools that they brandish—those tools without which the artists would not be able to do their specific batches of creativity.

While we post a new photo every week on our social media channels, this is a compilation post to share more widely the encyclopedic and idiosyncratic tools that these artists brandish.

Chela Gurnee, Jewelry Designer

“The Foredom rotary tool is super versatile. It can be a drill, it can polish, it can sand. It’s like 10 tools in one. I use it every time I’m in the studio for one thing or another, sometimes in five applications a day.” —Chela Gurnee | Jewelry Designer

Brett Randell, Songwriter

“Travel is a big part of my songwriting and touring processes. Over the last six years, I’ve stayed on 100-150 couches, and it’s people’s hospitality and awesomeness that keeps me going and circles back into the songwriting. A couch for me isn’t even the thing—it’s a person opening up their house, friendship, and space.” —Brett Randell | Songwriter

Amanda Machon, Lead Vocalist of Red Light Cameras

“It’s my little friend, the cough drop. It gives me a little love before and after the show. I’ll do my warm-up and then I’ll throw a cough drop in and chill before we start, and when we’re done I put one in just to kind of sooth everything. I’d have a hard time living without it.” —Amanda Machon | Lead Vocalist of Red Light Cameras

Chris Burnett, Web Entertainer and Host of 10 Drink Minimum

“I think the art of the talk is a lost art. The power of talk, the power to improvise, to sit down for two hours and talk about anything, to play off other people and show my intellect and comedy and sadness. People often ask, ‘What’s the show about tonight?’ and I say, ‘Well, I don’t know yet.’” —Chris Burnett | Web Entertainer and Host of 10 Drink Minimum

Lisa Nevada, Contemporary Dancer and Choreographer

“Hair ties, clips, accoutrements. Keeping my hair out of my face helps to keep me focused on the creation process. Hair can be very distracting; it stops the flow of the body’s creation. Dancers use the body as the tool to communicate. If your hair is a distraction, it takes away from whatever you’re trying to express.” —Lisa Nevada | Contemporary Dancer and Choreographer

All photos by Clarke Condé.