This quote from Joyce Scott now resides on my inspiration wall: “I don’t have the ability to end violence, racism, and sexism, but my art can help people look and think.” Thank you, American Craft Council, for giving such a deserving artist the Gold

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The American Craft Council piloted its first-ever online marketplace event in early September. San Francisco Bay Area Craft Week featured an array of interactive programming and a 112-artist marketplace that drew more than 30,000 visitors and generat

THE AMERICAN FLAG DEPICTED on the cover of the August 31 / September 7, 2020, issue of Time magazine hangs vertically, as if it’s tired. Rough embroidery stitches form incomplete, asymmetrical stripes transitioning from black to red, with frayed ends

IAN PETRIE LOOKS FOR mystery in the mundane. He turns everyday ceramics into story worlds by embedding images into his mugs and plates. His original images are reminiscent of single panels torn from comic books. The 29-year-old artist started reading

GLASSBLOWER AND PAINTER Corey Pemberton and furniture maker Annie Evelyn met in 2014 at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. While Evelyn completed a resident artist program at the school and Pemberton was living and working in the Penland

A FAMILY HAD CAREFULLY sorted all the pieces of jewelry in an estate into two groups: fine and costume jewelry. Into the “costume” group went a large, tarnished necklace the family deemed ugly. “In fact, it was handmade sterling silver by William Spr

quiltfolk.com, $47 The editors of the visually luxe quarterly magazine Quiltfolk have pulled together an equally stunning coffee table book – their first – that will delight quilt enthusiasts and quilt novices alike. Quiltfolk Life is filled with cri

MINNEAPOLIS-BASED ARTIST DYANI WHITE HAWK considered the concept of the gift in all its complexity while she was preparing for her 2020 exhibition “She Gives” at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota. The title of her exhibition comes from a s

WHEN WE WANT TO WRAP A present in a beautiful way, we can seek out special boxes, fine wrapping papers, and choice ribbons from craftspeople – or we can make them ourselves. But why do we wrap gifts at all? What’s the reason for the box and paper and

BEETLE WINGS AND VICTORIAN mourning jewelry. Gleaming ancient Egyptian gold and Viking treasure. Medieval coats of arms and family crests. Mussel shells and spruce-stitched copper. You might expect to find this list in many major museums around the w

“ONE REASON I LOVE LEATHER is because it’s so unforgiving,” says Mia Wright-Ross about the process of crafting leather. “Once you’ve made a scratch, you have to live with that. Whether you meant to make it or not, you have to create something beautif

“One of the beautiful things about being an artist is having friends who are also makers,” says Wright-Ross. Below are some of the artists whose company – and wearables – she’s happy to keep. L’Enchanteur (lenchanteur.co): Twin designers Soull and Dy

GROWING UP IN THE Philippines, superstitions and cultural myths were ingrained in my thinking. My mother, Lamberta Lozada, was a full-time teacher and quite the serial entrepreneur back in the ’60s. We had a grocery store, dry cleaning service, three

The American Craft Council is working hard on behalf of artists through the pandemic, but we need your support to do so. A gift from you will help us invest in opportunities that allow artists to live creative and sustainable lives – all while contin

ON MY DESK IS AN OFF-KILTER and lightly collapsed elmwood pedestal bowl. My uncle Jerry, who started turning wood after he retired from farming, allowed me to take it after I found it in his discard box years ago. While I treasure the exquisite live-

Immerse yourself in specialized learning opportunities led by master artists. Cultivate your passions at one of Idyllwild Arts’ fall and spring online workshops. Find experiences in ceramics, jewelry, culinary practice, Native American arts and more

WHILE THE LAST 10 MONTHS have been filled with upheaval and loss, they have also offered the unexpected gift of connecting more deeply to what is essential. And if there was ever a moment to step up and support craftspeople and artists, it is now. As

ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE objects I possess is a Filipino diamante ring, which was given to me by my mother. Diamante (a Filipino word pronounced JA-man-tay) is the uncut outer crust of a diamond and is different from diamanté, which refers to decoratio

ALONG WITH FIRE, EARTH, air, and water, we might consider wood an element. Of the elements, only wood can become a chair, a bed, or a table. Contemporary makers of wood furniture still create usable art from an elemental and diverse source. Reclaimed

Box set: Every Thread a Story and The Secret Language of Miao Embroidery By Karen Elting Brock, Linda Ligon, and Wang Jun Thrums Books, $49.95 Every Thread a Story: Traditional Chinese Artisans of Guizhou Province does more than feature the textile t

Receive mail in style with the Andover Classic Mailbox from Bold MFG & Supply in Austin, Texas. It’s made from clean, raw hot-rolled steel that develops a rust patina over time. A locking option is available. $270 boldmfg.com Handcrafted in Maine by

EVERY INCH OF MARIA IS MATTE black, except for the lines and curves of the shiny, geometric design that animates its surface. It looks as though these glossy areas were carefully burnished to make them pop against their flat background. The abstract

JUST EAST OF THE FINGER Lakes and south of Syracuse in central New York is the Onondaga Nation, one of the original five nations that established the Haudenosaunee Confederacy – the People of the Longhouse – one of the first participatory democracies

MANY KNOW CURATOR AND writer Glenn Adamson as a voice at the forefront of critical craft scholarship. With books such as Fewer, Better Things (2019) and exhibitions such as “Crafting America,” opening this February at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Am

WHILE SO MUCH IS ON PAUSE IN 2020, PEOPLE across the country continue to practice their crafts. Indeed, craft offers much to culture and to our lives at this time, reminding us of the importance of slowing down, reconnecting to the creative spirit, t

TERRELL SMITH, 16, HOLDS the handle of a chop saw firmly. He begins to bring it down slowly, steadily, and then stops. He raises it back up, checks the measurement, and cautiously brings the blade down again, then pauses, and brings it back up. He ch

IN 1516, THE PHILOSOPHER and statesman Sir Thomas More introduced a new word to the English language when he published his book Utopia, describing a fictional ideal society on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Derived from the Greek words ou (“no” or

The link between craft and community isn’t limited to groups such as the Shakers and Oneida Community, whose main orientation was religious. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for example, the American arts and crafts movement thrived on the