Ritual. Before the editorial staff at American Craft started work on this issue nearly a year ago, we sought inspiration at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The exhibition Eternal Offerings: Chinese Ritual Bronzes showcased ancient pots, other serving vessels, bells, animal figures, spears, and daggers—stunning metalworks made by hundreds of artisans and craftspeople and used in such settings as temples, banquets, and burial ceremonies. It was powerful to see the way people thousands of years ago honored their ancestors, along with spirits and other intangible forces of life.

Craft and ritual go hand in hand. In all cultures, people create items to help celebrate and mourn, to tend to themselves, and to connect with others. To make this issue, we sought craft at the center of personal, cultural, and spiritual rituals.

Here you’ll discover the kinds of objects artists make in order to help us reflect and relax, relate and heal; why nameplate jewelry is so important in Chicano/a culture; the role seder plates play in Jewish traditions; how a monastery is incorporating mentorship into a new center devoted to woodworking and pipe organ building; how the piñata form is being reimagined as high art; and the ways one artist explores spirituality through Egyptian and Islamic ceramic traditions.

When we asked people what first came to mind when considering “craft and ritual,” many said that drinking coffee each morning out of their favorite handcrafted mug was one of the most significant rituals of their day. Clearly, we create rituals both big and small in our lives and our work. With that in mind, we asked three artists to write about the rituals that spark their creativity.

Just as we were wrapping up the Spring issue, I participated in a beginners woodworking class at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Jim Sannerud, the instructor, mentioned Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being, a book sitting on my desk that I had yet to open. Jim’s copy was smudged, highlighted, and filled with Post-it notes. Because he found himself looking to the book again and again, he decided to turn reading it into a ritual. Each morning before he goes to the shop, he stops everything else and reads from it, which he says helps him begin his work from a more creative space.

While finishing this note, I opened The Creative Act to these words: “To support our practice, we might set up a daily schedule, where we engage in particular rituals at specific times every day or week. The gestures we perform don’t need to be grand. Small rituals can make a big difference.” They help us become more aware and mindful. The point, Rubin writes, is to “evolve the way we see the world when we’re not engaged in these acts.”

We hope you discover new ways of thinking about craft and ritual in this issue, and that you’re inspired to look at their roles in your own life.

KAREN OLSON / Editor in Chief
 

American Craft Council publishes American Craft on a quarterly basis but reserves the right to change the number of issues in an annual term, including discontinuing any format and substituting and/or modifying the manner in which the subscription is distributed.