Textures to Love at the Show

Unexpected textures abound at this year's ACC show in St. Paul. Sleek adjoins nubby, craggy erupts from lustrous, and subtle variations make lovely work even lovelier.

Kim Geiser's enamel jewelry is a study in rough and smooth. The artist uses stencils to add designs to her modernist pendants and recently started scratching graphite markings on the surfaces of her glossy pieces.

Many of Marietta Theodorou-LeMieux's ceramics are almost glasslike in their sheen. But sometimes she adds a glaze that forms a pasty, lavalike texture in the kiln, creating a remarkable surface contrast.

Jaana Mattson, whose focus is custom jewelry from old family photos, also uses surprising natural textures in her work. Feathers under glass make for unusual bracelets, earrings, and pendants.

Smooth, buttery soft leather is Ann Ringness' primary material. But some of her bags have interesting pricked-leather swaths that provide an elegant surface variation.

Lots of jewelry makers use natural materials, of course; Devon Driscoll's dyed seed-pod rings have to be seen to be believed.

Fred Kaemmer, who presses silver leaf into the surfaces of many of his signature glass vessels, also makes work where the texture is entirely interior. Gaze inside some of his icy threaded pieces, and you might feel your body temperature drop 40 degrees.

Britta Lynn Kauppila pounds out circular forms for her austere blackened-silver jewelry, but lately she's been adding tiny 22K gold nodules, an unexpected refining touch.

Dahlia Kanner's hole-punched jewelry, though distinct in design, has a similar primitive elegance.

Barbara Nelson spares no effort in her luxurious leather bags; their gorgeous stone clasps make her purses even more special.

Lots of makers of jackets, scarves, and other wearables at the show rely on textures their customers can feel. Hulda Bridgeman plays with delicate textures that draw the eye as well as hand. Bridgeman's newest work involves digital printed silk overlaid with organza.

And if you love texture, you'll love the encaustic work of Raymond Papka and Gretchen Papka. The husband and wife collaborate some but mostly work independently. Amazingly, it's next to impossible to tell their pieces apart; maybe that's the power of marriage.

Finally, the beach-inspired monochromatic ceramic work of Andy Rogers is entirely dependent on texture. Just try keeping your hands off of it.