The Week in Craft: January 2, 2013

It's your last chance to see the boundary-busting exhibition "L.A. Skin & Ink" at the Craft and Folk Art Museum.

If you're a fan of ceramics, this sounds like one heck of a vacation. The Kinsale Pottery & Arts Centre has organized a nine-day Ceramics Holiday in Southern Ireland, complete with five one-day workshops, two lectures, and sightseeing this fall.

The best of 2012 creative books and essays from the brilliant mind of Maria Popova. If you haven’t checked out this site before, this “best of” list is a great place to start!

"Vanitas" opens today at the Bullseye gallery. If you can’t make it to Portland, Oregon, before the show closes on March 2, check out this video featuring the exhibiting artists.  

This weekend marks the close of "Maestro," an exhibition encompassing 65 works by Lino Tagliapietro at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. It’s hard to overstate the impact of Tagliapietro on generations of glass artists in the U.S. and abroad. Now 77, he’s the man, the maestro, of contemporary glass art. See the show if you can.

It’s a new year, and several of the craft schools have announced their new offerings for 2013. In our fantasies, we’re taking classes at all of them. Check out workshops at Archie Bray, Penland, Haystack, Pilchuck, and Arrowmont, for a start.

In case you missed it, the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed for his son David in Phoenix, Arizona, will be saved from impending demolition.

December 31st was the grand opening of the Ice Castle at the Mall of America. The gigantic structure was created entirely out of ice by the fittingly named Ice Castles, LLC. Based in Colorado, the Ice Castles staff has constructed two palaces this year – one at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and one in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, – both of which are true feats of design and architecture.

A recent article in the New Yorker argues for the mathematic and design appeal inherent in iconic winter objects, from the Christmas tree to the snowman. 

On the greener side of things, Cornell University recently renovated one of its libraries. One of the new features is living grass in the lobby, meant to relax the students between stressful study marathons.

The Week in Craft is your weekly dose of links about craft, art, design, and whatever else we're excited about sharing.