Blog

The Ceramist and the Superheroes

When dug out of the earth, the clay at Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, appears reddish brown, the chunks like dusted chocolate truffles. Virgil Ortiz, who was born and lives in this community of the Cochiti people, situated between the cities that Spanish colonizers named Albuquerque and Santa Fe, has been digging into this rich earth since his childhood.
Remembering Well

When Minhi England’s husband, Jesse, was terminally ill with peripheral nerve sheath cancer, the couple was forced to have heartbreaking conversations about what Jesse wanted to have happen to his body after he died.

Craft Adventures

Craft and travel go together. There’s a long history of artists hitting the road in search of a “master” from whom to learn the secrets of a given craft. Today Instagram and other digital media are increasingly bringing faraway craftworks and secrets home to us.
The Queue: Margaret Cross

Margaret Cross’s jewelry holds memories and remains, connecting the living and the dead. In The Queue, the Brooklyn-based artist shares her emotional experiences creating mourning jewelry, the tool that has become an extension of her arm, and the death-related art projects that bring her closer to her loved ones.
What’s in a Vessel?

Five artists describe the construction of their extraordinary vessels and reveal what they hold.
Inside the Birchbark Canoe

America has historical amnesia. Citizens today often struggle to face uncomfortable facts of history, such as the genocide of Native Americans, their internment in residential boarding schools, and slavery.
The Queue: Virgil Ortiz

Virgil Ortiz crafts a futuristic vision of the past with traditional Cochiti pottery. In The Queue, the Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico–based ceramist and fashion designer shares his favorite ceramists who work on a grand scale, the science fiction series that inspires his work, and how Cochiti pottery carries tradition and history.
Tiny Treasures

The vessels are ornamented bronze, finished with basketry details: coils and weaving in natural materials like sweetgrass, seagrass, bamboo, and grapevine.
The Queue: Douglas Molinas Lawrence

Douglas Molinas Lawrence carves, chips, grinds, and scorches blocks of wood into masterful vessels. In The Queue, the Knoxville, Tennessee–based woodworker tells us about his favorite woodworking tools, a Japanese tsubo vessel artist, and an inspiring craft institution close to his home.
Craft Happenings: Spring 2023

Spring is right around the corner, and the craft season is in bloom. Here are 25 events, exhibitions, and festivals happening across the country, organized by the month in which they start.
Making History

The living room of craft artist and educator Karen Collins’s Compton, California, home is stacked with the dioramas she has constructed over the past 27 years.
The Queue: Suzye Ogawa

Suzye Ogawa’s small bronze baskets hold big stories—of Japanese American culture, basketry traditions around the world, and the abundance of fibers in nature. In The Queue, the Fort Bragg, California–based metal artist shares her favorite jewelers, the special tools that make her work possible, and the appeal of unknown craft artists.
The Objects We Keep

People talk to their laptops, name their cars, invest meaning into such ordinary things as a particular baseball cap or coffee mug. It is a fact of life that we have relationships with all sorts of inanimate objects.
Remembering: Lloyd Herman

Independent curator, museum director, and American Craft Council Honorary Fellow Lloyd Herman died on January 5, 2023. He was one of the foremost authorities on the contemporary craft movement in America and traveled the world lecturing on the topic of American craft.