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Spring 2022

Spring 2022

Fashion

cover of american craft magazine featuring a model wearing a pink silk headscarf and an orange blue black and white patchwork robe

American Craft magazine celebrates the diversity of American craft and its makers. From the handmade that we use in our homes every day to the fine craft honored in museums, we cover inspiring craft being made today. We also showcase craft organizations making a difference in their communities, thought leadership in the field, and the importance of craft in contemporary American culture.

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From the Editor

Fashion. Many magazines publish their version of “the fashion issue.” Welcome to ours, which covers so much more than what’s stylish now. We explore fashion-forward craft and the materials of sustainable, slow fashion, such as you find in a handwoven jacket or a leather bag cut and sewn by an artist. We also consider how “to fashion” is to shape or give form to an artwork or object.

When planning this issue, we knew we had to include Fabiola Jean-Louis’ dresses, which she sculpts from paper and ornaments with images from the impacts of the transatlantic slave trade—images that can be quite difficult to look at. We also hoped you’d be as delighted as we are by the work of artists combining craft and fashion, including the stunning clothing born from a collaboration between the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and designer Greg Lauren; the way Shae Bishop stitches ceramic tiles into unique menswear pieces; and how Nicole McLaughlin creates fantastical garments and accessories from objects that would otherwise go to the trash.

In these pages you’ll also find stories of how artists shape materials into meaning, including an in-depth profile of Sonya Clark and how she brings together the work of many to create visionary artworks.

I’ve been reminded by this work and these stories to again slow down to appreciate what human hands are capable of—and what it feels like to wear clothing designed with care for others and the future of the planet in mind. I hope you find inspiration here too.

textile artist blurred in motion as they work at a loom. A finished beige piece hangs on the wall behind them

Rhiannon Griego of Santa Fe at the loom. Learn more about her and other textile artists and lothing designers in "Cloth Encounters." Photo courtesy of Rhiannon Griego.

Our thanks to Roseanne G. Pereira, who helped conceptualize this issue and made many great contributions to American Craft while she worked with us.

karen signature

KAREN OLSON / Editor in Chief

American Craft Council publishes American Craft magazine 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.

Feature Articles

Wearing the Truth

With her sculpted paper dresses, Fabiola Jean-Louis unflinchingly confronts history and imagines Black futures.

The Connector

Visionary artist Sonya Clark fashions artworks—cosmic, spiritual, and sociopolitical—with the help of many hands.

Beloved Patches of Orange

A fashion scholar reveals the story of a collaboration between the quilters of Gee’s Bend and designer Greg Lauren—and the power of color in quilts.

Cloth Encounters

Meet American artists and designers who are using the rich, resonant vocabulary of textiles to say things we need to hear.

More from This Issue

grayscale photo of a woodworker splitting a log in the back of a truck

Maker: Aspen Golann

Near Boston one afternoon, Aspen Golann is hunting for a log. “You have me on a log day,” she says, explaining that she will carve the felled specimen into a replica of a 1770s settee, at Colonial Williamsburg’s annual Working Wood in the 18th Century conference. “It’s about as nerdy as it gets.”
man in mid-19th-century garb posing in a chair wearing vest depicting flowers and snakes made from ceramic tiles

The Fashion Factor

Far from being frivolous or merely superficial, fashion offers insights into social norms and identity that can inform craft practice.
impressionistic oval painting depicting a sun shining down on a landscape with a pond. There's a face in the pond and the landscape is catching fire

[Object As...] Alex Anderson

Learn how one of our six "Object As..." participants brought their object into being and what it means to them, followed by a note from the curator.
Paper sculpture of two houses one red and one black connected by a red string

[Object As...] Bukola Koiki

Learn how one of our six "Object As..." participants brought their object into being and what it means to them, followed by a note from the curator.
shiny black ceramic vessel with coiled texture and various shapes on the surface

[Object As...] Ebitenyefa Baralaye

Learn how one of our six "Object As..." participants brought their object into being and what it means to them, followed by a note from the curator.
wooden sculpture reminscent of a paddle or brush

[Object As...] James Maurelle

Learn how one of our six "Object As..." participants brought their object into being and what it means to them, followed by a note from the curator.
ceramic sculpture of upside-down head with flowers leaves and dragonflies adhered to it

[Object As...] Morel Doucet

Learn how one of our six "Object As..." participants brought their object into being and what it means to them, followed by a note from the curator.
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