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Winter 2022

Winter 2022

Wonder

Cover of the Winter 2022 issue of American Craft

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

Wonder. “We need wonder in order to keep moving and growing—to stay alive in the world,” writes designer and illustrator Marian Bantjes in her book I Wonder. “It gives us meaning and, in fact, makes us human.”

At American Craft we’ve been pondering the word wonder and its many meanings—from experiencing awe and delight to having curiosity and asking questions. The stories in this issue highlight how wonder plays a role in the way humans design, create, and experience craft.

Among profiles of many artists, you’ll find the mind-bending and mesmerizing work of Yuri Kobayashi and Melissa Meier. You’ll discover the magical connection between makers—such as Tracey Beale and Kristy Kún (whose work is on the cover)—and their materials. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look into the studio of stone carver Sebastian Martorana.

virus like wood sculpture by Yuri Kobayashi

Amanda McCavour creates paths for visitors to walk through her embroidered installations, such as Pink Field, Blue Fog, 2016–ongoing, pictured here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2018, 14 x 40 x 30 ft. See more of McCavour’s work in the End Note of this issue. Photo by Rebekah Hogan.

Writers in this issue also ask questions and consider history: craft historian Glenn Adamson asks whether craft is part of the new precariat, while Jovencio de la Paz explores an Oregon river and the tradition of the scholar’s stone. Bantjes and two other artists, Chitra Ganesh and Preston Singletary, share stories about objects that inspire wonder and may have you thinking differently about craft.

We hope this issue will be a reminder to enjoy moments of delight and surprise, and that encountering wonderful craft made by imaginative artists leads you to feel more alive.

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

Revealed

Matthew Nafranowicz and the secret craft of upholstery

Metamorphosis

Working with everything from seed pods to pasta and porcupine quills, Melissa Meier transforms nature’s materials into fantastical works of art.

Risky Business

In an unstable gig economy, does craft offer a remedy?

Body Land Memory

Adebunmi Gbadebo’s artworks incorporate materials such as hair, soil, old documents, and water to address longstanding cultural erasure.

The Depths of Simplicity

Acclaimed woodworking artist Yuri Kobayashi creates sculptural and functional objects whose spare elegance is beautifully complex.

More from This Issue

Artist kneeling a outdoor tub filled with soapy water massaging felt with hands

A Floating World

A former woodworker turned felt sculptor opens up about the intricacies of process and material.
Glass artist posing on ladder while installing work in windowed gallery space in new york city

Maker: Andy Paiko

Glass artist Andy Paiko has an alchemist’s knack for transforming glass into uncanny objects: a hammer, a spinning wheel, a scale.
handmade gold necklace inlaid with fragments of a shattered car window

Maker: Tracey Beale

Much like the jewelry of ancient Egypt, a source of inspiration for Beale and where jewelry was also believed to be spiritually charged, the shapes she incorporates into her collections each have their own meaning.
collage of overlapping round mirrors of different sizes with ornate mosaic frames

Market: On the Wall

Peering into the handmade mirrors of these four artists is a celebration of craft—and of self, too.
stone carver in studio using pneumatic hammer on marble slab

Rock Shop

A stone carver’s ode to his Baltimore studio
three colorful tufted rugs overlapping one another on a gray floor with a person wearing checkered slip on shoes and white pants standing on them

Tufting Magic

From Instagram to #RugTikTok—the rug-making corner of the platform, naturally—rug tufting has gone viral.
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