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Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's branch museum for craft and decorative arts, presents an exhibition featuring 93 objects from the permanent collection of the White House, including furniture, ceramics, metals, glass, and textiles. Many of these objects were made by the most celebrated craftsmen of their time and some have never been seen outside of the White House. William G. Allman, curator of the White House, and Melissa C. Naulin, assistant curator of the White House, selected the works included in the exhibition. ...
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Our flagship show in Baltimore is now in full swing! We’re all holding our breath, but so far we’ve been spared by the snowstorm, except for a smattering of flurries this morning. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather through the weekend!
Now that I’ve had a chance to take in more of it, I’ve been struck by the wonderful balance between the old and the new at our Baltimore Show. As you wander your way through the aisles, you can find 30-year show veterans like David Bacharach and Seymour Mondshein next to up-and-coming crafters exhibiting their wares in Baltimore for ...
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Somewhere between an Olympics medal ceremony and “Candid Camera” falls the annual Awards Walking Tour at the American Craft Council's Baltimore Show. Each year, we invite two specialists in the craft field to jury the show, selecting six Award of Excellence recipients and two winners in the Booth Design category. This year's jurors were Jane Milosch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Josephine Shea, curator of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, a historic home near Detroit.
On Friday afternoon at 2pm, show attendees gathered together with the jurors and Council staff for a walking tour of the award winning ...
Feature
Twenty years after learning the lathe, Joshua Vogel has made woodturning his full-time pursuit, with sleek, sculptural results. ...
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For a first-time visitor, the American Craft Council’s Baltimore Show can be somewhat overwhelming - in the best possible way. I experienced that today when I entered the Baltimore Convention Center for a sneak peek at the exhibitors in our 34th annual show. I was immediately struck not only by the sheer number of artists, but also by the eclectic variety of the work on display. It’s an incredible sensory experience to encounter exquisitely handcrafted goods in such a range of colors, shapes, textures and materials. I found it hard to make any progress through the show - I kept ...
Heck Yes Craft
Boris Bally's sophisticated reinvention of reclaimed street signs and found objects will rattle your mind. Bally transforms traffic signs into everything from entirely modern furniture to sleek jewelry and home decor items -- and even flatware! My favorite piece is a necklace created with 100 handgun triggers from Pittsburgh's "Goods for Guns" program. It's Bally's spin on the talismanic charms of aboriginal cultures, and he says, "this urban 'mojo' protects the wearer from the gun violence so prevalent in today's culture."
Can't get enough craft? Neither can we. Heck Yes Craft is a series of visual blog posts ...
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Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion 1920-1980 is one of the largest exhibitions of costume and textiles in the RISD Museum's history. From Prohibition to disco, cocktails and fashion ritualized the passage of time, and helped men and women navigate the sweeping social changes that defined 20th-century American life. Cocktail culture-and the fashion that defined it-succeeded in unifying diverse groups of people while providing a means of vibrant personal expression. ...
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Spring Craft Morristown returns for its 21st year, displaying contemporary work from 150 artists and crafts people from across the country. Collectors, art enthusiasts and discerning shoppers will enjoy the rare opportunity to meet these visionary artists and purchase their latest work.
General admission is $7 per person (unlimited re-entry) ...
Feature
In October, three homeless women in their 20s gathered in a common room at a YWCA in Portland, Oregon, for what Aurelie Tu, founder of CraftedSystems, calls a "weave." Over a few hours, the women learned a craft, connected with each other, worked with their hands, and earned a little money - all while helping designer Tu create lampshades, rugs, vessels, and more.
Tu's business model is perhaps as inventive as her craft. For two or three consecutive days every couple of months, she conducts a weave, and women from the Y's shelter are paid by the piece to construct the ...
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CraftMorristown returns to the Armory on Western Avenue for its 20th anniversary, displaying contemporary work from 150 artists and crafts people from across the country. Collectors, art enthusiasts and discerning shoppers will enjoy the rare opportunity to meet these visionary artists and purchase their latest work.The show includes one-of-a-kind and limited edition jewelry, fashion and accessories, furniture, and home décor pieces, as well as functional and sculptural work in ceramics, glass, metal, painting, photography, wood and mixed media. Visitors can also enjoy specialty foods from across the country.
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Craft has long been connected to home, and to the hand. Now one could say that craft is connected to home, hand and Internet. The web is often cited as a reason for and enabler of the DIY craft movement: its speed and ubiquity drives people to tune out through slow handcraft, but it also connects crafters to each other and thus grows the movement, the theory goes. Craft, the DIY movement asserts, is a lifestyle, one centered on the belief that you should make what you need (or want), through creative efforts that are environmentally sustainable and reflect your ...
On Our Radar
One might say that a passion for the handmade is in Molly Hatch’s blood: her family’s connection to functional art goes back generations. “My maternal ancestors were merchants importing goods, mostly from Europe,” says the ceramist. “They always brought back porcelain and French faience as ballast in their ships. I grew up using a lot of the objects inherited from my grandmother in my home.” Surrounded by these opulent pieces, Hatch, whose family's wealth had slowly dwindled decades before she was born, romanticized her prosperous Bostonian ancestors. “I was really fascinated by the wealth those objects represented, such as the ...
Books
Yes, I would accept with pleasure an invitation to dinner (or lunch or breakfast) at Jane Korman's house. I'd be happy to slide my chair up to the gutsy table of imbuya wood that Wendell Castle designed for Jane and her husband, Leonard, to sample the very recipe for chocolate chestnut cake that Wendell and his wife, sculptor Nancy Jurs, contributed to Splendid Settings, Jane Korman's celebration of a book. I'd smile back at the face painted on the William Bernstein goblet that holds my breakfast parfait, be thrilled with a minted pea soup so fresh it's melting into its ...
Wide World of Craft
Featuring Over 20 Photographs Not Seen in Print! ...
Product Placement
Run your eyes over the clean steel curves of Marc Maiorana's andiron. Its sleek, contemporary shape may seem to whisper "urban," but it was born in a small smithy in Cedar Bluff, Virginia, in the heart of Appalachia, where Maiorana lives and works.
The blacksmith seems to make a practice of defying easy categorization. Since 2008, he's been running Iron Design Company - specializing in modern, hand-formed steel housewares - alongside Marc Maiorana Studios, the brand for his custom sculptural and architectural commissions, such as sweeping staircase railings.
"They are two different beasts," Maiorana says. "To make 100 of something is very ...
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