Welcome to our Field Notes
Reports from the intersection of craft and culture: A mix of short narrative features, profiles, think pieces, and quick takes that reflect on—and beyond—our quarterly issue themes.
Field Notes
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San Francisco’s “Last Black Calligrapher” Invites You to Go Deeper
Hunter Saxony III imbues his lettering work with layers of meaning, while also intentionally leaving it open to interpretation. In the process, he’s taking an age-old, traditional art form in a new direction. One summer morning in 2018,...
Intentional Inhalations: Why Natural, Handmade Incense Stands Apart
Incense has been around for millennia, and is relatively simple to make. It can be purchased at any gift shop for a few dollars, so why spend more for the handmade, whole-plant version? Mike Paré, one of very few traditional incense makers in...
Chef Nephi Craig: Decolonizing Recovery through Native Foodways
Chef Nephi Craig leveraged his twin passions for cooking and Native American food sovereignty to heal himself from substance abuse. Today he uses his personal experience—and his kitchen—to support other Native people who are recovering from...
Shrine and the Art of Resilience
Pandemic, political strife, poverty, war. In times of extreme upheaval—global or personal—can the act of art-making ease suffering and strengthen resilience? photo by Melati Citrawireja The first time I met the outsider artist known as Shrine,...
The Little Block-Printing Workshop that Could
“A rising tide doesn’t raise people who don’t have a boat. We have to build the boat for them. We have to give them the basic infrastructure to rise with the tide.” – Rahul Gandhi Padmini Govind awoke at 3 a.m. to...
The Craft of Reclamation: Sustainable Addiction Recovery in Appalachia
In Appalachian Ohio, craftsmanship is a vital piece of the growing support system for recovery—philosophically, economically, and on a very personal scale. Editor’s Note: On March 1, 2022, in his State of the Union speech, U.S. President Joe...
Build Back with Beer (Craft Beer, to be Precise…)
When veteran journalists James and Deborah Fallows spent four years criss-crossing the U.S. looking for what makes small-town revivals succeed, they repeatedly found one near-constant: craft breweries There are various ways to measure the civic...
Congressman John Lewis’ Artistic Side
The late congressman’s civil rights legacy of “good trouble” is well-known, but his inner circle also knew him as an art lover and avid collector, particularly of works by Black artists. February 21 is the late Congressman John...
The Folk School Movement and ‘Slow Economics’
Rather than looking to big corporate employers for economic stability, could more rural communities welcome a less obvious, slower growing, yet more sustainable economic partner? In the far western tail of North Carolina, the road leading to the...
Metalsmith Forges Opportunities for Black Women Artists
Within an arts ecosystem that often marginalizes people of color, Karen Smith found a nontraditional path to becoming a metal artist. Now she’s inspiring women like her do the same. Karen Smith’s website bio opens with a deceptively...
New Mexico’s Modern Saint-Makers
The carving and painting of santos, or devotional art, is one of the oldest living folk art traditions in the U.S., dating back some 400 years. As Semana Santa (Holy Week) marks the holiest of days for millions of Christians around the globe, we...
When Life Handed Her Yarn, Adella Colvin Spun a Bright Future
The founder of LolaBean Yarn Co. didn’t expect to move from New York City to rural Georgia, or to become obsessed with hand-dyeing yarn. But when opportunity knocked, Adella Colvin didn’t hesitate. Back in her 20s, New York urbanite...
For Lifelong Artist Kimberly Camp, Art is Life
“There’s no retirement for an artist; it’s your way of living, so there’s no end to it.” ― Henry Moore Following a long, influential career as an arts administrator, Kimberly Camp, 64, seems to be working harder than ever. And...
Can Japan’s Akiya Movement Rebuild Rural Communities?
While rural Japan may not be the first place one envisions as a production site for medieval and Renaissance-era instruments from Europe and Central Asia, this was precisely the craft of master instrument-builder Kōhaku Matsumoto, founder of the...
A Traditional Balinese Craft Rediscovers Its Roots — in Leaves
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit Bali, Indonesia, you might have fond memories of white-sand beaches, ornate temples, and gracious hospitality. But for many Western visitors, the island’s most striking feature is its rich cultural...
Mending: An Ancient Craft for Modern Times
Mending was trending long before the Covid-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders changed the way we go about our days. A resurgence of so-called “domestic” handicrafts, reclaimed by feminists in the late 90s and elevated by visual artists from...
In Your Words: Making Matters, More than Ever
As part of our Spring issue theme, “Sheltering at Home Creatively”, we asked our Craftsmanship community to tell us: How has the coronavirus crisis affected your life and livelihood? Has it changed your values or priorities? Taken...
Film’s New Generation of Experimentalists
In a recent article I wrote for Craftsmanship Quarterly, “Real Film Strikes Back”, I tell the story of analog film’s surprising comeback in a motion picture industry that has become almost entirely digitized. Yet unbeknownst to most of us, there...
At Berea College, Students Craft a Bright Future, Tuition-Free
As U.S. student loan debt balloons to nearly $1.6 trillion nationally, calls for low-cost or free college tuition programs are getting louder. How do such programs work? Ask Berea College, which has been tuition-free since 1892 and offers an...
“Alebrijes,” Handcrafted Monsters on Parade in Mexico City
Sometime in the 1930s, a Mexico City artisan named Pedro Linares lay on his bed delirious and racked with fever. In his hallucinations, he felt surrounded by a series of terrifying monsters, who were made of parts from different animals in...
The Democratization of Craft
Earlier this month, some 400 devotees of the arts and crafts spent three days in Philadelphia exploring the meaning of their obsessions, and the possibilities of spreading the faith. The crowd was gathered by the American Craft Council, an...
Sustainable Fashion, Hands-On Education: a Fibershed Gala
In our fast-paced consumer culture, on a planet that is quickly heating up, how do you spend your dollars in a way that minimizes environmental damage, especially when it comes to clothing and other textiles? Is it possible to also go one step...
By Western Hands: Saving Traditional Western Crafts from Extinction
If you watch the video at the end of this story, done by Lisa and Loren Skyhorse, two custom Western saddle makers in Durango, Colorado, it’s easy to be inspired by their skill, and touched by their decades of dedication. But the film ends on an...
Back to the Future: IFAM Invests in Sustainable Cultural Traditions
“My Heart is in the Art”—the resounding theme for the world’s largest gathering of indigenous folk artists, folk art collectors and fans—moved more than sentiment, generating $3.1 million from more than 21,000 visitors over three...
Fileteado Porteño: Preserving the iconic street art of Buenos Aires
It’s been years since I’ve walked the cobblestone streets of Buenos Aires, but the sights and sounds of the city that doesn’t sleep have never left me. Strolls down narrow alleys and the expansive city avenues of B.A., and the street art I...
The Intelligent Hand
For many anthropologists, their work involves delving into obscure corners of humanity’s past; for Trevor Marchand, a Canadian-born anthropology professor in England, the field offered him a way to look into the work of living master artisans,...
A Crucible for Tomorrow’s Trades
The nation’s largest non-profit facility dedicated to education in the industrial arts runs out of a seemingly simple warehouse in West Oakland, California. Fittingly called The Crucible, the venture was launched in January of 1999 by a mixed...
Crafting a Snow-Covered Castle: The Modern Snow Globe Maker
As she hikes amongst limestone, pine, and the remains of Polish castles, Paulina Ciepał imagines holding it all in the palm of her hand — a world of its own wrapped in glass, always a shake away from a winter snowfall. A self-taught craftswoman,...
Crafting a More Human Future
Exhibition “HOMO FABER” The intriguing title of this monster exhibition of European craftsmen and women, shown in Venice, Italy, during the final weeks of September, 2018, is not only clever, it’s also extremely efficient; faber translates...
Finding Your Ikigai in Craftsmanship
The Japanese have a term for what we as human beings search for in life and it’s called Ikigai, or “the meaning of life.” Many people struggle to know exactly what their purpose is, which is why it’s important to never stop...
Folk Art by the Feds: How a tiny NEA program for apprentices helps keep folk art alive
Apprentice Valerie Edwards (left) has been learning to make Yamani Maidu burden basketry from master artist Shewaya Peck (right). Burden baskets were traditionally used by the Yamani tribe for storage, gathering roots, berries, food, and...
Craftsmanship and Community
Connecting with like-minded makers both online and off The work of a craftsperson is precise, detailed and focused. It can also be solitary and isolating. As a hand engraver, most of my time is spent alone at my workbench, quietly focused. ...
An Inside Peek into Small Farm Life
To say that “fiber farmer” Tammy White is a busy woman would be an understatement. And to only address her as a farmer would certainly not encompass the many hats she wears. Add to the list: natural dyer, shepherdess, homesteader,...
My Adventures with Gold Leaf
When I was younger, I worked as a union painter in Los Angeles (District Council 36, Painters and Allied Trades), and in the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to work on a Bel-Air mansion that belonged to descendants of the late, great...
Catching Color in Food Waste
Onion skins, avocado pits, beet root tops and used coffee grinds — all items many people think have no other use than the compost pile. But food waste can actually have a much longer shelf life, in the form of natural dyes. Natural dyeing can be...
Felipe Ortega, The Clay Raven
The world recently lost a great talent. For those who were lucky enough to know him, Felipe Ortega’s passing runs deep, even more so because this craftsman was one of only a few master teachers left who handcraft micaceous-rich clay pots, just...
The Iconic Icelandic Wool Sweater: An Invented Cultural Statement
On this Nordic island, marooned near the peak of the globe, the temperature can drop below -20 degrees. A sweater is a must. Toddlers, teens, and fishermen alike all wear the Icelandic wool sweater, a uniform that the nation of ice and snow...
The Vanishing Generation of Italian Shoemakers
The Sustainability of an Important Craft It is commonly accepted if you are making high-end luxury shoes, the shoes are made in Italy regardless of where the brand is based, with few exceptions. Post-World War II, Italy flourished as a high-end...
New Life in the Scrap Heap
Three VW Restorers Find Beauty in All the Unexpected Places Amid mounting turmoil over Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal, the company has made an announcement that should help to re-polish its old, culture-defining image. At the Frankfurt...
Why Nothing Writes Like a Fountain Pen
A good fountain pen requires virtually no pressure—it just glides across the page. And the ink, which now comes in myriad colors, goes beyond creating letters. It seems to almost decorate a piece of paper. Starting off to find a fountain pen can...
Do-It-Yourself Gelato: How to Attempt the Sweetest Craft at Home
Craftsmanship comes in all shapes, sizes—and flavors. And, as exemplified in Erla Zwingle’s “The Secrets of an Italian Gelato Master,” in Craftsmanship’s Summer 2017 issue, the simple delectability of a frozen treat is far more complex than what...