Real Shaving: a Gift Guide for 2023
For anyone who shaves–men, women, or any gender in between–today’s disposable razors, disposable cans of cheap foam, and other throwaway items cost too much, and create too much trash. To help us counteract this trend, and return shaving into a pleasure, we offer you a treat: our 2023 guide to traditional shaving gear, with tips on fine shaving techniques.
Written & photographed by MICHAEL HAM
Washington, D.C.’s Homegrown Funk: Go-Go Music
In honor of Juneteenth and Black Music Month, take a tour through the history—and the sounds—of the musical culture that has been a cherished folkway in and around the nation’s capital for decades.
Written by ALONA WARTOFSKY
The Kayak’s Cultural Journey
For millennia, Indigenous peoples across the world have built and used wooden skin boats to fish and hunt, for sport and travel, even for warfare. Skin kayaks are the unique product of Arctic peoples, but non-Indigenous admirers of the craft are making them, too. Does that matter?
Written by SIMON MORRIS
Ann Morhauser, The Glass Builder
Many artisans struggle to pay the bills, hoping for a little good press along the way. Ann Morhauser started with all of those odds, and then some, in a tiny studio near Santa Cruz, CA. Today, her unique glassware is featured in stores across the country—and in The Smithsonian. How did she get here?
Written by PEGGY TOWNSEND
Photography by SHMUEL THALER
Jack Mauch: A New Renaissance Man
Craftsman Jack Mauch, still in his 30s, is already creating breathtaking examples of craftsmanship in everything from furniture-making to ceramics and metalwork. If this kind of range is what it takes to become a master artisan in today’s world, God help the rest of us mere mortals.
Written by NATALIE JONES
Introduction to “The Future Is Handmade” — A Craftsmanship Mini-Documentary Film
A Dutch archaeologist finds artisans and thought leaders who are redefining craft, skill and, ultimately, the real meaning of a knowledge economy: a short film presented by The Craftsmanship Initiative, in collaboration with The Centre for Global Heritage and Development.
Written by TODD OPPENHEIMER
The Sculptor vs. The Robots
As automation spreads, even into the world of fine art, an American sculptor proudly holds the barricades with the tools, techniques, and even the marble source used centuries ago by Michelangelo. Which side will prevail?
By THOMAS COOPER
Venice and the High Art of the Mask
Many cultures have enjoyed the playful freedom that one feels after donning a mask. But no place has taken it to greater extremes, both elegant and diabolical, than Venice. A tour of the world of Venetian masks, and the annual Carnival mega-party they have inspired.
Written by ERLA ZWINGLE
Photography by RICCARDO ROITER RIGONI and ERLA ZWINGLE
Italy’s Ancient Textile-Printing Mangle
Only a handful of artisans still practice the centuries-old craft of rust printing on fabric. Of those who do, even fewer use the traditional stone mangle, or press, on handwoven, raw hemp fabric, yielding textiles that can last for centuries. The Marchi family printworks, in Italy’s Romagna region, may well be the only place left in the world that still produces authentic, rust-printed textiles that are fully handmade.
Story and Film by LUISA GROSSO