african american crafts people
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NEIGHBORS
Carlomagno Pedro Martínez
Carlomagno Pedro Martínez is a Mexican ceramic artist from San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, a Zapotec town famous for producing barro negro, polished black pottery. Carlomagno comes from a long line of ceramic artists and as a young child,... MORE »
Cristina Romo
Cristina Romo began designing in silver at the age of five. Her grandfather Antonio, trained by the renowned silversmith William Spratling, later departed to establish his own workshop outside of Taxco. Cristina’s mother, Emilia Castillo, is a celebrated silversmith... MORE »
Eduardo Herrera
Eduardo Herrera, architect and designer, explored many artistic fields before committing himself to goldsmithing and designing jewelry. His designs are inspired by nature and architectural elements which he translates into silver, gold and tumbaga, an alloy of gold and... MORE »
Miguel Angel Ortiz Miranda
Miguel Angel Ortiz Miranda’s father Jorge was a maestro in William Spratling’s legendary silver workshop in Taxco. Taking inspiration from his father, Miguel Ángel is a gifted designer and jeweler, winning numerous prestigious national awards for jewelry design and... MORE »
Carmen Tapia
Carmen Tapia, designer, preserves and refines her family’s tradition of fabricating jewelry in metals and stones. Carmen has won numerous prizes in significant jewelry design competitions in Mexico and the U.S., her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums,... MORE »
Judy Baca
Judy Baca, world-renowned painter and muralist, community arts pioneer, scholar and educator, has taught art in the University of California system for over 28 years, including 15 years at UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies. She founded... MORE »
Magdalena Pedro Martínez
Magdalena Pedro Martínez is an outstanding barro negro ceramist, in the tradition of her family in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Trained as a medical doctor, she also devotes time to ceramics, specializing in female figures dressed in the... MORE »
Gerardo Monterrubio
For millennia, numerous cultures have used the ceramic medium to record their existence. From these artifacts, we can form an understanding and various interpretations of the cultural paradigms, socio political practices, mythologies, and the human experience of the worlds... MORE »
Jaime Guerrero
Before I am an artist I am a craftsman… My work is about intersecting experiences and the rediscovery and shaping of relics into new forms as a way of self-questioning. Many things can exist as relics. In my vocabulary... MORE »
BORDERS
Ofelia Esparza
We all suffer three deaths, the first death is the day that we give our last breath, the day that we die. Our second death is the day that we are buried, never to be seen on the... MORE »
Francisco Toledo
Francisco Toledo, known in Oaxaca as El Maestro, is regarded by many as Mexico’s most important and provocative living artist. He has been instrumental in building a series of highly successful public cultural institutions in Oaxaca, the city he... MORE »
J. Isaac Vasquez Garcia
J. Isaac Vásquez García, master weaver and dyer, the eldest living member of the one of the oldest weaving families in Teotitlán del Valle, México, pioneered the renaissance of using pre-Hispanic natural dyes on pure wool. Isaac’s three sons,... MORE »
Veralee Bassler
Ceramic artist Veralee Bassler first took clay in hand around the age of 15 in a favorite high school class, ceramics. Several years later, she graduated from UCLA Art Department with a concentration in ceramics. Veralee then began a... MORE »
Alejandro De Ávila Blomberg
Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg, botanist and anthropologist, is the Director of the Ethnobotanical Garden in Oaxaca, México, established in 1993 with the help of artist Francisco Toledo. This unique museum tells the history of the plants and people of... MORE »
Jim Bassler
Jim Bassler (b. 1933) was introduced to the textile traditions at an early age from his father. The Cold War strategies gave him the opportunity to see the world and introduced him to the craft traditions of Europe, the... MORE »
Kiff Slemmons
Kiff Slemmons is an artist who creates sculptural jewelry in paper and metal. During a trip to Mexico, Slemmons saw the jewelry in Tomb 7 at Monte Albán and it sparked her interest in non-precious jewelry materials. Slemmon’s metal jewelry... MORE »
NATURE
Catherine Alice Michaelis
Catherine Alice Michaelis is a book artist who works near the South Salish Sea in Washington. Michaelis incorporates letterpress printing, book design, and other printing techniques into her work, including eco-printing. Michaelis is inspired by plants and uses them to... MORE »
Preston Singletary
Preston Singletary (b. 1963 in San Francisco, CA) is a Tlingit glass artist. Singletary transfers Tlingit designs, traditionally carved in wood, onto glass. He studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Light is integral to his work,... MORE »
Mary Merkel-Hess
Mary Merkel-Hess grew up in the farmlands of Iowa, where she still lives and works. Studying both metalsmithing and fiber for her undergraduate degrees, Merkel-Hess received an MFA in metalsmithing from the University of Iowa under the tutelage of Professor Chunghi Choo.... MORE »
Patrick Dougherty
Patrick Dougherty is a sculptor who weaves tree saplings into site specific sculptural installations. Dougherty’s interest in carpentry and love of nature inspired him to experiment with tree saplings and learn about building techniques. In 1982, he created his first work, Maple Body... MORE »
Michelle Holzapfel
Michelle Holzapfel (b. 1951) is a self-taught woodturner and carver. She creates vases, bowls, boxes, and still life sculpture from local hardwoods like burls, unmanageable crotches, gnarled branches, center rotten trunks that are left behind in the forest after logging... MORE »
TEACHERS
Therman Statom
Therman Statom (b. 1953) is a glass artist currently living in Omaha, NE. Statom is best known for his painted ladders, houses, chairs, etc., constructed out of plate glass, blown glass objects, plywood, and found objects. He studied glass at Pilchuck... MORE »
Wayne Higby
Wayne Higby is a ceramic artist, Professor of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, and Director of the Alfred University Ceramic Museum. Higby’s unique vision of the American Landscape and its manifestation in work ranging from vessel form to tile, sculpture... MORE »
Matt Kelleher
Matt Kelleher is a studio potter who creates soda-fired tableware as well as sculptural forms. After working as a studio potter in North Carolina as well as participating in residences at Penland School of Crafts, Archie Bray Foundation, Kelleher... MORE »
Linda Sikora
Linda Sikora is a potter and Professor at Alfred University. Sikora is known for her jars and teapots, which she thoughtfully crafts. Sikora received her MFA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and her BFA from the Nova Scotia College... MORE »
Hugh Jenkins
Hugh Jenkins has worked in glass since 1969. He got his first introduction to glass blowing and the Foundry in Honolulu. He brought glass blowing into the Punahou School art department in 1972 and continued to teach there until... MORE »
Matthew Metz
Matthew Metz is a potter who works and resides in Alfred, New York. Metz received a BFA from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and MFA from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. From 1989 to 1991 he was a resident at... MORE »
Mark Mitsuda
Mark Mitsuda was born and raised in Honolulu, HI. He learned the art of glassblowing in high school at Punahou School, working under the tutelage of Hugh Jenkins. Mitsuda continued his studies at the New York State College of... MORE »
Lynda Teller Pete
Lynda Teller Pete is a 5th generation Navajo weaver who is known for weaving in the traditional Two Grey Hills pattern. Her father, Sam Teller, worked at the Two Grey Hills Trading Post in New Mexico, where she was... MORE »
Barbara Teller Ornelas
Barbara Teller Ornelas is a 5th generation Master Navajo weaver who specializes in Two Grey Hills style pieces. Her father, Sam Teller, worked at the Two Grey Hills Trading Post in New Mexico, where she was raised with her... MORE »
MUSIC
Jason Ginter
Jason Ginter is a timpanist, percussionist, educator as well as the owner of JGpercussion, a company specializing in high-quality mallets and percussion products. A native of Elyria, Ohio, Jason began playing the drums at age 12. He currently serves on... MORE »
Jake Shimabukuro
At the age of four, Jake Shimabukuro started playing the ukulele, quickly developing a unique fast and complex finger style. In 2006, his version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral on YouTube. He travels the world year-round... MORE »
Joseph Pereira
Joseph Pereira, Principal Timpanist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2007, composer and teacher, has appeared in some of the world’s greatest orchestras and can be heard on numerous recordings and soundtracks to major motion pictures. Working closely with... MORE »
Joan Baez
Joan Baez, musician and political activist, often performs with only a guitar to accompany her clear strong voice, her Martin guitar. Since the landmark 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Baez has been at the forefront of and witness to significant... MORE »
Scotty Barnhart
Scotty Barnhart is a jazz trumpeter featured in the MUSIC episode. In the episode, Barnhart works with David Monette to create a custom decorated trumpet. Barnhart is a trumpeter, composer, educator, author, and after 20 years with The Count Basie Orchestra, was... MORE »
Tony Ellis
For renowned composer/musician Tony Ellis (Circleville, OH) who comes out of Bluegrass and Old Time music, a Stelling banjo is his choice. Named a “Pioneer of Bluegrass Music” by the International Bluegrass Music Museum, his experimental compositions have paired... MORE »
Rhiannon Giddens
Rhiannon Giddens is a gifted Grammy-winner, African American folk music interpreter and revivalist. Featured in the MUSIC episode of Craft in America, Giddens plays a Jim Hartel Levi Brown style minstrel banjo. Giddens recently featured in a performance at the... MORE »
Jim Hartel
In the 17th century, slaves transported from Africa to America began making early banjos based on indigenous African instruments. The banjo has since developed into a versatile instrument used in many styles of music: Bluegrass, Dixieland, Country, and Classical.... MORE »
David Monette
Now in their 30th year of inventing, designing and hand-crafting custom brass instruments and mouthpieces, the David G. Monette Corporation (Portland, OR) has developed a holistic philosophy taking into account the player, the instrument, the performance space and the... MORE »
Geoff Stelling
Geoff Stelling has spent the past 40 years perfecting his five-string Bluegrass banjos, from the patented wedge-fitted pot assembly up to the pivot-pin tailpiece. His designs assures the best possible tone ring and flange to wood rim fit possible... MORE »
CELEBRATION
Chris Low
Chinese lion dancer and lion head maker Chris Low first began studying the lion dance as a young boy growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He is one of few artists who have mastered both the martial arts based... MORE »
Jeff Lee
At 18, Jeff Lee started his martial arts training and was quickly attracted to the ancient philosophy underpinning Chinese martial arts. His training gravitated towards Taiji Quan. Further practice in Bagua Zhang lead him to the study of traditional... MORE »
Yoshiko Yamamoto
Yoshiko Yamamoto’s love of Japanese ukiyo-e informs her blockprint and letterpress art that she creates at The Arts and Crafts Press in Tacoma, WA. Letterpress printing is a relief process, the oldest form of printing, and Yoshiko is self-taught in... MORE »
Corey Chan
An early interest in Chinese arts led martial artist and historian Corey Chan to train in the ancient Chinese New Year lion dance performed annually to bring good fortune. Chan is the Director of Kei Lun Martial Arts, dedicated... MORE »
Thomas Chun
Thomas Chun was immersed in a community of Chinese performing arts since childhood. Merely following his parents’ weekend routine, Chun eventually joined as a dancer and musician. He expanded his repertoire with martial arts and after joining a team,... MORE »
Babatunde Graves
In Chicago, artist Babatunde has been making kinaras, the candleholders for Kwanzaa celebrations, for more than forty years. Based on African harvest celebrations, Kwanzaa is a time of self-affirmation and reflection for African American communities and families. At Chicago... MORE »
Yumei Hou
Yumei Hou is a sculptor and renowned master of the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting. Hou has dedicated decades to learning, perfecting, and passing on the art of paper cutting in China and the United States. Her talent... MORE »
Travis Lum
Travis Lum is a seasoned Chinese lion dancer, martial artist, and designer. Inspired by the staccato, vigor, and excitement of the lions seen in his youth, his appreciation and knowledge for this centuries-old art has only grown. Drawing parallels between his career... MORE »
Jared Young
Jared Young has been involved in Chinese performing arts since early childhood. He started Chinese folk dance at a young age and his interest expanded to Chinese martial arts. Later he became involved with Chinese Opera—which makes sense because... MORE »
SERVICE
Eugene Burks Jr.
Eugene Burks Jr. is a 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) and a saddler. Burks learned many aspects of his leather craft from his grandmother, a dressmaker. Trained in canvas and light textile repair, Burks worked in the... MORE »
Judas Recendez
Judas Recendez is a ceramic artist who spent his youth in sunny Visalia, CA, surfing, hiking and exploring an interest in fine art and ceramics. Recendez is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Iraq War who participated in 2... MORE »
J.B. Blunk
J.B. Blunk (1926-2002) was a sculptor known primarily for working in wood. After serving in the United States Army in Korea, he met sculptor Isamu Noguchi in Japan and served apprenticeships with Japanese potter Kitaoji Rosanjin and potter and Living... MORE »
Arthur Espenet Carpenter
Arthur “Art” Espenet Carpenter (1920-2006) was a woodworker, who was declared a “living California treasure” in 1984. He is most well known for his sleek and distinctive furniture, especially his wishbone chair and desk with scalloped seashell sides. Inspired... MORE »
William Daley
William Daley (b.1925) is a ceramic artist known for his large, unglazed stoneware vessels. After surviving prison camp during World War II, Daley went on to attend The Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where, under the G.I. Bill,... MORE »
Pam DeLuco
Pam DeLuco, a papermaker and owner of Shotwell Paper Mill (San Francisco, CA), is the architect of the project Paper Dolls: stories from women who served which contains 20 stories spanning more than 40 years of service and all... MORE »
Harvey Littleton
Harvey K. Littleton (1922-2013) was a glass artist and educator, who is considered a pioneer in the Studio Glass Movement. His work ranged from functional vessels to sculptural forms. His father was a physicist at Corning Glass Works so... MORE »
Ramona Solberg
Ramona Solberg (1921-2005) was a jeweler, who was born in Watertown, SD, but lived and taught in Seattle. She was a pioneer in the contemporary jewelry movement. Solberg rarely used precious metals, preferring found objects and incorporating ethnic elements... MORE »
Ehren Tool
Ehren Tool is a ceramic artist and Senior Laboratory Mechanician at the Ceramic Department at University of California, Berkeley, and Marine Veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. Tool was greatly influenced by American expressionist ceramic sculptor, Peter Voulkos. Tool... MORE »
Peter Voulkos
Peter Voulkos (1924-2002) was a ceramist most known for his abstract expressionist sculptures. He received his BS from the Montana State College, Bozeman and received his MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now the California College... MORE »
INDUSTRY
Joe Cunningham
Joe Cunningham began making quilts professionally in 1979 after a ten-year career as a musician in Michigan. Cunningham’s life is steeped in the study of quilt history and a love of traditional technique from which he has developed a... MORE »
Lucy Mingo
Born in 1931, just north of Gee’s Bend, AL, Lucy Mingo grew up picking crops, cooking for her family, and walking four miles to and from school each day. She worked many jobs through the years, all the while... MORE »
Jan Lee
Jan Lee is a designer, furniture maker and Asian antiques dealer who uses, whenever possible, reclaimed materials such as antique bamboo and hardwood from responsible foreign and domestic sources. In addition to the antiques, Jan Lee provides interior design... MORE »
Graham McKay
Graham McKay is a boat builder and manager at Lowell’s Boat Shop. McKay built his first boat in high school and has explored and mastered myriad aspects of the maritime industry, professional sailing, as well as many facets of... MORE »
Libby O’Bryan
Libby O’Bryan is the owner of the manufacturing enterprise Sew Co. housed within The Oriole Mill in an effort to preserve the skill of sewing and new model for our domestic production economy. O’Bryan developed her practice following a... MORE »
Bethanne Knudson
Bethanne Knudson is the Design Director and CEO of The Oriole Mill and a fiber artist. For many years, Knudson trained textile designers to use software for Jacquard looms, and in 2000, opened the Jacquard Center in Hendersonville, NC,... MORE »
Mary Ann Pettway
Mary Ann Pettway, manager of the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective, learned to quilt as a young child from her mother. She made her first quilt for the collective in the summer of 2005. The seventh of 12 children, Mary... MORE »
Shane Yamane
Originally from Oahu, HI, Shane Yamane pursued his love of gemstones and handcrafting fine jewelry in New York City. A fully trained and developed artist, his focus is on form and proportion. His custom designs are classic, clean and... MORE »
HOLIDAY
Gini Garcia
Gini Garcia is a glass blower, designer and founder of Garcia Art Glass. Commissioned by both public institutions and private corporations, she has completed more than 50 site-specific works. Garcia also creates dignitary gifts and countless residential commissions worldwide.... MORE »
Veronica Castillo
Veronica Castillo is a ceramic artist who crafts exquisitely detailed, brightly colored folk art objects using centuries-old methods and symbols. She is a member of the honored Castillo Orta folk art family of Izucar de Matamoros in Puebla, Mexico,... MORE »
Susan Garson
Susan Garson grew up knowing that she would lead a life in the arts. When she began her master’s work at UCLA, she was drawn to ceramics and decided to use her newly found love of hand building united... MORE »
Harley Refsal
Harley Refsal is an internationally recognized figure carver, specializing in Scandinavian flat-plane wood carving. Raised in Minnesota, he has lived in Norway in the 1960s and 1980s, and traveled extensively throughout Scandinavia. Refsal, who speaks fluent Norwegian, has shared... MORE »
Kathleen Trenchard
Kathleen Trenchard has researched and worked in traditional Mexican papel picado (punched paper) ever since the early ‘90s when she was introduced to the technique in Huixcolotla, Mexico. Her work explores contemporary designs, applications and materials suitable for cut... MORE »
FORGE
Geoffrey Blake
Geoffrey Blake was born in Kittery, ME and grew up in Hampton, NH. Blake became intrigued with hand making sterling silver products during a visit to Old Newbury Crafters in his teens. After four years in the Air Force,... MORE »
Davide Prete
Davide Prete is a sculptor and architect who specializes in urban scale works using stainless steel and forged steel. Prete wants to connect traditional technique with modern shapes. For this reason he loves to work with iron forging but... MORE »
Chloe Darke
Chloe Darke is of the generation fueling the DIY movement, hungry to explore and savor the act of making, driven to create. Having studied metalsmithing and jewelry at Maine College of Art, she now produces fine sterling place settings... MORE »
Jeremiah Holland
Jeremiah Holland is a sculptor whose work explores topographical and architectural forms through sculpture in wood. His approach reflects sculpture as furniture and borrows from natural and commonplace architectonic forms. Holland received a BFA at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, DC. ... MORE »
Albert Paley
Albert Paley (b. 1944) is a metal sculptor and artist. Beginning as a goldsmith, Paley’s work has evolved through time and technology to a monumental scale. From first mental image, to drawings, to cardboard models, to CAD (computer-aided design)... MORE »
Tom Pullin
Tom Pullin served in the U.S. Army for almost twenty-five years and has brought his service to his art. He says, reminiscent of his training in the military, “It would be impossible to work with metal and not have... MORE »
CROSSROADS
Tanya Aguiñiga
Tanya Aguiñiga grew up in both San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico, a bi-cultural artist whose quest is to create a dialogue between two very different cultural experiences in her craft-based artistic expression. Having learned her trade from vastly... MORE »
Lia Cook
Lia Cook (b. 1942) is a fiber artist who combines weaving, painting, photography and digital technology to create her work. Cook’s work attempts to shatter restrictive theories about craft, art, science and technology. Her focus is on the history... MORE »
Clary Illian
Clary Illian is a potter who lives in Ely, Iowa. Illian apprenticed at Leach Pottery in England from 1964-65. Hewing to the Leach philosophy, her subsequent work concentrated on the purity of the pot’s form and the potter’s life... MORE »
Gail Kendall
Gail Kendall is a ceramic artist whose work is influenced by European earthenware pottery and porcelain traditions from the 13th through 18th centuries. Kendall is an Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. www.gailkendall.com
Jeff Oestreich
Jeff Oestreich (b. 1947) was trained in the austere simplicity of traditional Asian pottery while serving as apprentice to Bernard Leach in England in the 1960s. Driven to achieve a personal style, he overlaid this foundation with a passion... MORE »
Warren MacKenzie
Warren MacKenzie (b. 1924) is one of America’s greatest living potters and an inspiration to younger generations. Having apprenticed at the Leach Pottery in 1952, MacKenzie brought the Mingei aesthetic to the St. Croix Valley where it took root... MORE »
THREADS
Randall Darwall
Randall Darwall (1948-2017) was a master colorist and weaver whose hallmark is an extraordinarily refined aesthetic, and one of contemporary craft’s finest weavers, bringing an intelligence and liveliness to his work. He saw his goal as “not just making... MORE »
Terese Agnew
Terese Agnew’s work has evolved from sculpture to densely embroidered quilts by a process she calls drawing with thread. Her themes are environmental and social. Her most notable quilt to date is the Portrait of a Textile Worker, constructed... MORE »
Faith Ringgold
Internationally celebrated artist, teacher, and author, Faith Ringgold is best known for her painted story quilts – art that combines painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. Her famous quilt, Tar Beach, resides at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New... MORE »
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood is most well known for her textiles and installation work which represents her own history as a migrant agricultural worker, signifying her hybrid culture as well as the arbitrary lines that divide her homes. Artistic expression... MORE »
FAMILY
Preston Singletary
Preston Singletary (b. 1963 in San Francisco, CA) is a Tlingit glass artist. Singletary transfers Tlingit designs, traditionally carved in wood, onto glass. He studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Light is integral to his work,... MORE »
Dante Marioni
Dante Marioni (b. 1964) is a glass artist most well known for his freely blown, colorful, tall, and thin vessel forms. His work is influenced in its form by the Venetian tradition. He attended Pilchuck Glass School, Colorado Mountain... MORE »
Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee (b. 1951) is a ceramic artist who works in Pennsylvania creating forms that mimics natural, creating imagery of flowers, gourds, leaves. As a young man Lee studied medicine and became a successful neurosurgeon but became a potter... MORE »
Holly Lee
Holly Lee is a metalsmith who creates one-of-a-kind pieces using gold, silver, precious and semi-precious stones. She creates pieces that are hollow constructed, pierced and hand-drilled. These drilled forms create texture and a sense of light passing through space.... MORE »
Marina Marioni
Marina Marioni is a self taught jewelry artist who comes from an artistic family. Marina creates jewelry that often plays with form and meaning, much like her father’s (Paul Marioni) sculptures often play with visual puns. Marina has experience... MORE »
Paul Marioni
Paul Marioni (b. 1941) is a glass artist whose work is about human nature and is often inspired by his dreams. Known as an innovator in the glass world, Marioni pushes his techniques to their limits, regularly redefining what... MORE »
Ed Moulthrop
Ed Moulthrop (1916-2003) was a self taught woodturner, known as the father of modern woodturning. His interest in wood began as a child and he bought his first lathe when he was a teenager. Although he studied to become... MORE »
Matt Moulthrop
Matt Moulthrop (b. 1977) is a woodturner and son of Philip Moulthrop and grandson of Ed Moulthrop. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Matt turned his first bowl at the age of 7. Completing his BA... MORE »
Philip Moulthrop
Philip Moulthrop (b. 1947) is a woodturner who works in Marietta, Georgia. He started woodturning in 1979, learning the woodturning basics from his father, Ed Moulthrop. Philip is most famous for his mosaic bowls and pioneering his composite technique.... MORE »
Lisa Sorrell
Lisa Sorrell learned to sew clothing at age twelve. By the time she was fifteen she was both designing her own clothing and sewing professionally. In 1990, when she was 20, she moved from Missouri to Guthrie, Oklahoma. Having... MORE »
MESSAGES
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann is an artist who works in the medium of jewelry and sculpture. The primary design vocabulary which he employs in the making of jewelry objects combines industrial aesthetics and materials with evocative romantic themes and imagery. He... MORE »
Beth Lipman
Beth Lipman is a glass artist working in Wisconsin. Her work explores the symbolism of 17th century still life paintings through glimmering creations made of clear glass, symbolizing wealth and consumerism. Since earning her BFA from Tyler School of... MORE »
Charles M. Carrillo
Charles M. Carrillo (b. 1956 in Albuquerque, NM) is an artist, author, and archaeologist known particularly for creating art using Spanish colonial techniques that reflect 18th century Spanish New Mexico. Carrillo has blended craft, conservation, and innovation throughout his... MORE »
Joyce J. Scott
Joyce J. Scott (b. 1948) is a versatile artist from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a printmaker, weaver, sculptor, performance artist, and educator, but she is probably most well known for her work in jewelry, beadwork, and glass. Her art... MORE »
PROCESS
Dave Williamson
Dave Williamson (b. 1949) is a jeweler who live in Berea, OH with wife and partner, Roberta Williamson. The Williamsons create jewelry that combines ephemera and found objects, some of which has been passed down in their families, and... MORE »
Roberta Williamson
Roberta Williamson (b. 1949) is a jeweler who live in Berea, OH with husband and partner, Dave Williamson. The Williamsons create jewelry that combines ephemera and found objects, some of which has been passed down in their families, and... MORE »
Julie Chen
After completing a degree in printmaking at the University of California, Berkeley, Julie Chen became intrigued by the language, equipment, and materials of Book Arts and entered the Book Arts program at Mills College. Book Arts encompass binding, letterpress,... MORE »
Cary Esser
Cary Esser (b. 1957) is a ceramic artist who works in Kansas City, Missouri. She creates architectural tiles and terra cotta details using the language of architectural ornament to interpret human culture and the natural world. Esser received her... MORE »
Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez
Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez has combined a first career practicing architecture with his North Bennet Street School training as a cabinet maker to become a nationally recognized designer and maker of studio furniture. He has contributed articles and essays on furniture... MORE »
Tom Killion
Tom Killion was born and raised in Mill Valley, California, on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais. The rugged scenery of Marin County and Northern California inspired him from an early age, creating landscape prints using wood, linoleum blocks and... MORE »
Nikki Lewis
Nikki Lewis (b. 1976) is a ceramic artist who works in Los Angeles, CA. “I like to get dirty,” she says, explaining her long-standing love for making all things clay. She throws exquisite delicate functional work that feature intricate... MORE »
ORIGINS
Jim Bassler
Jim Bassler (b. 1933) was introduced to the textile traditions at an early age from his father. The Cold War strategies gave him the opportunity to see the world and introduced him to the craft traditions of Europe, the... MORE »
Carlton Simmons
Carlton Simmons (b. 1959), a nephew of the master blacksmith, Philip Simmons (1912-2009), enjoys the free style design in iron with an eye on nature. He went into the blacksmith shop at the age of 13 also – the... MORE »
Paul J. Stankard
Paul J. Stankard (b. 1943) is a glass artist living in Mantua, NJ, an area where glass has been produced since 1739. Paul follows in the tradition of centuries-old European lampwork, elevating the practice of flamework to the highest... MORE »
Bayle Owens
Bayle grew up in a family working in craft (Vernon, Pam and Travis Owens) who own Jugtown Pottery, an American Craft Shop located in Seagrove, NC. As a child, she spent a large amount of time around the... MORE »
Katherine Stankard Campbell
Katherine Stankard Campbell is a glass artist who resides in Southern New Jersey. After earning her BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Campbell entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was awarded an MFA... MORE »
Teri Greeves
Teri Greeves (b. 1970) is a beadwork artist who lives in Santa Fe, NM. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. Teri follows and updates the Kiowa tradition of beadwork, to tell the story of the... MORE »
Mark Hewitt
Mark Hewitt is a potter, who was born in England. Although his father and grandfather were the directors of Spode, a fine china manufacturing company, he decided to become a studio potter instead of an industry manager. He received... MORE »
Christine Stankard Kressley
Christine Stankard Kressley is a glass artist who resides in Southern New Jersey. Under the mastery of international studio glass artist, Paul J. Stankard, Christine creates glass paperweights, continuing the American Paperweight tradition. Growing up in the Stankard home,... MORE »
Pamela Owens
Pam’s pottery studies began with seven years of pottery apprenticeship, the traditional method of pottery study. Beginning in 1975, she studied for two years at High Mowing School, a small Waldorf School in New Hampshire, under the guidance of... MORE »
Travis Owens
Travis (b. 1985), the son of Vernon and Pam Owens began working with clay as soon as he could walk and grew up learning the craft from his family. Travis received a BA in Art and Design at North... MORE »
Vernon Owens
Vernon Owens is a native of Seagrove in Moore County, NC. His roots in pottery go back four to five generations. Vernon grew up working in his father’s shop, M.L. Owens, absorbing the style and shapes. In the late... MORE »
Joseph “Ronnie” Pringle
Joseph Pringle (b. 1943), better known as “Ronnie,” was born and raised in Charleston, SC. He fell in love with the blacksmith shop at an early age while visiting his cousin, Philip Simmons, practically every day. He loved his... MORE »
Philip Simmons
Philip Simmons (1912–2009) was a renowned blacksmith in Charleston, SC. Enticed by the sparks flying in a blacksmith shop he passed on his way to school, he became an apprentice at the early age of 13 in the shop... MORE »
COMMUNITY
Preston Singletary
Preston Singletary (b. 1963 in San Francisco, CA) is a Tlingit glass artist. Singletary transfers Tlingit designs, traditionally carved in wood, onto glass. He studied at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington. Light is integral to his work,... MORE »
Cynthia Bringle
Cynthia Bringle (b. 1939, Memphis, Tennessee) is a ceramic artist, who lives and works in Penland, North Carolina. Although she is most well known for her ceramics, she is also a painter and printmaker. She earned a BFA from Memphis... MORE »
Edwina Bringle
Edwina Bringle (b. 1939 in Memphis, TN) who lives and works in Penland, NC. As a fiber artist she is known for her use of color and design in her woven textiles and free motion embroidered pieces. Bringle also... MORE »
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly (b. 1941, Tacoma, WA) is a glassblower, who resides in Seattle, Washington. Exploring color and form in his work, he is known for his organic, large scale installations and multi-part compositions. He studied interior design at the... MORE »
Einar de la Torre
Einar de la Torre (b. 1963 in Guadalajara, Mexico) is an artist who primarily works in glass along with his brother, Jamex de la Torre. The brothers moved to California in 1972 and graduated from California State University Long... MORE »
Jamex de la Torre
Jamex de la Torre (b. 1960 in Guadalajara, Mexico) is a sculptor who primarily works in glass with his brother, Einar de la Torre (b. 1963 in Guadalajara, Mexico). The brothers moved to California in 1972 and graduated from... MORE »
Sarah Jaeger
Sarah Jaeger (b. 1949 in West Simsbury, CT) is a potter who works in Helena, MT. She received a BA from Harvard College and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Jaeger creates functional porcelain pottery, often thrown... MORE »
Ken Loeber
Ken Loeber (b. 1948) is a jeweler who works in Algoma, WI, where he lives with his wife, Dona Look and their son, Reid. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee with his BFA in 1970 and MFA... MORE »
Dona Look
Dona Look (b. 1948) is a basket maker who works in Algoma, WI, where she lives with her husband, Ken Loeber and their son, Reid. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 1970. She collects bark from... MORE »
Geraldine Nash
Geraldine Nash (Port Gibson, MS) learned to quilt after being hired to babysit while the students and mothers learned to quilt. “…after I got the job the parents came but they didn’t bring their kids. So, Miss Rankin... MORE »
Hystercine Rankin
Hystercine Rankin (1929-2010) learned quilting from her grandmother at the age of 12 and started making quilts to keep her family warm. She made traditional quilts like the log cabin, but created her own unique versions of them, utilizing... MORE »
Denise Wallace
Denise Wallace (b. 1957 in Seattle, WA) is a jewelry artist of Native Alaskan Aleut descent, who worked with her husband, Samuel Wallace (1936-2010). She maintains and modifies a walrus-ivory carving tradition. Wallace is most well known for her... MORE »
Samuel Wallace
Samuel Wallace (1936-2010) lapidarist, worked with his wife Denise Wallace (b. 1957 in Seattle, WA), a jeweler of Native Alaskan Aleut descent. She maintains and modifies a walrus-ivory carving tradition. Their work has been in the collections of the... MORE »
LANDSCAPE
George Nakashima
George Nakashima (1905-1990) was a woodworker, born in Spokane, WA. He attended the University of Washington and received his Masters in Architecture from MIT. During WWII, he was placed in an internment camp where he learned woodworking from a... MORE »
Mira Nakashima
Mira Nakashima (b. 1942 in Seattle, WA) has followed her father’s (George Nakashima) path by becoming a woodworker. She attended Harvard University and received a Masters degree in Architecture from Waseda University in Tokyo. She worked with her father... MORE »
Kit Carson
Kit Carson (b. 1950, AZ) is an artist and jeweler, who lives and works at Cactus Camp in New River, AZ with his wife, artist Aryana B. Londir. Carson grew up on a dude ranch with supportive and energetic... MORE »
David Gurney
David Gurney (b. 1958 in Garden Grove, CA) is a potter and painter. He received his MA in Ceramics from California State University, Fullerton. He now lives on California’s Central Coast. His work is influenced by nature, food, Mexican... MORE »
Richard Notkin
Richard Notkin (b. 1948 in Chicago, IL) is a ceramic artist who works in Helena, MT. Influenced by the tradition of Yixing pottery, his work is a vehicle for political commentary. He received his BFA from Kansas City Art... MORE »
Jan Yager
Jan Yager (b. 1951 in Detroit, MI) is an artist and mixed-media jeweler. She received a BFA from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work is known for its close observation... MORE »
MEMORY
Mary Jackson
Mary Jackson (b. 1945) is a basket maker who lives in Charleston, SC with her husband, Stoney. She makes sweetgrass baskets that come out of a tradition that has been passed down from her ancestors. It originated in West... MORE »
Garry Knox Bennett
Garry Knox Bennett (b. 1934 in Alameda, CA) is a furniture maker who works in Oakland, CA. He attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (currently California College of the Arts) where he learned to paint and sculpt.... MORE »
Pat Courtney Gold
Pat Courtney Gold (b. 1939 in Warm Springs, OR) is a basket maker influenced by her ancestors, the Wasco Indians. Her work is based on the baskets of her ancestors using the full turn twine technique but she experiments... MORE »
Tom Joyce
Tom Joyce (b. 1956) is a blacksmith who works in Santa Fe, NM. At the age of 13, he became an apprentice to a blacksmith and at 16 he dropped out of school to dedicate his life to metalsmithing.... MORE »
Gerhardt Knodel
Gerhardt Knodel (b. 1940) is a fiber artist and former director at Cranbrook Academy of Art and the former Fiber Department head. Knodel’s work with fiber includes installations, theater, architectural commissions, and the pictorial potential of weaving. He graduated... MORE »
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