Glen R. Brown finds a deep philosophical undertone in Inner Mongolian immigrant Xinia Guan, who has come to America to pursue her career as a professional craftsperson. With passion and impeccable technique, she uses a fusion of technology and old-fashioned grit to make jewelry patterned with thousands of individual saw cuts.

D Wood brings the wild, wonderful world of Shae Bishop to Ornament. A ceramicist who refuses to be pigeonholed into any one discipline, Bishop makes his living through workshops and adjunct classes, whilst his labor produces beautiful, funny, and insightful critiques on American masculinity and culture. They’re wearable to boot! Slipcast cowboy hats and handsewn glazed tile chaps for the bad hombre!

A delicate exploration between the boundaries of life and death informs the jewelry of Anna Johnson.

Patrick R. Benesh-Liu ties in the annual Smithsonian Craft Show, taking place in the heart of our nation’s capital, to the Year of Handwork, which celebrates the semiquincentennial of America with a spotlight on our craftspeople. America’s past was built by the trades, and the Smithsonian Craft Show is one of the foremost venues in the country for finding contemporary makers.

Two Iranian women artists discuss their jewelry series and its relationship to Middle Eastern culture.

Patrick R. Benesh-Liu delves into the more than thirty-five years of making clothing by the Reintsema sisters, Lynn & K Meta. From their artist mother and the complicated example she set for the two daughters, who found a path together on the craft show trail, their elegant and structural art-to-wear speaks to the deep voice of the hand.

Robert K. Liu examines the talhakimt, a Tuareg agate fertility amulet, first made by East Indians, then with better agate and lapidary techniques by Germans in Idar-Oberstein. Due to competition for a share of the African trade in ornaments, the Czechs and French then produced molded glass versions, in various colors and sizes.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts brings Singaporean fashion designer Andrew Gn to the United States.

Ashley Callahan visits the jeweled menagerie of Linda Kindler Priest, who couples delicately chased and repousséd gold and silver creatures with specifically chosen semiprecious stones. These beautiful portraits of the animal kingdom are also clarion calls to save our planet.

The Philadelphia Musuem of Art Contemporary Craft Show brings together some of the best artists in American craft, right as Handwork 2026 kicks off in the City of Brotherly Love.