NEWS & EVENTS
Events Calendar
Current Events | Exhibitions | Awards & Announcements
“SoCal SoCraft” around San Diego County
SUPREME: RESPECT FOR THE TWO-SPIRITS by Angela Babby of Kiln-fired vitreous enamel on glass mosaic on tile board, 20” x 16”, 2013. Photograph by Angela Babby. © Angela Babby. SAN DIEGO POTTER’S GUILD, located off 1770 Village Place. MI ABUELA by Paula Sontay, a Guatemalan-American artist who speaks on July 18 at the Visions Museum of Textile Art.
SAN DIEGO comes together to present “SoCal SoCraft,” a celebration of Handwork 2026, throughout July. Starting at Mingei International Museum on July 11, we have “Celebrating Clearly Indigenous: A Day of Community & Craft” beginning at 11 AM. The Museum comes alive with an Artist Talk by Dan Friday, a Kumeyaay basket-weaving demonstration by Eva Salazar, a Wiyapu Bird Singing performance, and free museum admission throughout the day. The San Diego Potter’s Guild joins in the fun, with an Open Studio from 12 PM to 5 PM. The Guild welcomes visitors with live demonstrations, hands-on activities, and learning about forming, firing, and surface decoration techniques. Visitors can also shop handmade ceramics in the guild gallery while exploring one of Balboa Park’s most active creative communities.
The next day, July 12 sees the UCSD Craft Center and Glass Center open their doors, from 12 PM to 4 PM, for “Material World Open House”. Explore the UC San Diego Craft Center through live demonstrations, instructor showcases, open studios, and hands-on activities in printmaking, leatherworking, and ceramics. Visitors can also experience narrated glassblowing and flame-working demonstrations at the newly opened Glass Center and meet the artists and educators who bring these programs to life.
The San Diego Craft Collective holds an Open Studio event the same day, where visitors can discover woodworking, clay, and other traditional craft practices through free demonstrations led by local makers and instructors. Visitors can learn about classes, community programs, and the role of craft education in San Diego.
On July 18, the Visions Museum of Textile Art hosts “Recognizing Guatemalan Heritage Through Food, Craft, and Art”. That same weekend, the American Craft Council celebrates Handwork 2026 through an Open Studios weekend with participating artists throughout the country, from July 18 - 19. City Workshops at 3615 University Avenue, San Diego, CA 92104 and the San Diego Potter’s Guild at 1770 Village Place, Studio 29, San Diego, CA 92101 are participants.
To cap off “SoCal SoCraft,” San Diego State University and Allied Craftsmen of San Diego present craft demonstrations and show-and-tell on July 25 from 12 PM to 2 PM. Visitors are invited to explore the historic craft studios of SDSU’s School of Art and Design, including Jewelry & Metalwork, Furniture & Woodworking, Ceramics, and the recently established Digital Fabrication Lab. Members of Allied Craftsmen of San Diego will demonstrate neon bending and CNC-routed wood inlay while showcasing innovative materials such as bio-plastics and bio-leather. Guests will have the opportunity to view student and professional work and engage directly with artists, designers, and craftspeople. The address is Art North, Fourth Floor Courtyard and Room 415, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182.
Past Events
BEAD TRADE IN ANTIQUITY LECTURE
The wonderful women at South Orange County Gem & Mineral Society (SOCGEMS) have now posted Ornament Coeditor Robert K. Liu’s lecture on the bead trade in antiquity! Join Dr. Liu as he takes you on a tour through the global, historical bead trade, with particular focus on the Middle East and Asia. Please excuse the poor audio quality, we’re working out the kinks! You can watch the recording of the event here.
TUCSON BEAD SYMPOSIUM 2022
Once a year, a little gathering of bead lovers and experts share in their appreciation of beads. First started at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show as a collaboration between Ornament Magazine and bead dealers, and then hosted for several years by the Sonoran Glass School, this oasis of knowledge on our favorite pierced adornment always has interesting research and artists to present.
For the past two years, bead researcher and artist Floor Kaspers and her partner, Peter van de Wijngaart, have hosted the Tucson Bead Symposium in its digital form. While the Symposium is long past, the lectures and talks that were given are as exciting today as they were back then for bead afficionados!
For More Information, Visit: www.facebook.com/beadsymposium
TUCSON BEAD SYMPOSIUM 2021
The Tucson Bead Symposium took place virtually on February 6, 2021. Over two hours, five bead artists, experts, and collectors conversed on fascinating topics such as the occupation of beadstringing in Venice, Italy, or their experience as a self-taught artist working with recycled glass. You can watch the whole recording of the event here.
TUCSON BEAD SYMPOSIUM 2023
The virtual Tucson Bead Symposium continues this year, with Sindi Schloss, Nina Sam Hibler and our own Dr. Robert K. Liu providing thoughtful presentations on symbology, their own work and indigenous Paiwan glass beads, respectively.
Floor Kaspers, a frequent contributor to Ornament Magazine, and a bead artist, researcher and enthusiast herself, hosted the recent symposium along with her partner and world traveler, Peter van de Wijngaart.
If you missed out on the fun, you can view the whole lecture to the left. This year’s theme was “Symbolism in Beads”.
Ornament Magazine in Craft in America
If you haven’t watched the Craft in America series, you are in for a treat. This PBS documentary series explores the myriad expressions of craft in the United States, delving into the history and personal stories of the artists, both known and unknown, who have contributed to this rich artistic tradition.
In the most recent episode, titled JEWELRY, a compelling journey through the lives of many seminal American jewelers, including Tom Herman, Art Smith, Harriete Estel Berman, Gabrielle Gould, and Jesse Monongya demonstrates the diversity and complexity of contemporary art jewelry. Ornament Coeditors Robert K. Liu and Patrick R. Benesh-Liu also make an appearance, explaining the ancient history of personal adornment, and the reason why the desire to change our appearance with jewelry is a fundamental part of our being human.
IN MEMORY OF ORNAMENT MAGAZINE COEDITOR CAROLYN L.E. BENESH.
For More Information, Visit: www.craftinamerica.org/episode/jewelry
SOCGEMS Lecture with Ornament Coeditor, Robert K. Liu
Last year in 2021, Ornament Coeditor Robert K. Liu gave his well received Prehistoric Jewelry from the U.S. Southwest lecture on Zoom for the South Orange County Gem & Mineral Society, and in 2022 he returned to give it in person in San Clemente, California! We thank SOCGEMS for being such wonderful hosts, and for recording the talk. For those of you who missed it, join Ornament and SOCGEMS as Dr. Liu explores the great human habitations and trade routes of the Prehistoric Southwest United States.
For More Information, Visit: www.socgems.com
EXHIBITIONS
California
BOWERS MUSEUM hosts “Miao: Masters of Silver” as a physical and digital exhibition which is currently ongoing. Featuring over two hundred fifty intricate works of silver, the exhibit features jewelry and textiles primarily made in China’s Guizhou Province, where the largest population of Miao people reside. Male silversmiths create a variety of ornaments through casting, smelting, repoussé (a reverse hammering technique), forging, engraving, knitting, coiling, cutting, and other methods. Concepts such as beauty, unity, fortune, and pride are expressed as visual abstractions and geometric motifs. You can explore the exhibition digitally here: guide.bowers.org/index.php/component/sppagebuilder/?view=page&id=200.
2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California; 714.567.3600; www.bowers.org.
Pennsylvania
THE GLENCAIRN MUSEUM has reopened “Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt” as an online exhibition, with the physical exhibit scheduled through October 31, 2021. When Raymond Pitcairn purchased the ancient jewelry now in the Glencairn’s collection during the 1920s and 1930s, he intended for it to be worn by Mildred, his wife. It was later also worn by their daughters and granddaughters. Raymond designed dresses and gowns for Mildred to wear on special occasions, and it was not uncommon for elements of ancient jewelry to be incorporated into the dresses’ embellishments. By examining the materials and symbols present in these ornaments, we can come away with a deeper understanding of the complex ideas that guided the artists, as well as the hopes and beliefs of those who wore this jewelry in ancient times. You can explore the digital exhibition here: glencairnmuseum.org/exhibitions-full/2020/2/29/sacred-adornment-jewelry-as-belief-in-ancient-egypt.
1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009; 267.502.2600; www.glencairnmuseum.org.
Washington, D.C.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART features “Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa” as a digital exhibition. Gold from West Africa was the engine that drove the movement of things, people, and ideas across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East in an interconnected medieval world. As the incredible works in this exhibition show, it is not possible to understand the emergence of the early modern world without this West African story. The exhibition calls on what archaeologists have termed “the archaeological imagination”—the act of recapturing the past through surviving traces—to present a critical rethinking of the medieval period. Here, rare and precious archaeological fragments are seen side by side, bringing new understanding to complete works of art from the medieval period. The physical exhibit closed November 29, 2020, but the museum has posted a detailed tour of the exhibition, including videos of experts online. You can visit the exhibition digitally here: africa.si.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/caravans-of-gold-fragments-in-time-art-culture-and-exchange-across-medieval-saharan-africa.
950 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20560; 202.633.4600; africa.si.edu.
Australia
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA has turned “Collecting Comme” into a three-dimensional virtual tour. Featuring more than fifty examples drawn from the gallery’s significant Comme des Garçons holdings, gifted to the Gallery by Takamasa Takahashi, and supported by additional loans from his archive, the exhibition highlights key collections and recurrent themes in Kawakubo’s work. The designs of two of her protégés, Junya Watanabe and Tao Kurihara are also featured. You can explore the exhibition digitally here: www.ngv.vic.gov.au/virtual-tours/collecting-comme.
180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, Victoria 3006, Australia; 61.3.8620.2222; www.ngv.vic.gov.au.
Great Britain
THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM collaborated with Google in 2017 to create “Schiaparelli and Surrealism” as a digital exhibition. The museum joined more than one hundred eighty cultural institutes around the world from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Palace of Versailles to create a virtual exhibition of style that uses technology to allow viewers to explore 3,000 years of world fashion and discover the stories behind the clothes we wear today. That digital exhibit is as enjoyable now as it was four years ago. You can explore the exhibition here: artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/schiaparelli-and-surrealism/1QLSabXbe04rJw?hl=en.
Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL, United Kingdom, 44.20.7942.2000; www.vam.ac.uk.