ACC staff will be returning from our 47th annual flagship marketplace in Baltimore and may be delayed in responding to calls and emails. ×
Advertisement

American Craft

American Craft

American Craft magazine celebrates the diversity of American craft and its makers.

From the handmade that we use in our homes every day to the fine craft honored in museums, we cover inspiring craft being made today. We also showcase craft organizations making a difference in their communities, thought leadership in the field, and the importance of craft in contemporary American culture.

Subscribe by becoming an American Craft Council member. 

Join ACC to receive a one-year, quarterly subscription to American Craft, two tickets to all ACC in-person marketplaces, first-look shopping in our online pop-up marketplaces, special members-only discounts, and more.

Join / Subscribe

Cover of the Spring 2024 issue of American Craft magazine

American Craft’s Spring 2024 issue is focused on the theme ritual.

Craft and ritual go hand in hand. In all cultures, people create items to help celebrate and mourn, to tend to themselves, and to connect with others. In this issue, you’ll discover the kinds of objects artists make in order to help us reflect and relax, relate and heal; why nameplate jewelry is so important in Chicano/a culture; the role seder plates play in Jewish traditions; how a monastery is incorporating mentorship into a new center devoted to woodworking and pipe organ building, how the piñata form is being reimagined as high art; and the ways one artist explores spirituality through Egyptian and Islamic ceramic traditions.

We hope you discover new ways of thinking about craft and ritual in this issue, and that you’re inspired to look at their roles within your own life.

Explore This Issue

Purchase This Issue

Looking for a different issue?

Past issues of American Craft are still available to explore and for purchase. For older issues, including Craft Horizons, visit the digital collections. If you are unsure which issue you are looking for, contact the library.

 

Explore Content Online

Roberto Benavidez with some of his piñata creations in his Los Angeles home studio. Photo by Roberto Benavidez.

The Queue: Roberto Benavidez

Roberto Benavidez sculpts piñatas that embrace the odd and fantastical. In The Queue, the Los Angeles–based piñatero shares about the piñata that first inspired him, John J. Audubon’s influence on his work, and the craft art in his home studio.

The Nameplate: Jewelry, Culture, and Identity

THIS IS WHO I AM

Chicana musician and fashion label founder LaLa Romero on the power of nameplate jewelry.

Roberto Benavidez in his studio surrounded by completed works, including Sugar Skull Piñata No.1, 2009, his very first piñata sculpture, which hangs just below the tail of one of his Bosch birds. Photo by James Bernal.

Raising the Piñata

LA-based sculptor Roberto Benavidez makes extravagant piñatas based on artistic masterpieces that you wouldn’t think of hitting with a stick.

Jo Andersson. Photo by Sarah Maria Yasdani.

The Queue: Jo Andersson

Jo Andersson’s glass vessels and lighting inspire reflection and contemplation. In The Queue, the Gothenburg, Sweden–based artist shares about the embodiment at the core of glassblowing, her admiration for masters of the medium, and her future plans in glassblowing.

Casillas at work in a studio at the University of North Texas. Photo courtesy of Horacio Casillas.

Rituals of Making: Horacio Casillas

Born in Chandler, Arizona, and raised in Jalisco, Mexico, artist Horacio Casillas makes holy water fonts for use in the Catholic church, elaborately carved clay jars, and other ceramic works.

LEFT: Photo by ShootmeJade. MIDDLE: Photo by Justin O’Brien, courtesy of the artist. RIGHT: Photo courtesy of Horacio Casillas.

Rituals of Making

Six local artists share the people and spaces that define this city, which is built on the handmade.

Shary Boyle, The Potter II, 2019, terracotta, porcelain, underglaze, china paint, lustre, brass rod, wood dowel, 58 x 40 x 40 cm. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Purchase, Suzanne Caouette Bequest, in tribute. Photo by John Jones, courtesy of the artist and Patel Brown Gallery.

Across Time and Space

American Craft recently visited the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. As we entered, we were delighted to find gallery guide Nili Baider just beginning a tour. She took us straight to Canadian artist Shary Boyle’s recent Outside the Palace of Me exhibition.