Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
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32 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 asymmetrical bag, looking like a building in a state of collapse, is a clever trompe l'oeil. Thomas, who has been working for over three decades, is joined at the craft show by other dedicated leather artists, Mary Ellen Sisulak, Molly Grant and Libby Lane. The beauty and detailing in their work is far preferable to branded names like Fendi and Gucci. From Missouri, Michael Bauermeister's domestic adornments harken from the land, its color, rhythms and patterns, and he is endlessly inspired by its variety and possibilities. He says, "Wood has become my voice and my language. Over years spent making things both useful and useless out of wood, the physical work of sawing, carving, turning, and polishing has become my contemplation. The real effort is in figuring out what to make next." To push himself into the creative realm of making his sculptural wooden vessels and wall panels, Bauermeister initially draws from the tools and processes learned from years spent as a furniture maker. His training as a sculptor brings forth his carving, shaping, painting, and finishing skills. Adding to the result is what he calls the "traditional and not so traditional lathe techniques" from wood-turning that he also uses to shape his vessels. To attend the Smithsonian Craft Show is to share in the vital connections made between the hand, the heart and the mind. The handmade art found here is beautiful not despite its usefulness but because of it. April 23-26, 2015 April 22 Preview Night National Building Museum Washington, D.C. While Lucrezia Bieler calls Tallahassee, Florida, home, she brings an essential universal quality to her paper art (Scherenschnitte) that transcends any state, region or country. Her exquisite paper artistry, characterized by the extraordinary precision it takes to execute the pieces, is breathtaking anytime anywhere it is seen. The process, she states is "like woodcutting or sculpting, in that you start with a blank resource and create the art by simply cutting parts of it away." Bieler's works are from a single sheet of paper utilizing a pair of small scissors and profoundly dramatic in their intrinsic delicacy. The black and white paper cuttings heighten the visual effect in a counterpoint of light versus dark. Holly Tornheim, like Michael Bauermeister, Janel Jacobson, Norm Sartorius, Mike Shuler, and Archie Smith, is another experienced entrant in the wood category. Tornheim has exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, American Craft Council Baltimore and San Francisco shows as well as at the Fuller Craft Museum and Wharton Esherick Museum. Residing in Nevada City, California, Tornheim is self- taught and for many years worked as a finish carpenter and has built and carved custom wood doors. Exceedingly graceful and fluid, her wood sculptures evince particularly naturalistic and tactile auras that beckon the beholder to touch and explore their surfaces. Other categories in the Smithsonian Craft Show include ceramics, basketry and furniture. From a large pool of twenty-eight, Marvin Blackmore, Bennett Bean, Sandra Byers, Fong Choo, and Melissa Greene show exciting and original ceramics. Among the far smaller group of basketmakers, there is no overlooking the superb skills of Debora Muhl and Mary Jackson, who both utilize sweet grass to very different ends. Christine Adcock chooses from a multiplicity of materials— BETSY YOUNGQUIST: MIXED MEDIA