Editor’s Picks
André Chervin
The New-York Historical Society brought together a stunning collection of André Chervin of Carvin French Jewelers, showcasing his beloved objets d’art.
Photograph by David Behl.
Volume 45, No. 4
Table of Contents
Features
Jewels of the Garden
Insects and Fruits in Adornment
Cochineal
The Crimson Bug
Smithsonian Craft Show.
Honoring the Artist
Diane von Furstenberg.
Wrap Legend
Departments
Mother Earth.
The Ecology of Fashion
World of Energy.
Tradition | Rebellion.
Lesley Aine Mckeown
Native American Arts.
Heard Museum Indian Market 2025.
Treasures of the Earth
A Humble Form.
Chinese Vintage Bangles
Taiwanese Innovation.
Aka Chen.
Delicate Balance
COCHINEAL
THE CRIMSON BUG
Wayne P. Armstrong contributes his background as a biology professor to reveal the mystery behind the cochineal insect, the source of the bright red dye that was coveted all over the world. In Spanish, it is known as la grana cochinilla. From British Red Coats to 18th century paintings and food dye, cochineal is why red is part of humanity’s wearable repertoire.
SMITHSONIAN CRAFT SHOW 2025
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu takes a different look at the Smithsonian Craft Show for 2025, as he brings this year’s Visionary Award winner, Nick Cave, to reveal how craft and art can communicate in our most difficult moments as human beings.
LESLEY AINE MCKEOWN
Lesley Aine McKeown’s jewelry explores space, science fiction worlds and juicy stones, while she shares her wisdom on life and philosophy.
The Process of Becoming
We Share with You the Jewelry Collection of the late Ornament Coeditor, Carolyn L.E. Benesh, who forged strong and intimate bonds with many of the artists whose work she purchased.
Articles, Past and Present
The Expression of the Handmade Makes Itself Felt through Genuineness.
What was Made Took a Combination of Skill and Ingenuity, Birthed From That Mysterious Dark Place of Imagination.
Wearable Art
It came about as a nexus in the 60s and 70s, referencing a freeform fusion of heretofore two-dimensional art and applying it to the canvas of the human being. These clothes as costume and costume as clothes birthed off a movement that still has its adherents even now, in the contemporary age.
Jewelry has had to find itself in the Modernist age, transcending the fine jewelry of wealth at the turn of the century, and reaching mid-century the abstracted explorations of material, composition, and storytelling that would yield to the contemporary art jewelry movement. Today, contemporary art jewelry remains a creatively vibrant field, a cross-disciplinary cooperation that branches off into academic work and that sold at craft shows.
We bring you the broad spectrum of human self-expression in wearable art, from the ancient and the ethnic, to the contemporary. Both here in the United States, and abroad.
Here are a few of the jewelers and clothing makers in the wearable art community for your enjoyment. We will continue to rotate this selection each month, so you will always find superlative new work to explore.
AMY NGUYEN, SHIBORI DYED CLOTHING
KEN LOEBER & DONA LOOK, JEWELRY
BIBA SCHUTZ, JEWELRY
JANICE KISSINGER, HAND-DYED FELTED CLOTHING
K. RILEY, HANDMADE BLOCK-PRINT CLOTHING
JUDITH KINGHORN, JEWELRY
Intelligent Reading.
Enter a world where experience and skill cooperate with imagination and materials to create astounding objects. The spectrum of human adornment extends from tribal and folk cultures around the globe, to the rarefied heights of the fashion industry, to contemporary art jewelry and craft which seeks to explore new boundaries.
Wayne P. Armstrong contributes his background as a biology professor to reveal the mystery behind the cochineal insect, the source of the bright red dye that was coveted all over the world. In Spanish, it is known as la grana cochinilla. From British Red Coats to 18th century paintings and food dye, cochineal is why red is part of humanity’s wearable repertoire.