The Smithsonian Women’s Committee unveils a new digital show, drawing attention to the threat of climate change and celebrating craft artists whose materials and techniques seek to make sustainable art, from jewelry and clothing to wooden vessels, found object collages and ceramics. Featuring one hundred craftspeople, including Smithsonian Craft Show favorites as well as new and emerging artists, this online marketplace will be held on Bidsquare, as was last year’s show.

Find a wonderful potpourri of new discoveries, such as Picuris Pueblo, Navajo and French jewelry artist Wayne Nez Gaussoin. Gaussoin, who has been previously covered in Ornament Magazine, and exhibited in the prestigious Heard Indian Fair & Market, comes from a family of creative makers, with both his mother and two brothers being accomplished jewelers, while his sister weaves traditional rugs. Or take a gander at the metalworking of Seth Michael Carlson, a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and an artist who has a deep affinity with the natural world. From octopus sucker necklaces to miniature rabbits and beautifully constructed bees and insects, his beautiful silver and gold fabrications only use ethically sourced or recycled metals and gemstones.

There’s also familiar faces, such as Jiyoung Chung, joomchi master who uses this traditional Korean handmade paper in ethereal and heart-stopping wall hangings. These two-dimensional sculptures use light and shadow as much as they employ dye and color, with holes in the joomchi letting light pass through, casting rich darkness on the wall behind. Or take the miniature portraits of Christina Goodman, who combines her affinity for painting with metalworking skills to produce pendants and brooches that are vivid tableaus of nature and landscape. There’s also the wood jewelry of Gustav Reyes, who uses steam and heat to bend wood into sensuous curves that become bracelets and brooches. Recycled wood becomes wedding rings, with inlays of crushed semiprecious stones.

Newspaper jewelry by Holly Anne Mitchell; conscientious shibori-dyed garments by Amy Nguyen and Mary Jaeger; jewelry made from recycled coffee filters, from Sara Owens; hand-woven clothes by Frittelli and Lockwood; there’s a wonderful and exciting lineup waiting for you in April, at Craft Optimism!

You can register for the show for free; visit smithsoniancraftshow.org/craft-optimism-2021 to find when registration opens. The show opens Saturday, April 24, 9 AM EST, and closes Saturday, May 1, 11:59 PM EST.