Ornament Print Edition Volume 44.1

Welcome to our latest edition of Ornament Magazine! Patrick R. Benesh-Liu describes the superbly intricate micromosaic jewelry of this Navajo couple, their dramatic evolution and what inspired them to work with this technique, which requires thousands of precisely cut and ground pieces of gemstones.

Robert K. Liu describes how Thomas Stricker fulfilled a lifelong dream of opening a bead museum and trading post, to display perhaps the largest extant bead collection and related artifacts, especially from Northwest Africa.

Ashley Callahan illuminates a recent in-person and digital exhibition at the Jewelry Library. Delving into the stories behind women’s pearls, jewelers Petra Class and Biba Schutz invited colleagues to submit work for a show in which each entry told their own personal tale.

Jane C. Milosch and Kate Bonansinga, both experienced curators and scholars of craft, visit   and review “Schmuck,” the vast annual Munich jewelry fair. They present highlights and their impressions of leading contemporary jewelry.

Glen R. Brown discusses how jeweler Chris Ramsay treads a fine line between science and mysticism, with monarch butterflies being the subject of his recent series of exquisite boxed brooches.