About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

If you are interested in knowing what the studio ceramics (and other studio craft) trends are in the major galleries and museums, this is a good magazine. However, if you want hands-on, how-to articles, this magazine is not for you.



Pros

• Good at keeping the pulse of high-level crafts as seen in major galleries and museums.
• Can be inspiring and give a platform for your own explorations in clay.

Cons

• Very much geared toward professionals and those interested in high-end crafts.

Description

• Glossy, fully illustrated magazine running about 70-80 pages. Comes out bi-monthly; published by the American Craft Council.
• Covers multiple craft mediums including clay, glass, metal, wood, fiber, and others. Geared toward high-end professionals.
• Works to bridge "the disparate worlds of art, industry, fashion, architecture and design."
• Has a great many advertisements. This can be a bother, but also can be a great way to find workshops and see even more work.

Guide Review - Review of American Craft Magazine

I read several issues of American Craft with mixed feelings. At first I thought this might be from a conflict or disconnect between "art" and "craft." On further examination, I think this discomfort was more likely from an undercurrent of self-conscious "art-" or "craft-making". Interestingly enough, this undercurrent was even stronger in the advertisements, many of which are advertising high-end galleries.

I found many of the articles very interesting, allowing me to see further into another craftsman's work or mindset. However, the blaze of advertisement photographs sometimes made it difficult to find those articles. Yet again, I found many of the crafted objects in those ads to be very interesting, too.

American Craft is definitely not a how-to magazine. However, if you love crafted objects and want to expand your aesthetic and appreciative foundations through exposure to other artist-craftsmen, than this magazine can help you accomplish that.