The book is a companion to nonprofit Craft in America’s Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 initiative celebrating America’s 250th year. (Image courtesy of The Monacelli Press)
Los Angeles—Craft in America, a nonprofit arts organization that promotes and advances original handcrafted work through media programs, has released a new book centering items made by hand in America.
“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” is the official book created to accompany Craft in America’s yearlong initiative, Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026.
The initiative celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by featuring hundreds of museum exhibitions and events, a four-part PBS docuseries, and specially designed educational components.
The book highlights America’s spirit through ordinary, surprising, and overlooked handcrafted objects, including jewelry, from before 1776 to today.
Craft in America said the book is essential reading for anyone curious about American history, design, material culture, or craft.
It covers the multiplicity of cultures that have made America and uncovers stories behind objects that shaped American life and reflect innovation, resistance, artistry, and community.
“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” is divided into four sections—"Dwell,” “Feed,” “Furnish,” and “Adorn,” with the latter featuring jewelry like the necklace seen here. (Image courtesy of The Monacelli Press)
“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” is divided into four curated sections, “Dwell,” “Feed,” “Furnish,” and “Adorn.”
The Adorn chapter holds the many jewelry features, including a turquoise brooch from the Sinagua people (1200-1450), a Diné squash blossom necklace, an 1807 mourning pendant, and contemporary pieces by Joyce J. Scott.
Throughout the book, there are more than 100 pieces of art ranging from early Colonial American silver candlesticks to a nineteenth-century Kiowa cradleboard and an antique Hawaiian surfboard.
The included contemporary artists show how craft traditions live on as a testament to the human ingenuity that continues to shape American culture, said Craft in America.
As for the jewelers, work by Frank Gardner Hale, Jan Yager, Bééshłigai ííł'íní Ałts'óózígíí (Slender Maker of Silver), and Scott are shown in the book.
Several objects from the book have also been shown in Craft in America’s episodes or exhibitions this year and related objects are on display at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, including pieces by Joyce J. Scott, Ehren Tool, and Consuelo Jimenez Underwood.
The “War, What is it Good For, Absolutely Nothin’, Say it Again” neckpiece by Joyce J. Scott uses glass beads and thread in a Peyote stitch. (Image Credit: Michael Koryta/Image courtesy of Mobilia Gallery)
Alongside the imagery are essays from 40 experts—craft artists, scholars, curators, and administrators.
“Handwork: Handcrafted Objects that Made America” was edited by Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center.
Zaiden oversees public programing, including the creation of the online Craft Video Dictionary.
For the book, she also wrote the introduction, which speaks to her editorial approach of “placing on equal footing the everyday and the ordinary, the overlooked and disregarded, and the exceptional and acclaimed.”
The book’s forward was written by Carol Sauvion, an American crafts scholar, the creator of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series “Craft in America,” and the founding director of Craft in America.
The 320-page hardcover book was published by Monacelli, a Phaidon Company, and released on July 29.
