Dear Ornament Reader,

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times (December 6, 2003) discussed how we are looking for authenticity in our lives; in how and what we eat, how we live, what we buy—something to make us feel that we live a meaningful life in which we have some control and enjoyment. We can certainly understand these needs and wants, when the majority live in a world of continual or perceived threats, of artificial wants or necessities, overwhelmed with onslaughts of communication, working at jobs in which satisfaction is lacking and where there is little tangible evidence of progress or guarantee of security. And we are primarily speaking of life in the United States or somewhere in the developed countries, not the Third World, where even the bare necessities of life are elusive.

For those of us who work at Ornament, craftspeople, and others we write about, and our readers, we give thanks for a way of life in which meaningful acts are more the norm. The staff of Ornament or those who write for us, translate facts, impressions, research and images into mental and visual representations of how contemporary, ethnographic and ancient craftspeople conduct their lives and make their art, turning raw materials that form the basic media of crafts into works of functional art through the skill of their hands and minds. While some media, techniques and tools are products of our time, much work is still traditional, often relying on means that have been used for hundreds to thousands of years.

Writing articles and illustrating them are now inseparable from the computer and the camera, but how we think and how we execute photographs depend upon the most basic of cognitive processes, that probably do not differ much from when the first humans started to draw, express themselves or write. No matter the sophistication of some artists, the basic process of thinking, planning and making a work of art is still dependent on our thoughts and the neuro-muscular finesse of our hands, those most precious of tools. The satisfaction of writing, photographing, illustrating or making art, handling an artifact made by someone from another culture or from antiquity—these are all ways of grounding ourselves in that most authentic, traditional of human processes—the creation of artistic endeavors of the hand and mind.

Whether we produce a tangible work of art or craft, or acquire such products of human hands, we immediately connect to that basic need to do meaningful labor, in the process joining our emotions and thoughts to that handmade object. This connection can take the form of pleasure in a well-made functional piece, in the emotions engendered by its aesthetic, visual or tactile qualities or in evoking the memories associated with such objects. We hope all of those interested in our shared world of personal adornment will reflect upon how we are thankfully tied to those aspects of traditional, authentic objects and experiences.