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 Dear
Ornament Reader,The threads in our life are tenuous and often difficult to comprehend. In an effort to conserve water in the arid conditions of Southern California, we converted our front lawn into a bare slope studded with xeric and native plants. It has been an abnormally cold winter, marked by a continuing drought, both devastating to plants, followed recently by hot, windy conditions, jumpstarting our normal fire season by almost five months. For anyone who gardens, it has been evident that honey bees are scarce, even when flowers are abundant. Yet birds are plentiful, with their songs quite exquisite this year. This conversion to water and ecological efficacy has been accompanied by much weeding, hand-watering and nurturing of struggling plants. But with anything close to the earth and demanding commitment, it has been deeply satisfying to watch our plants survive and flourish, especially those now blooming gloriously, like the penstemons and seed-grown poppies. We apply the same effort to the personal adornment Ornament covers, but with less obvious signs of success. Literary blooms are rarely received. After over thirty years of publishing Ornament, many artists are no longer with us, as well as contributors, like the sadly recent death of Chiori Santiago. But as with either ecological succession or its publishing counterpart, we are nurturing the future within the magazine, with young and promising staff and new projects to undertake. And just like our garden plants we need to nurture ourselves as writers and researchers. We must not underestimate the vitalizing function of conversing with artists or colleagues, of viewing actual objects at museums, exhibitions or craft shows, or the importance of handling them. Just such an occasion was presented by the photographing of Mary Kanda’s jewelry for the front cover. Even the affirmation of reading is inspiring and immensely heuristic. Recently, one of us (RKL) was researching ancient glass and faience of the Middle East, and in the Ornament library came across a description of pyramidal glass spacers in Maude Spaer’s excellent treatise on Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum. We have this type in the Ornament study collection. Looking at its rod-formed, lapidary-ground surface instantly evoked solidarity and admiration for the craftsperson who created this small ornament some two thousand years ago. We hope those in the future will share similar emotions when seeing the handiwork of our era. Even though we are a country that strongly supports globalization, with its attendant freedom of trade and communication, the United States Postal Service ceased the servicing of foreign periodical rates and foreign economy mail on May 14. These two mail categories are the means by which publishers such as Ornament mail to their foreign subscribers, as well as an economical way of sending replacement copies, back issues or books. With the cessation of such mail, costs go up over five hundred percent for each copy, so that postage now costs more than the issues or the total subscription price we charge, and almost equal to what overseas airmail once cost. Private carriers will take over overseas mail, thus the vast cost increase. We, and undoubtedly other magazines with many foreign subscribers, will have to seriously consider if we can afford to have overseas subscribers, including those in Mexico and Canada. We encourage our readers to watch on May 30, from eight to eleven in the evening, the debut of the three-part Craft in America series, airing on PBS throughout the United States. There will be other opportunities to view the series, as it will be replayed at various times during the next three years. This series is a major advance in bringing to the attention of our citizens the important cultural and aesthetic role that craft has played in this country’s past and continues to perform today.
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Art & Craft of Personal Adornment © 1974-2007
Ornament Magazine. All rights reserved. |
