For 71 years, American Craft magazine has been helping creative people see the world with fresh eyes.

“It celebrates the age-old human impulse to create by hand,” says Monica Moses, the magazine’s editor for the past two years.  “We believe that the arts are essential – that life is not worth living without them.”

So at a time and in a culture where anything creative can sometimes be considered a luxury, the 30,000 – circulation American Craft strives to emphasize the age-old grace and beauty of making things by hand.

The magazine covers traditional craftspeople who work in glass, ceramics, fiber, wood and metal.  But it won’t hesitate to step outside the traditional.

“We’ve covered a guy who works with balloons, and another with topiary,” she says.  “There was a woman who worked with X-rays, and a brilliant artist who makes his own crayons – he stands the crayons on ends for pointillist pieces of art.”

Its readers are a combination of artists, art enthusiasts and collectors, with a lot of aspirational artists and crossovers from the visual arts.  They value community, sustainability, quality and authenticity.

“We want them to get ideas about what they can make, or find something for their living room or wardrobe – we want to feed all that,” she says.

In essence, the magazine lives by the conviction that people are happier when they’re in tune with their own creativity.

And that’s not a bad way to look at things.

For more information, go to americancraftmag.org

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