medium

: Paper

Tools of the Trades installation view. Photo by Madison Metro

Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices is the first exhibition of its kind to highlight beautifully designed, hand-crafted tools made by contemporary toolmakers and artists in the United States. It celebrates the ingenuity born of necessity and the special narratives in the hand-crafted.

The objects pertain to a wide scope of crafts: ceramics, textiles, hot glass, wood working, and metal, including the niche fields within them, such as blacksmithing or spinning.

Los Angeles,
CA
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Paper Wood
Motawi Tileworks Winter Market features a wide variety of staff art, from handmade candles to chessboards. Motawi Tileworks

Join us for Motawi Tileworks’ third annual Winter Market on Saturday, December 13, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Drop in for photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, a tile-signing hour with Nawal, quick factory tours, and a holiday tile retrospective. Browse our gallery, Boneyard, and staff-made art in a festive Christkindlmarkt setting.

At 2:30, don your best Krampus costume—top looks win a special 6×6 Krampus tile.

Ann Arbor,
MI
Exhibitions + Shows Marketplaces + Festivals
Clay Fiber Glass Mixed Media Paper Wood
Installation view of Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago. Courtesy of Intuit Art Museum

Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago underscores the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants, broadening the scope to include artists deserving of greater attention, while posing questions about access to the art world and how art comes to be defined and valued. Considering artists in the context of their migration experience, cultural backgrounds and communities invites new insights into their work.

Chicago,
IL
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Metal Mixed Media Other Paper Wood
The Groove Artspace, seen on an evening when we host live music and an art opening. We are creating a vibrant creative community in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo by Erika Harding

The Groove Artspace is a multifaceted organization, including a teaching collaborative (with 15+ teachers offering a huge array of arts and crafts classes), studios for working artists and artisans, a gallery offering monthly exhibits and a non-profit arm managing our community outreach and education work.  We have a strong focus on glass and mosaic, but our work encompasses all forms of handwork and artistic creation.

Albuquerque,
NM
Arts/Cultural Organization Craft School Gallery
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Other Paper Wood
Cael weaving a waxed linen basket. Max Woltman

Join Ruth Baldwin and Annie MacHale as they lead a vision board session! Gain inspiration from your fellow fiber arts enthusiasts and make intentions for a year of creativity and fun.

By visually representing your thoughts in a beautiful, playful, work of personal art, you can enjoy the creation of it and then put it in a prominent place in your home.

Los Ranchos,
NM
Celebrations + Gatherings
Fiber Mixed Media Other Paper
Ruth demonstrates during an open weaving session. Max Woltman

To kick off our year of programming from nationally acclaimed teachers, we want to showcase the talents of our local community from first timers to experienced weavers, spinners, dyers, felters, rug hookers, and all things fiber arts.

Entries for the exhibition will be accepted from December 9, 2025 to January 16, 2026.

The exhibition will run from February 6 to March 8, 2026 with a special opening night on February 6.

Los Ranchos,
NM
Celebrations + Gatherings Exhibitions + Shows
Fiber Mixed Media Other Paper
Paper Patch Baskets. Annetta Kraayeveld

Interested in expanding your weaving repertoire and creating vibrant and functional pieces?

The projects chosen for this three-day workshop build skills and familiarize students with weaving with paper. Students will make four baskets out of painted paper designed by the instructor.

Los Ranchos,
NM
Workshops + Courses
Fiber Paper
Gertrude Knappenberger, Centennial Quilt, 1876, Cotton with cotton embroidery, 82 1/2 in. x 74 1/2 in. American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Rhea Goodman, 1979.9.1. American Folk Art Museum.

America 250: Common Threads reflects on 250 years of art as civic participation. A copy of the Declaration of Independence will anchor a group of historic documents displayed alongside quilts, weavings, whirligigs, paintings, and more, from the eighteenth century to the present. Local quilters working live in the galleries will piece quilt squares made by Arkansas K-12 students and designed by artist Basil Kincaid.

The exhibition is organized in partnership with the American Folk Art Museum.

Bentonville,
AR
Exhibitions + Shows
Fiber Mixed Media Paper Wood
Living with Craft artwork on display. Wayne Art Center

Wayne Art Center is pleased to announce Living with Craft, featuring artworks in a diverse range of mediums that represent and celebrate an aesthetic and functional role of craft in our everyday environment.

A distinctive collection of contemporary lifestyle vignettes will showcase furniture, lighting, textiles, ceramics, glass, jewelry, wearable art, and sculptural objects by approximately 50 artists.

Wayne,
PA
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Paper Wood
CraftForms 2025, an International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Fine Craft. Wayne Art Center

Wayne Art Center is excited to announce the 30th anniversary of CraftForms, the International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Fine Craft.

Located in the Davenport Gallery, the exhibition features work created by 102 artists from 31 states and four countries, including Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland.

Works include basketry, ceramics, fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art, wood and 3D printing.

Wayne,
PA
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Paper Wood
Exhibition Postcard. Christa Schoenbrodt

Tennessee Craft 2025 Member Exhibition highlights and promotes the excellence and high standards of Tennessee Craft member artists and provides public visibility and recognition for the quality and diversity of craft found in Tennessee.

Columbia,
TN
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Other Paper Wood
Starting with Slojd Introduction to Block Printing. American Swedish Institute

Starting with Slöjd is a monthly program for early elementary children. Participants explore new tools, materials, and skills that prepare them for a lifelong love of handcraft. These drop-off programs are suitable for students in grades K–2.

For this class, students will join instructor Anna Ruhland to learn all about the art of block printing. Students will learn basic techniques to create rubber stamps for printing on paper or fabric.

Advanced registration required. $20 ($15 ASI member).

Minneapolis,
MN
Workshops + Courses
Paper Wood
Tia Keobounpheng WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE No. 11 2023. American-Scandinavian Foundation

Curated by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, this traveling exhibition features stunning works by 24 artists from the Upper Midwest.

Highlighting innovations to and variations on traditions, this exhibit presents artists’ works as living, malleable forms grounded in traditional skills rather than as static objects rooted in the imagined past.  The exhibition challenges the dominant “heritage model” of ethnic folklore by emphasizing that “all tradition is change.”

Minneapolis,
MN
Exhibitions + Shows
Clay Fiber Glass Metal Mixed Media Paper Wood
Courtesy of Dieu Donné. Photographed by Murray Hall.

2024–25 Lab Grant Residency Artist Sam Moyer will discuss her experience working at Dieu Donné Paper Mill to develop her first series of handmade paper works.

In her series Soft Mods, she used alternating layers of translucent abaca and pigmented cotton, in shades of Payne’s grey. Working intuitively, Moyer manipulated paper pulp in a sculptural way, creating images that seem composed of light and shadow.

Virtual
Talks + Conferences Virtual
Paper
Paper Samples from University of Iowa Project. Courtesy of Dieu Donné

12:00 – 1:00 pm ET

This virtual artist talk will feature Timothy Barrett and Paul Wong discussing how they each developed archival, conservation-quality papers that were used to rebind or rehouse national treasures in our libraries and archives.

Moderated by Director of Artistic Projects & Master Collaborator Tatiana Ginsberg.

Virtual
Talks + Conferences Virtual
Paper