F R O M T H E E D I T O R
Miracle in the Making
F O R M Y A M A Z IN G N E W JO B AS E D IT O R O F
this magazine, I’d like to thank a guy named
Albert Einstein.
“There are two ways to live your life,”
Einstein said. “One is as though nothing is a
miracle; the other is as though everything is
a miracle.”
I spent about 20 years as a hard-news
journalist, which means I got pretty good
at wringing the miraculous out of nearly
everything—demystifying, placing in con-
text, pointing out drawbacks and down-
sides. When I left the news business three
years ago, I was a little jaded, even cynical. I
was relieved and grateful to leave it behind.
But a friend helped me see fresh possi-
bilities in the familiar practices of research-
ing stories, editing copy and choosing im-
ages. “I know you said you’re done with
journalism,” she said, “but this job posting
sounds like you.”
Joanne is my ceramics buddy, an art di-
rector with whom I once worked, took pot-
tery and Photoshop classes, and trolled the
American Craft Council shows in Charlotte
and St. Paul. A few years ago she and I de-
vised our own weeklong craft tour of the
North Carolina mountains, staying in tiny
B&Bs and navigating giddily from studio
to studio and gallery to gallery. W e ended
with a tour of Penland, imagining ourselves
spattered with clay, taking summer classes.
It was heavenly. Miraculous, even.
Now, a few years later, Joanne has re-
minded me again that a change of scenery
can change every thing. (I have her to thank,
along with Einstein.)
I have arrived at a new destination, do-
ing familiar work but with content as joyous
as any I’ve known. I am again navigating the
craft landscape and finding treasures, this
time in the form of good stories. And, with
my brilliantly talented new colleagues, I’ll
be bringing those stories to you—with the
wonder intact.
To me, the creative process is inherent-
ly, inescapably miraculous. People long to
make things, sometimes very idiosyncratic
things. That’s one of the great, timeless
mysteries of human experience. I once
spent eight straight 14-hour days making an
assemblage out of circuit-board parts and
an antique typesetting box, drawing on a
spirituality book I was reading. My back
ached, but my heart soared. I was seized by
the urge to create, and I couldn’t have ex-
plained the compulsion if you had put a gun
to my head.
But I can wonder at it, and that’s my job.
So for this issue, I spoke with Gregg Graff,
who, with his partner Jacqueline Pouyat,
spent three years perfecting a wax-resin
formula so that it would pour perfectly onto
aluminum (page 26). How did that feel?
Gratifying, because the effort flowed from
a deep artistic impulse.
Jeremy Mayer (page 8), long obsessed
with typewriters, disassembled one and
built a little dog with the parts. None of
his artist friends liked it. But he couldn’t
stop. That was 16 years ago, and he’s
been compelled ever since to make his
intricate sculptures.
Hannie Goldgewicht (page 56) exudes
pura vida
, a Costa Rican term for profound
well-being; no wonder—she’s answering a
wondrous calling to make her elegant hy-
brid vessels.
The miraculous is our mission at
A m e r i -
c a n c r a f t .
What sort of miracles would
you like to read about? Let us know.
Monica Moses
06 american craft dec/jann
Jewelry by Chris Chookiatsirichai / Photos Jill Greer (portrait) and Mark LaFavor (necklace)
