Critical Making

Through a project-based critical making in design analysis of two jewelry publications (Lapidary Journal and Metalsmith), the way artistic communities seek to promote creative achievement and a sharing of knowledge is revealed. The observations detailed through this project show how content and design of industry publications reinforce differences in communities and perceived artistic success between academic and mass market production. To discern how print publications of the late twentieth century have either reinforced or attempted to circumvent these interpretations, this study investigates how content and visual imagery are used in these periodicals. The author reviews publications from the year 2000, categorizes each page by content into categories, and identifies key design strategies. The results of the study indicate a high level of artist/maker feature articles in Metalsmith and a high level of advertising and technical information in Lapidary Journal. Decisions are made as to what strategies should prevail when seeking to archive important information at the cross section of these two communities. [This article is a revision of a paper presented at the College Art Association conference session “10th Critical Craft Forum: Craft Scholarship in the Next Ten Years,” held in New York, New York, in February 2019.]