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New Releases: Summer 2025

New craft books featured in the Summer 2025 issue of American Craft.

By Jon Spayde
May 10, 2025

Summer 2025

Books

Free To Read

Photo by Sarah Sampedro

Detail from inside of Jeff Zimmerman: Glass Light Space book.

Jeff Zimmerman: Glass Light Space

Introduction by Zesty Meyers, essays by
Glenn Adamson and Tony Ingrao, and a conversation
between Zimmerman and Brett Littman
Phaidon, 2025
$69.95

“Crumple,” “Pleat,” “Grow,” “Cluster,” “Sprawl,” and “Multiply” are the chapter headings in this survey of a glass master who pushes the medium’s boundaries. That sequence suggests the variety on display, from lighting fixtures that evoke off-kilter planets or exploding snowballs to sculptures resembling translucent stalagmites. Essays and a conversation round out this portrait of an innovator.

Routed West: Twentieth-Century African-American Quilts in California

Foreword by Julie Rodrigues Widholm; edited with text by Elaine Y. Yau; text by Daphne A. Brooks, Bridget R. Cooks, Basil Kincaid, Eli Leon, Adia Millett, Matthew
Villar Miranda, and Wendy M. Thompson; and conversation with Sharbreon Plummer, Carolyn Mazloomi, and A’donna Richardson.
Delmonico/Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2025
$65

As the Second Great Migration (1940–1970) brought hundreds of thousands of African Americans to the Golden State, many of them carried with them beloved quilts—and quilt-making skills. This sumptuous book begins with a detailed and well-illustrated history of Black quilting in California, then shifts to page after page of images of the gorgeous quilts, plus essays by scholars, curators, and artists.

A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects

By Robell Awake
Princeton Architectural Press, 2025
$24.95

Of the works celebrated here, Gullah Geechee sweetgrass baskets and the quilts of Gee’s Bend are the best known. Rounding out the story of Black craft are achievements such as Philip Simmons’s wrought iron gates in Charleston, South Carolina, and assemblages and yard shows by James Hampton, Bessie Harvey, and others. Atlanta-based chairmaker and researcher Awake illuminates each object with an essay.

Cloth: 100 Artists: Contemporary and Heritage Techniques

By Lena Corwin Abrams, 2025
$29.99

Corwin explores four ways of working with cloth—weaving/braiding, sewing/quilting, knitting/felting, and printing/dyeing—by introducing readers to acclaimed artists working with each method. Each profile includes a quote from the maker and images (with close-ups) of relevant works. Eight amply illustrated DIY projects, created in collaboration with some of the contributing artists, round out the book.

The Art of Native American Washoe Basketry

By Ann M. Wolfe with JoAnn Nevers, Catherine S. Fowler, Darla Garey-Sage, and Marvin Cohodas;
printed with permission from the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.
Rizzoli Electa, 2025
$40

The elegantly shaped and intricately decorated baskets of the Washoe people of the Lake Tahoe region are celebrated in these richly illustrated pages. Essays explore the role of the baskets in traditional Washoe life, the use of natural fibers in their making, and the entry of the baskets into the world of non-Native collectors, curators, and gallerists.

Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman: California Mid-Century Designers

By Laura Ackerman-Shaw
Pointed Leaf Press, 2025
$75

Ingrained: The Making of A Craftsman

By Callum Robinson
Ecco/HarperCollins, 2024
$24

Scottish woodworker Robinson learned the craft from his father, built a business making high-end pieces for posh retailers, then lost his major client and restarted
at square one. This eloquent memoir tells of a highflier who returned to the basics: a love of wood, trees, and nature, and a reverence for work done by hand.

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American Craft Editors

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