Tone Vigeland’s art springs from a direct encounter between her hands and her materials. For more than fifty years, she has created jewellery and sculptures that combine simple craft techniques with stringent aesthetics – works apparently liberated from any possible intellectual approach. Perhaps this is why people the world over describe her art as both timeless and placeless, and sometimes even magical.

Artist Liv Blåvarp creates spectacular and sculptural necklaces and bracelets out of wood. Her creations are built by individually shaping smaller pieces of wood and joining them together in a spiraling construction, for maximum wearability. In this interview by Reinhold Ziegler we learn more about how Blåvarp came to work with wood, and how she developed the technical competence to create wearable pieces of art.

In an interview with three artists, Johanna Zanon explores the theme of the relationship between the body and metal art and jewellery. Renate D. Dahl's work focuses on questioning the social norms and standards associated with the female form. Judit Fritz works at the intersection of crafts and sciences, experimenting with using sweat and tears to grow gemstones. Finally, Lauren Kalman uses craft-based materials in her performance-based videos, photographing and distorting the body in sometimes grotesque and violent ways, in order to explore attraction and repulsion.

Nanna Melland is known for making jewellery with unorthodox materials. In this interview by Monica Holmen we are introduced to her practice which spans from personal jewellery to public installations.

For many years Sigurd Bronger was an outsider in contemporary art jewellery, but now he enjoys increasing attention. In this interview by Reinhold Ziegler we learn about Bronger's way to jewellery, and how expressing absurdity has become his hallmark.

In this text, artist Olaf Hodne questions the presupposed permanence of jewellery, and introduces us to three artists, Sayo Ota, Íris Elva Ólafsdóttir, and Kristine Ervik, whose practices embrace perishable materials, making art jewellery not made to last.

Plastic toy animals, crocheting in yarn, and precious metals, are some of the elements Felieke van der Leest combines to make exciting, humorous, and absurd jewellery. Central to van der List's artistic practice is a fascination with the animal kingdom. Using toys and ready-mades she transformers animal figurines into near-human subjects, complete with clothes and sunglasses.

Inger Blix Kvammen's artistic practice relies on a vast number of connections with individuals and communities from around the world. Memories from her travels to Northwest Russia, to Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Southern Caucasus, Turkey and Armenia lay the foundation for the objects she constructs back home in her studio in Hessing, a few kilometres outside of Kirkenes in Finnmark, Norway. In this interview by Hilde Sørstrøm we gain a closer insight into her process.

In this text we get to follow matt lambert and Máret Ánne Sara's conversation, as they explore their shared experiences, their impetuses for creating art, and the role migration, nomadism and land play in their practices.

Lova Isabelle Lundberg introduces us to the South Sami hair tie tradition baarkaldahke through a short film, images and text.

In this presentation by artist and jeweller Areta Wilkinson we are introduced to her practice and how reconnecting with her ancestral kāinga (home) has meant connections to deeper material knowledge and understanding.

In this text, artist Olaf Hodne questions the presupposed permanence of jewellery, and introduces us to three artists, Sayo Ota, Íris Elva Ólafsdóttir, and Kristine Ervik, whose practices embrace perishable materials, making art jewellery not made to last.

In an interview with three artists, Johanna Zanon explores the theme of the relationship between the body and metal art and jewellery.

In this essay, Vivi Touloumidi discusses wearable signs and adornment, their ability to carry sociopolitical messages, and the impact they can have on forming subjects and identities

In this essay by Julia Wild and Katharina Dettar, we are invited to contemplate jewellery as a means of communication, directed both inward and outward. Taking the wedding ring as an example, Wild and Dettar investigate its significance in relation to identity, status, materiality, absence, and loss.

Humans across the globe have tattooed their bodies for at least 5,000 years. However, the archaeological evidence for these practices has been largely overlooked. In this article, archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf describes what drew him to the study of ancient tattooing, and how careful considerations of material culture, including artefacts and preserved human remains, are revealing new information about human bodies in the deep past.

Jannicke Wiese-Hansen and Tor Ola Svennevig invite you into their studio to talk about their craft, promoting Norwegian art and culture, as well as taking their Nordic culture back from the abuse of the extremist right. The two tattoo artists have also written short artist presentations about their personal journeys within the tattoo field.

Maya Sialuk Jacobsen writes about the complexities of taking back Inuit tattoo traditions, a practice born and developed within a culture of collectivism, now practiced and re-assembled in a growing individualistic culture. Sialuk Jacobsen asks: ‘How do Inuit tattoos create both a new verbal and visual language?’

How has the tattoo industry changed in the last ten years or so? Oslo-based tattoo artists Linn Aasne Grønnerøe and Elise Nedal offer throwbacks and foresight based on their years of experience. In this interview, they map out some major challenges and pitfalls of the tattoo industry, and how to avoid them.

In this text, Marita Wikstrøm Svěrák introduces us to the field of body piercings, scarification, and body suspension. She explains the craftsmanship behind the different practices, as well as her fascination with scars and the importance of pain.

Holistic tattooer Touka Voodoo takes us through his personal journey — from Tehran, through London — to his tattoo studio in Stockholm.

Torbjørn Kvasbø defines himself as an abstract expressionist and is known for burning his monumental sculptures in the large, woodburning kiln in his backyard. In this interview by André Gali, we learn about Torbjørn Kvasbø’s road to ceramics and how exhibiting, networking, and teaching, across three continents, has contributed to his standing as one of the world’s leading ceramic artists.

Brit Fuglevaag is one of Norway's foremost textile artists through several decades. Fuglevaag's practice is founded on traditional loom weaving, but incorporates a multitude of unconventional techniques and materials, including found objects, plastic and paper waste, feathers and mooring ropes. In this interview with community development curator Zoe Black from Objectspace, Aotearoa New Zealand, we are invited into Fuglevaag's home. The interview also features a short film, made by Norwegian Crafts.

Tone Vigeland’s art springs from a direct encounter between her hands and her materials. For more than fifty years, she has created jewellery and sculptures that combine simple craft techniques with stringent aesthetics – works apparently liberated from any possible intellectual approach. Perhaps this is why people the world over describe her art as both timeless and placeless, and sometimes even magical.

Artist Liv Blåvarp creates spectacular and sculptural necklaces and bracelets out of wood. Her creations are built by individually shaping smaller pieces of wood and joining them together in a spiraling construction, for maximum wearability. In this interview by Reinhold Ziegler we learn more about how Blåvarp came to work with wood, and how she developed the technical competence to create wearable pieces of art.

In this conversation, Irene Snarby talks to duojar Perisak Juuso about landscapes and Sámi place names, and about the in-depth knowledge you need in order to find the right burls, roots, and antlers to make beautiful duodji.

The Swedish-Norwegian textile artist Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) wove tapestries using locally sourced wool and plant dyes from her and her artist husband Hans Ryggen’s farm on Fosen, by the Trondheim fjord; yet her activist tapestries offer a rich political commentary on global events such as Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, the Vietnam war, and Nazism’s emergence in Europe. In this article by Line Ulekleiv, we are invited to investigate the relevance of Ryggen’s practice in contemporary society, and the reasons behind her rising popularity in recent years.

Marit Tingleff makes large earthenware dishes that won’t fit on a dining table. In this interview by Christer Dynna she relates this format to the porcelain and fine china that was once part of a broad culture and tradition carried mainly by women, and which has since been relegated to flea markets or – at best – the kitchen cupboard.

The internationally acclaimed Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) contributed to a new epoch in textile art in the 1960s. Her exhibitions in Norway triggered increased interest in textile-based art in the country, and her authoritative attitude as a female artist was pioneering. In this article by Runa Boger we learn more about her influence on the next generation of textile artists.