Peculiar Creature
Jade Dragon is the personal blog of Patrick Benesh-Liu. The goal of the blog is to chronicle, both young and old, the many contemporary craftspeople who create handmade jewelry, clothing, and other forms of wearable art. Wearable art, to be defined simply, is art you can wear. Masks, costumes, dresses, jackets, coats, scarves, necklaces, bracelets, bangles, rings, all of these fall under the striking category of wearable art.
Our Story
Wearable art is a vast menagerie of possibilities in how you are perceived. With any wearable art, whether it is jewelry or clothing, you, the face and body seen between the earrings, necklace, hem, sleeves, do not change; however, the image surrounding, incorporating, and projected by you is changed. The fun of playing with that image, and finding one that speaks to you as you, is what jewelry and clothing are all about. To a deeper and more transformative extent, so does costume, where the you disappears, and mask and regalia takes on its own life through your presence.
For all of these various layers of worn art, Jade Dragon seeks to document and display the best in handmade jewelry, clothing, and costume, including in this oceanic maze of creativity not necessarily the best, but that which is honest and has a curious and unique expression. Finally, beauty, in whatever form, will always find a place here.
Please find within treasures beyond imagining, wrought through years of experience and carefully earned knowledge, and expand yourself.
- In our Galleries, explore the wide expanse of jewelers, clothing and costume artists, assorted into manageable and thematic groupings.
- Check out our clothing and jewelry artist sections, where a selection of craftperson profiles provide more in-depth background of these wonderful creators.
- In the future, buy wearable art from the artists themselves through Delight To Wear, our online store, guaranteed to bring the exquisite and wonderful to your wardrobe.
Craft is the three-dimensional portrayal of art. It takes a static, two-dimensional thing, and elevates it into the third dimension. In doing so, it becomes an object. Art, without boundaries, can stretch limitlessly in two dimensions; but it suddenly hits a wall that distorts how it can be expressed when it encounters the third dimension. Making two-dimensional art three-dimensional, craft, takes that concept, which is essentially art, and applies it through the real world and physical materials. By whatever medium it manifests through, for example wood, metal, or earth, that thought of art becomes an object, like a wooden sculpture, or a ceramic vase, constrained in that it requires physical techniques to manipulate the substance into the form and structure required for three-dimensional expression.