United States · Woodcraft / Furniture Making
Settin' chair; post-and-rung chair (regional English-language terms vary by county)
A joinery-based chairmaking tradition built entirely from green (unseasoned) wood posts and rungs without glue or metal fasteners, distinguished from other ladder-back traditions by a distinctive steam- or boil-bent back post and a woven seat, most often of hand-processed hickory bark, brought by English, Scottish, and Irish settlers and adapted to Appalachian materials and conditions.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — the United States is not a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; no US technique can be formally ICH-inscribed regardless of significance.
The design and hand-fabrication of water-resistant earrings and bangles from recycled newspaper and cardboard by American designer Luda, working under the name Alla Maude in Long Beach, New York, part of the same wider international…
Basketry woven from hand-pounded black ash tree splints, a foundational Haudenosaunee craft now facing an acute, near-term existential material threat from the invasive emerald ash borer beetle, which has killed tens of millions of ash…
A three-dimensional, raised glass-bead embroidery technique developed by Tuscarora and Mohawk beadworkers in the last quarter of the 19th century, producing floral, leaf, and bird motifs with genuine sculptural relief, historically sold as…
A pre-contact embroidery technique using dyed moose hair worked onto birchbark, historically the primary decorative embroidery method of Northeastern peoples before European glass-bead trade, later adapted into a significant curio-trade…
The selection, steaming, bending, and hand-webbing of a single hickory branch into a traditional wooden lacrosse stick for a sport the Haudenosaunee regard as both play and sacred medicine game, now sustained by only a small number of…
Hand-built pottery decorated by striking the still-damp clay surface with a carved wooden paddle, a technique that both compacts and strengthens the vessel wall and leaves a distinctive textured surface pattern, historically central to…
The making and repair of pipas — the 550-litre Portuguese oak casks specifically used for aging Port wine (CRAFT-1108) in the lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia, a format and capacity unique to the Port wine industry and distinct from the…
A beeswax candle-sculpture tradition in which thin, hand-shaped and hand-dyed wax petals are individually formed and assembled into elaborate flowers, ruffles, birds, and other figures built directly onto standing candles, historically…
A tradition of fine furniture making in Rome — producing Baroque and Empire-style pieces in walnut, ebony, and gilded wood for the palace and ecclesiastical interiors of the Centro Storico — sustained by Rome's extraordinary concentration…
Ornate wood carving is documented as one of Afghanistan's oldest crafts, decorating private houses, mosques, and furniture for millennia.
The making of figures (pastori) for the Neapolitan nativity scene — a tradition of extraordinary elaboration involving hand-modeled terracotta or wire-armature figures with fabric costumes, glass eyes, and real hair, depicting not only the…
The carving of Buddhist scripture, prayer-flag designs, and mandala images in mirror-reversed relief onto wooden printing blocks, for mass xylographic printing and publication of sacred texts.