United States · Metalwork / Jewelry / Lapidary
Zuni lapidary inlay jewelry (general trade term)
A Zuni-originated lapidary tradition in which turquoise and other stones are cut into slender needle-shaped or channel-set pieces and arranged in dense, precise mosaic patterns within a silver framework, developed as a distinctive Zuni specialty since the 1930s.
Risk level: Endangered · 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.
Three-rod coiled basketry using willow foundation rods and black devil's-claw and red yucca-root splints for pattern, producing burden baskets, deep storage ollas, and trays that are among the most technically demanding coiled basketry…
An extremely fine miniature coiling technique using horsehair rather than plant fiber for the stitching material, developed by Tohono O'odham weavers as an innovation on older willow, yucca, and devil's-claw basketry, producing baskets…
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…
A folk-art engraving and carving tradition practiced by 19th-century American whalemen on sperm whale teeth, bone, and walrus tusk during the long idle hours of whaling voyages, widely regarded as one of the few art forms to have…
The hand-shaping and joining of curved wooden staves into watertight barrels, casks, and household vessels using no glue or nails, historically a foundational New England colonial trade essential to shipping, food storage, and the whaling…
A distinctive stoneware tradition combining English, European, and Asian ceramic techniques with the skilled labor and artistic voice of enslaved African American potters in the Edgefield District of South Carolina, producing utilitarian…
The assembly of fine gold and silver threads into filigree jewelry, a craft concentrated particularly in the village of Sada, on the western coast of Mayotte, though also practiced elsewhere across the territory.
The Sámi knife making tradition — the making of the specific Sámi working knife (niibevuorjun) that is simultaneously a cutting tool and a cultural identity object within the Sámi duodji tradition; the knife handle of reindeer antler or…
The making of silver filigree jewelry and objects in the village of Lefkara (Pano and Kato Lefkara), southern Cyprus — a craft tradition documented as developing in explicit parallel to the village's already-archived Lefkaritika…
Ryukyu raden (螺鈿) is lacquer inlaid with shell, above all yakōgai, the great green turban shell of southern Ryukyuan waters.
The forging of traditional Saudi Arabian daggers, distinguished into two documented types -- al-janbiyah, a curved blade, and al-khanjar, a straight blade -- alongside the related saif, a single-edged sabre.
The making of filigree jewelry from fine twisted silver or gold wire, described across Maltese craft sources as perhaps the most iconic and internationally recognized of the island's traditional crafts alongside its already-documented…