Robert K. Liu & Patrick R. Benesh-Liu / Ornament Magazine
Robert K. Liu, Ph.D. was trained as an ethologist at UCLA, but self-trained as a jeweler and photographer and has written extensively on ancient, ethnic and contemporary jewelry and personal adornment, as well as other non-art related fields. He is the author of Collectible Beads, The Photography of Personal Adornment and over 760 articles and publications. He is the co-editor of Ornament Magazine, which he co-edited with his wife, Carolyn L.E. Benesh. The publication, which was founded in 1974 as The Bead Journal, began with the encouragement of Robert’s former major professor and a small gift. After forty-seven years, it now serves as a conduit for information and scholarship concerning jewelry, artwear and its makers.
Carolyn, who died in late 2020 from Stage IV breast cancer, was a scholar and celebrated collector of contemporary jewelry who shared her love of adornment in her writings and her collections. She was also a champion of craft artists around the world.
Their son, Patrick R. Benesh-Liu, began working for Ornament in high school, and joined the magazine full-time in 2005. He now co-edits the magazine with his father and has covered pop culture’s recent contributions to wearable art in the form of costumery, as well as numerous artists, craft shows and museum exhibitions. Ornament Magazine, from its beginning, has set the exciting challenge of documenting the art and craft of personal adornment. Ornament demonstrates the richness and diversity of this vast subject with a stunning display of creative works, past and present.
