The SA+C is pleased to announce Robert K. Liu, PhD as a member of the juror group for The Nature of Imperfection: Jewelry and Adornment. (Submission deadline: 3/15/2024)
Born in Italy, Robert K. Liu immigrated to the United States from China after World War
II with his mother and four siblings. Trained as an ethologist and ichthyologist, the author
received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he worked on
experimental gerontology and immunology in the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine
until 1975. Founder of The Bead Journal in 1974, Robert Liu and his late wife Carolyn L.E. Benesh are publishers and co-editors of its successor since 1978, Ornament magazine, now in its 50th year; their son, Patrick Benesh-Liu is now co-editor, with the passing of his mother in September, 2020.
Self-trained as a jeweler and photographer, he has written extensively on ancient,
ethnic and contemporary personal adornment, in over 785 major and minor articles, as well as
in science and other fields. Liu has lectured over 120 occasions on jewelry and beads for
almost five decades, here and abroad, as well as giving workshops, especially the photography of
personal adornment, bamboo jewelry and metal/polyester jewelry. The author of Collectible Beads. A
Universal Aesthetic, he now maintains and curates a research bead collection. Robert published in 2014
with Patrick Benesh-Liu The Photography of Personal Adornment. Working with skilled contemporary
glass and metal artists has enabled him to gain valuable insights into how ancient and third-world craftspeople may have made their jewelry.
He has judged a number of jewelry, polymer, beadwork and craft competitions, advised museums,
acted as editor for museum publications, consulted on collections and other matters relating to jewelry
and its photography and written online entries.
Self-trained as a photographer, jeweler and scale model builder, he makes heat-bent bamboo and poly-
ester jewelry. Due to the degradation of desert environments, Liu wrote a publication in 2013 on the behavior of a unique pupfish that went extinct while his paper was in press. He published his fourth book in 2021, on Naval Ship Models of World War II.
He is the father of three adult children, David M. Liu (Ph.D, L.L.D and M.D.), Jonathan A. Liu, and
Patrick R. Benesh-Liu.