Set aside a good chunk of time to visit Hawai‘i Craftsmen’s 2012 Annual Statewide Juried Exhibition. The show is large — 180 pieces were culled by visiting juror Jo Lauria from more than 300 submissions — but the endeavor is an enjoyable one.

Traditional works such as quilts from invited artist Charlene Hughes share the gallery space with an abstract sculpture of steel and ceramic by Erin Yuasa. It’s a piece Craftsmen organizer Vicky Chock calls "the most contemporary work we’ve ever had in this show."

Yuasa’s sculpture, which she calls "Untitled Anachronism," is an exploration of self-identity, a concept the artist says is difficult to navigate.

The work combines two steel plates mounted on the wall with a couple of ceramic strips that runs horizontally across them and curves and extends beyond the plates.

Yuasa said the plates’ cold, industrial surface represent conscious thought and focused attention, the realm from which we examine ourselves. The contrasting strips, made of material "notorious for not being under your control, that will inevitably warp and change" when fired, offers a more human element.

"The ceramic, with its bumps and flaws, stands in clear relief against the cold, industrial material," she said. A large curve in the strip is placed outside the border of the steel plate, begging the question, "When it comes to identity, do we even look in the right place, at the right things?"

Boris Huang, who practices the traditional Hawaiian art of feather lei-making, lends an artistic slant to his work by creating nontraditional patterns "inspired by nature."

Huang says it often takes patience to be able to complete a lei because the feathers must match perfectly in hue and texture. It takes about 1,800 feathers and 20 to 40 hours to complete a single-strand lei.

Huang, who hails from Taiwan, was a mechanical engineer before devoting himself full time to feather art. He says he actually uses his training to make necessary computations that will result in a smooth, seamless feather lei.

He’s not the only artist in the show with an engineering background. Electrical engineer Clay Ozaki-Train, son of Chaminade art professor Yukio Ozaki and fiber artist Liz Train, submitted a wooden table. Summer classes in woodworking and, no doubt, family genes, have made artistic expression unavoidable for the engineer.

A.Kimberlin Blackburn, renowned for her intricate beaded mixed-media sculptures, and Donna Shimazu, who contributed stunning metal jewelry work, are invited artists along with Hughes.

Lauria, an art and design historian and curator, traveled to Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island to select works. She ended up picking an even 90 works from the neighbor islands and 90 from Oahu in such media as fiber, wood, glass, metal, ceramics and mixed media.

"Ultimately, it is my intention that the final juried exhibition convey to the viewer the delicate balance existing in craft objects between the fundamentals of dexterous execution, formal aesthetic tensions, and the daring leap into uncharted territory — that knife-edge of exciting surprise where exquisite refinement meets visionary form," she said in her juror’s statement.

The works she selected fit that bill, from tapestries to pots to found-object sculptures. Whimsical works, including a surfboard-shaped sculpture reminiscent of a tiki and crafted from computer circuit boards and wood, and a shiny airplane comprising knife blades from hundreds of airport-confiscated Swiss army knives, are quirky but nonetheless awe-inspiring for their skillful construction.