Treasures from the Collection

A cataloger for the American Craft Council Archives reflects on her long, strange trip through two decades of magazine back issues.

By Lacey Prpić Hedtke
November 5, 2025

Digital Only

From the Archives

Free To Read

Photo courtesy of the American Craft Council Archives

Bird pins made by Himeko Fukuhara and Kazuko Matsumoto while in internment camps.

Over the past six months, I’ve had the pleasure of cataloging back issues of American Craft ranging from the early 1990s to the 2010s, and I kept a running list of some of my favorite stories and artworks. The entire catalog of the magazine is worth a visit, if only to immerse yourself deep into the ’90s, but for now, here are some highlights.

Richard Humann’s basswood models of amusement park rides (“Little But Loud,” October/November 2007) contrast with his miniature jail cells. I love this quote from him: “I think art has to be fun. …You may talk about sad, deep, dark ideas and concepts, but it has to be presented in a way so that people can walk through a door and get to that.”

Grayson Perry is an inspiration as a self-described “cross-dresser” and decoupage ceramic artist—his work covers sex, war and gender (“The Queen of Decoupage,” June/July 2004).

Artists such as Mary Van Cline, who printed onto photo-sensitive glass for her Time Pieces (October/November 1998), and Karen LaMonte, who conducted “photographic sandblasting” on glass (“Reflections on Glass,” June/July 2005), combined photography with glass. Similarly, Helena Hernmarck based her tapestries on photographs and newspaper clippings, and it shows (December 1990/January 2000).

Photo courtesy of the American Craft Council Archives

Mary Van Kline's The Curve of Time, 1997, photo-sensitive glass, cast glass, copper patina, 26 x 15 x 6 in.

Our archives are overflowing with drool-worthy textiles rooted in history. Take a detour into gods-and-goddesses territory with the eye candy of Lia Cook’s fabric “paintings” of jacquard drapery (“Lia Cook: Material Allusions,” April/May 1996), Marilyn Pappas’s embroideries of goddesses (August/September 2001), and the sparkle of the Vodou flags of Haiti (“Drapo Vodou,” April/May 1999). For the handkerchief appreciators, there’s a highlight of Tammis Keefe’s work in handkerchiefs over the years (“Get Our Your Handkerchiefs!,” April/May 2000). And that’s just scratching the surface of the treasures in our collection!

Perhaps because no one had their noses buried in a phone quite yet, artists at the turn of the last century were engaged in very detailed work. Behold Liza Lou’s Back Yard (February/March 1999), where the artist worked with 30 million glass beads to create a backyard cookout scene. Linda Hutchins used typewriters as her medium, typing the same phrase over and over on vellum or silk tissue to create patterns that look more like embroidery than typewritten words (“Linda Hutchins: Reiterations,” August/September 2004).

There are also historical topics, like art made in Japanese American internment camps (“Beauty in a Bleak World,” December 2010/January 2011) and the story of Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (February/March 2007), a team of women working at Tiffany & Co. in anonymity to design what are now iconic lamps and other functional items.

Photo courtesy of the American Craft Council Archives

Fabric painting by Lia Cook

A shoutout to arguably the best toilet in Wisconsin: Ann Agee’s intricate ceramic Lake Michigan Bathroom Toilet (“Private Functions/Public Art,” June/July 1993), made during her John Michael Kohler Arts Center residency, is part of her elaborate, fully functional Sheboygan Men’s Room.

Let’s get to the more unsettling work in the magazine. Judith Schaechter’s stained glass draws on her interest in the Civil War, Christian martyrs, and more broadly, death itself (“Judith Schaechter: Modern Martyrs,” August/September 1995). While beautiful, Jennifer Angus’s insect “wallpaper” gives me a visceral reaction, as a bug-averse art lover (“Jennifer Angus and the Insect Kingdom,” April/May 2009), and Sergei Isupov’s ceramic sculptures invoke a “what am I looking at here?” reaction, one of my favorite questions when looking at art or anything else (February/March 1999). Hank Murta Adams’s cast-glass heads are what nightmares are made of—I say that in the most appreciative way possible (December 2004/January 2005).

Still more works in the pages of American Craft provide a calming palette cleanser: Michael James’s art quilts (“Michael James: A New Order,” October/November 1994), Rebecca Bluestone’s Fibonacci sequence–inspired weavings (August/September 2002), and Stephen Rolfe Powell’s blown glass vases, using the Italian murrine technique (June/July 2001), are all colorful and soothing.

This wouldn’t be a peek into the craft archives without a mention of Nick Cave (“Nick Cave: Stuff of Life,” October/November 1998). It’s interesting to see his work he was doing as his Soundsuits developed, like his Spirit Drawings, shirts folded onto wood and painted over, and his Hairballs, human hair mixed with nails.

I love the remnants of a good time, the detritus of a party. While my personal metadata-creating party is over, with the end of this briefly NEH-grant-funded project, I will leave you with Charles LeDray’s Party Bed, a mixed-media sculpture of coats on a bed, a visual reminder of interesting times had (Desperately Seeking Charles,” August/September 2007).

Photo courtesy of the American Craft Council Archives

Charles LeDray’s Party Bed.

Lacey Prpić Hedtke is an artist, photographer, librarian, astrologer, and public artist who lives and works in Minneapolis.

Before you go!

We believe that making creates a meaningful world, and we hope you do, too. Deeply researched and impactful journalism on the craft community is in short supply. At the same time, being featured in a national publication can have a major effect on a maker’s or artist’s livelihood, particularly those who are just starting in their career. You can help support our mission and the work of makers around the country by becoming a member or by making a gift today.

Thank you!
American Craft Editors

Join Donate