Weave. To weave is to entwine separate elements in order to create something new. As humans, we weave together materials, stories, and even our lives—often into patterns that surprise and delight. In this issue, you’ll find artists and makers who employ weaving techniques to create stunning works. You’ll discover baskets lovingly fashioned for our tenderest moments, brooms that make cleaning more joyous, and sculptural works in textiles, wood, and clay that tell stories about migration and place. And you’ll learn about backstrap weaving from a maker who integrates her work into an apartment she’s turned into an artistic sanctuary.

You’ll also find 30 pages devoted to celebrating some of today’s most accomplished American craftspeople. Every two years the American Craft Council Awards are given to artists who’ve been chosen as recipients by their peers. Also honored are craft advocates, scholars, curators, and philanthropists. These are people who’ve devoted their lives to craft, and it’s a joy to recognize them.

We’re also delighted to share the story of Teater’s Knoll, an artist’s studio in Idaho designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and how the current homeowner’s collection of 21st-century Japanese and American ceramics feels right at home. After craft historian and author Glenn Adamson brought us this story, he searched our archives and discovered very little coverage of craft in the Gem State. “In 1949,” back when American Craft was known as Craft Horizons, Adamson told us, the magazine ran a story “about Glenn and Lee Wright of Sun Valley, who created domestic accessories out of ‘beaver-wood’—bits of poplar shaped by the animals as they work on their dams.” There were also brief mentions, he continued, “of George Nakashima, who discovered his métier of woodworking at a wartime Japanese internment camp in the state; Craig Zweifel, who made glass art at his workshop near Ketchum for thirty years—and the odd listing of a local fair or museum exhibit.” In other words, not much.

Here at American Craft we’re endeavoring to expand our coverage of work created in all parts of this nation. We rely on you, our readers, to let us know about artists and makers you admire—and people whose lives are enriched because they live with the handcrafted. We welcome your suggestions for stories.
 
I hope you’ll find this to be a rich and varied issue, one that will inspire you to seek and treasure the handmade.

KAREN OLSON / Editor in Chief
 

American Craft Council publishes American Craft on a quarterly basis but reserves the right to change the number of issues in an annual term, including discontinuing any format and substituting and/or modifying the manner in which the subscription is distributed.