Somewhere between an Olympics medal ceremony and “Candid Camera” falls the annual Awards Walking Tour at the American Craft Council's Baltimore Show. Each year, we invite two specialists in the craft field to jury the show, selecting six Award of Excellence recipients and two winners in the Booth Design category. This year's jurors were Jane Milosch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Josephine Shea, curator of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, a historic home near Detroit.

On Friday afternoon at 2pm, show attendees gathered together with the jurors and Council staff for a walking tour of the award winning booths. The selected artists had no idea that they had been chosen for an award, so each stop on the tour began with surprise and congratulations. Addressing both the artist and the attendees, Jane and Josephine explained why each booth stood out and what they found exceptional about the artist's work.

It was so illuminating to see what Jane and Josephine’s highly trained eyes picked up on in each winning artist’s work and booth design. As they discussed their choices, two main themes emerged - looking to the rich history of craft and drawing on nature as the primary sources of inspiration.

The first stop on our walking tour was Dan Mirer, a glass artist from Corning, NY. Jane mentioned that Dan's work had caught her eye in previous Baltimore Shows, so she was happy to have the opportunity to recognize him with an Award of Excellence. She noted that Dan carried on the Bauhaus tradition of clean design and impeccable craftsmanship, particularly in his clear glass vessels and stemware.



Our second Award of Excellence was given to Natalie Blake, a ceramic artist who creates beautifully embellished vessel forms and sculptural wall tiles. Josephine and Jane both appreciated the cohesive nature of Natalie's designs, in which she carves the sinuous lines of trees and underwater plants into the clay and highlights them in black on brightly colored vessels and 3-D wall works. The jurors also appreciated the modular nature of Natalie's wall tiles, which can be purchased individually or as groups, allowing a collector to build up a substantial installation over time. 
 


Our next stop on the Walking Tour was Gretchen Romey-Tanzer, a fiber artist from Massachusetts who received an Award of Excellence. Josephine and Jane likened the subtlety of Gretchen's attention to color and design, both in her small square weavings and her larger wall hangings, to iconic mid-century weaver Anni Albers. The jurors considered Gretchen's large double-sided wall hangings like Green Square to be absolute masterpieces, both in design and in execution.


Our fourth Award of Excellence was given to jeweler Linda Kindler Priest, a first-time exhibitor at our Baltimore Show. Jane noted the influence of Etruscan and Egyptian jewelry traditions in Linda's style and her use of the repoussé technique, and appreciated the artist's reverence for her chosen materials of gold and semi-precious and precious stones. Josephine loved the sense of movement and also a bit of humor that comes through in Linda's animal imagery. 



Next, we visited another jeweler selected for an Award of Excellence, New York artist Reiko Ishiyama. Jane praised Reiko's work for its sculptural qualities and the adaptability of her designs, many of which can be worn in various configurations and appear differently in changing light. Reiko responded that her background is actually in sculpture and she was never formally trained as a jeweler, a fact that Jane and Josephine agreed contributed to Reiko's fresh approach to the medium.



Our last award winner for excellence was woodworker Holly Tornheim, another primarily self-taught artist who crafts sculptural and functional works for the table. Josephine noted Holly's sensitivity to lightness and movement in her wood designs, which draw on the soft lines and curves found in nature. Jane also prized the seeming weightlessness of many of Holly's forms and the touchable surfaces of her polished wood creations.
 


Along our walking tour, we also visited two artists who were chosen for Booth Design awards. Cara Romano, a young artist who makes silver and felt jewelry, was singled out for her creative use of affordable materials and store-bought decorations to create a vibrant and cohesive booth design. Cara strung up brightly colored paper lanterns that not only enlivened her space but also visually connected to the balls of colored felt that she uses in her jewelry work. Jane and Josephine loved the clean, organic design sensibility that ran through the materials Cara chose for her booth, from the bamboo pattern on her tablecloth, to the black stained plywood squares on which her work was displayed, to the live plants on her tabletop. 



Our second booth design award went to Brad Smith of Bradford Woodworking, who crafts furniture inspired by the old farm where his studio is located. Our jurors pointed out that it can be difficult to stage large furniture in a small booth space without it feeling crowded or imposing. They loved Brad's intimate arrangements and the fact that he used elements like the headboard for a bed and a scaled-down version of his standard farm table to represent the whole designs. The end result was a booth with warm lighting that invited you to come in and have a seat.

Congratulations to all of our award winners, and thank you to Jane and Josephine for your hard work! If you were a juror, who would be your top picks for excellence and booth design?

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