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 ...

Our flagship show in Baltimore is now in full swing! We're all holding our breath, but so far we've been spared by the snowstorm, except for a smattering of flurries this morning. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather through the weekend!

Now that I've had a chance to take in more of it, I've been struck by the wonderful balance between the old and the new at our Baltimore Show. As you wander your way through the aisles, you can find 30-year show veterans like David Bacharach and Seymour Mondshein next to up-and-coming crafters exhibiting their wares in Baltimore for the first time. There are so many exciting first-time exhibitors this year, it would be impossible to highlight them all, but here are a few that particularly caught my eye.

I loved Myung Urso's mixed media necklaces (booth 300), assembled from various fibers, handmade papers and organic materials like sponges and loofas. Some of her designs reference sea life, while others incorporate paper that has been painted with calligraphy then compressed into assemblages that bring to mind industrial byproducts like used air filters.

Ceramic artist Wendy Gingell (booth 2107) decorates her pottery using the sgraffito technique, in which a dark slip is ...

For a first-time visitor, the American Craft Council’s Baltimore Show can be somewhat overwhelming - in the best possible way. I experienced that today when I entered the Baltimore Convention Center for a sneak peek at the exhibitors in our 34th annual show. I was immediately struck not only by the sheer number of artists, but also by the eclectic variety of the work on display. It’s an incredible sensory experience to encounter exquisitely handcrafted goods in such a range of colors, shapes, textures and materials. I found it hard to make any progress through the show - I kept wanting to stop and touch things, look more closely, hear each artist's story, learn how the work was made.

And that’s exactly how a show like this should be experienced. This year, our retail show opens on Thursday for the first time, so come early to beat the weekend crowds and take your time browsing the wares. Keep on the lookout for a few of my favorites from today's rounds:

One of our Green Craft exhibitors, ‘e ko logic (booth 906), turns recycled post-consumer textiles like old cashmere sweaters into unique handcrafted apparel. Husband and wife team Kathleen and Charlie Tesnakis sort ...

The American Craft Council is seeking qualified candidates to apply for the position of Executive Director.

The next Executive Director will have the unique opportunity to lead and sustain the American Craft Council through an exciting new phase of the Council's history. With the relocation to Minneapolis, this chief executive will dynamically and strategically lead the future vitality, relevance, and impact of the Council.

As leader of a nonprofit, membership organization, the Executive Director is accountable to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for the execution of the strategic plan and development and implementation of the programs, policies, and practices of the Council. Within that framework, the Executive Director is responsible for the management and development of approximately 15 employees and a budget of $6 million.

Specifically, the successful candidate will be responsible for strategic direction, external relationships and fund-raising, board and executive committee relations, membership growth and development, spokesperson and public relations, and administration.

This position is located in Minneapolis, MN (relocation from New York City to be completed by July 2010). ...

BY NOELLE FOYE AND DAVID H. BLOODSWORTH

The word craft often evokes images of simple handmade objects. Yet, as the exhibition Craft in America: Expanding Traditions clearly demonstrated, the “C word” has grown and evolved far beyond the simple and traditional roots often associated with it to be the center of much discussion and debate recently. In 2009, Fuller Craft Museum took the C Word Roadshow to college campuses and community centers around New England to open up the conversation and invite people to share their thoughts in an effort to discover the status of craft today.

Kicking off a series of events at regional schools, UMass Dartmouth hosted the opening panel discussion at the Star Store campus in New Bedford, MA, on Feb. 17, 2009. Students and faculty joined Fuller Craft to ask questions about how craft is defined, created and considered in America today. The panel included local artists, curators, academics and others involved in craft. Audiences were drawn not just from the college but from the whole community. The museum hoped to reach a broad demographic of students, working artists, collectors and the general public, invited all to ask questions and express opinions, ...

BY JENNY GILL

In the December/January issue of American Craft, freelance writer Meribah Knight looked back on her grandmother's sewing circle as a source of early inspiration for her own craft practice. The American Craft Council’s News & Views asked Meribah to share her favorite holiday craft tradition, memory or object. She wrote, "I have many holiday craft memories—gold spray-painted macaroni tree ornaments, angels made out of Sculpey—but the most consistent is my grandmother Hortense Lasky’s embroidered Christmas stocking. This object, with its intricate stitching of a jolly snowman reading a book to a fox, a bunny and a fawn, was my gateway into sewing. It made me ask my first, and most important, question about crafts: How did she do that?"

We asked the ACC’s Facebook fans and the readers of our monthly e-newsletter to share their favorite holiday craft traditions or memories. Here are some of our favorites:

My favorite holiday tradition as a child was making dough ornaments, baking them in the oven and hand-painting them. I've considered trying it again as an adult, but I'm sure the results would not be as wonderful!
-Cervini Haas

Starting at age 10, I ...

This would have been the editor’s letter in the current issue of American Craft, but it was displaced by an exceptional number of letters coming in.

The cover story of the October/November issue generated varied responses, which made me think about more general communication issues. A recent exchange of e-mails by a group of craft writers grew rather testy and included some name-calling. I was surprised, since the craft field has previously been accused of too much bland niceness. Then I happened to read a review of a new book on Internet communication, which asserted that the immediacy and anonymity of Internet messages seem to encourage unpleasant words that would probably seldom be handwritten and even less likely spoken.

However, American Craft’s Letters to the Editors have always been heated, even before the Internet. AC and its predecessor, Craft Horizons, have a history of caring, even impassioned readers, who make their opinions emphatically known. There have been avalanches of letters at certain times. The response to Lauren Kalman’s work was not comparable in number, but typical in sharpness and divergence of opinion. One letter congratulates us for an outstanding cover, and the next says the choice shows contempt ...

DJ Pommes Frites spun entrancing music and the beers on ice were an added bonus to one of my more interesting recent craft fairs. According to the e-mail announcement from Chris and Jennifer Daltry, the owners of What Cheer? Antiques + Vintage and coordinators of the early November Rock & Roll Yard Sale of vinyl records and local DIY craft, the purpose of the fair was to prove that “vinyl is not dead and the DIY handmade movement is raging.” Inspecting the vacant storefront in downtown Providence transformed into an urban yard sale with more than 30 vendors—half music merchants, half DIY artisans and most somewhere in the middle—I wondered: why market vinyl records and handmade art in the same space?

I went to find out. Immediately to the right of my functional pottery booth was a vinyl record enthusiast selling from his personal collection. When I asked which albums he was most proud of, he promptly pulled out early Sinatra. Asked why, my neighbor scratched his chin and took his time to answer. “Because Sinatra was a real craftsman,” he said.

On my left was another vinyl aficionado and record label producer who was happy to ...