CERF+ has been dedicated to the development of programs for:
EMERGENCY RELIEF AND READINESS, helping artists and craftspersons recover from tragedies.
CERF+, a national non-profit, will be honored by Craft in America and Freehand Gallery for its 25 years of service strengthening and sustaining the careers of craft artists throughout the United States . CERF's assistance has helped hundreds of professional craft artists recover from career-threatening emergencies. Since 1985, CERF+ has awarded more than $1.4 million in grants, loans and brokered assistance to artists after emergencies.
CERF+ is also focused on artists' emergency readiness and has recently launched the Studio Protector: An Artist's Guide to Emergencies. This first-of-its-kind, artist-designed, artist-tested wall guide and companion website helps artists cover their "A's" (their art, assets and archives, that is) in the event of an emergency. It features details on what to do in the minutes before a disaster strikes, how to clean up after a calamitous event. This survival kit for creative types of all stripes is expanding CERF's work exponentially, www.studioprotector.org.
The Studio Protector will be on display and on sale at the
Craft in America reception.
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Please join us at Craft in America Study Center on
January 23rd to celebrate CERF+'s 25th anniversary.
For more information on CERF+, visit their website at:
www.craftemergency.org
FREEHAND GALLERY will be open late during Craft in America's events!
Regular hours: Monday-Saturday 11am-6pm,
and until 8 for this Craft in America event.
This reception also features an ONLINE AUCTION.
To bid on 27 EXTRAORDINARY craft items that have been contributed to this CERF+ online auction, please visit ebay.
Items below will be posted and available for bidding on January 14th.
The auction ends January 23rd.
CERF Art Auction Items
CERF AUCTION ITEMS
1. Michael Bayes: Lavender Pearl Necklace and Earring Set. 18k yellow gold, 9mm lavender pearls. Necklace: 19.25"l Earrings: 1".
"With a traditional craft background influenced by the style philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and with an interest in art, fashion, design and nature, I explore the art of goldsmithing. Using precious stones, gold and pearls, I have created a classically wearable collection, many pieces of which have become their collector's everyday favorites."
Opening bid $425, Valued at $850.
2. Kit Carson: Queen's Messenger Rabbit Pendant/Pin on Chain. Sterling silver, 8mm amethyst. Pendant/pin: 2.25"w x 2.75"h. 31" chain with lobster clasp.
Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, his work pays homage to the romanticism of the 1950s American West. His jewelry is made with sterling silver, gold, gemstones, and many other materials.
"My themes include Southwestern jewelry with cowboy style, engraved Art Nouveau and classical scrollwork, naturalistic themes with horses and desert animals, dragonfly jewelry and "Day of the Dead" themes.
My one-of-a-kind jewelry is Hand-Engraved in Sterling Silver and 18K Gold, often with select gemstones. Each piece explores a uniquely inspired vision. Layers of design elements are resolved in often asymmetrical compositions, resulting in work that is very time-consuming. Choices include earrings, necklaces, rings, buckles, cuff-links, bola ties and bracelets with messages such as "Life is Good" and "Don't Fence Me In."
Opening bid: $300, Valued at: $450.
3. Randall Darwall: Deflected Double Weave Wrap. Hand-dyed and hand-woven silk and wool. 81"l x 14"w.
Featured in "Craft in America" film, first series, on PBS...
Randall Darwall is a handweaver and designer who has been working in New England for over thirty years. What began as an individual alone in his studio has evolved steadily into a small collaborative community of artisans creating unique textiles that speak to the individuality of the human spirit. The work has grown from a focus on small wearable accessories to include entire ensembles and even interior pieces. It is an evolving collection that is primarily exhibited at special craft shows around the country and beyond.....
Different kinds of hand looms are employed to produce a range of weave structures, from 4 to 24 shafts. Colors change not only constantly within each piece, but vary enormously among the pieces from the same warp, and evolve warp to warp and season to season.
Opening bid: $120, Valued at: $240.
4. Randall Darwall: Honey Comb Weave Wrap. Hand-dyed and hand-woven silk and wool. 68"l x 13"w.
See above statement.
Opening bid: $120, Valued at: $240.
5. Mark Digeros: Striped Vase Pair. Hand-built earthenware with hand-painted matte glazes. Tall: 6"l x 7"w x 11.5"h. Short: 5"l x 5.5"w x 9"h.
In 2000, Digeros moved to Los Angeles where he still resides. He has worked for architect Frank Gehry since 2001 as Model Shop Manager, an integral position that makes the everyday production of architectural models possible. Though his job is full-time, he spends the rest of his creativity making as much ceramic artwork as time allows in his Los Angeles loft space where he lives and works.
Opening bid: $225, Valued at: $445.
6. Carol Eckert: Poem Antelope. Cotton, wire coiled. 15" x 17" x 2".
Each piece begins with symbols and stories -- creation stories, legends of great floods, tales of journeys and quests, parables of good and evil. I am intrigued that cultures from so many different places and times share related traditions. The universal nature of animal symbolism also appeals to me: snakes as symbols of evil, storks or cranes as signs of good fortune. Mythology and art have been intertwined for as long as there have been humans on earth, so my work often makes references to art history.
Coiling is such an ancient technique that no one is exactly certain when it first began. Though it is traditionally used to make vessels, I construct a myriad of coiled forms, including staffs, shrines and books. My pieces are often complex, but the technique is simple, requiring only a threaded needle.
Opening bid: $3,200, Valued at: $6,500.
7. Gini Garcia: Connect Platter. Blown glass. 16" x 17" oblong.
After receiving her B.F.A. in industrial and environmental design, Gini eventually opened a hot glass design and fabrication center that specializes in the creation of one-of-a-kind blown glass lighting and sculpture, including tablescapes and art for the wall. These creations, made to client specifications, range from the functional to the whimsical for homes, corporate offices, restaurants, and hospitals. Recently, she traveled to Murano, Italy and studied the "Chandelier for the New Millennium."
Using blown glass as a filter for light, each of Gini's creations is designed with the overall environment in mind.
Opening bid: $275, Valued at: $525.
8. Rachel Gehlhar: Enameled Red Panda Brooch. sterling silver, fine silver, enamel over copper. 1.25"dia.
"My jewelry is an effort to encapsulate movement. To this end, I tinker with a variety of visual devices. The most obvious of these is line; I have long been fascinated by the mood and energy that can be conveyed with a single stroke. My pieces are illustrative - usually inspired by animals - and outline plays an important role in my designs because it imbues each figure with a confident presence. Motion is also suggested through fragmentation of forms. I often portray my creatures in reassembled pieces; my imagery is intended as a glimpse of something alive. As an ardent vegetarian and animal rights proponent, it is important to me that my animals are presented as free and dignified, never contained. They are usually framed with geometric shapes, but incompletely. I do not presume to define animals; only to celebrate them."
Opening bid: $125, Valued at: $250.
9. John Glick: Footed Tray. Hand-built stoneware. 16"l x 7"w x 1.5"h.
"It is apparent to me that having fun is the key to staying connected to my work. Every year that passes, every kiln that is fired adds emphasis to this idea of the spirit-nourishing experience of being surprised at the unfolding of ideas. I go to the studio to see what I will do that day.
Shapes evolve guided by forces apparently outside my conscious control. This is instinct, intellect, and openness to change fusing into what I think is the most positive force behind any potter's approach: evolution or growth. Some call it inspiration.
I am attracted to both simplicity and complexity. My work reflects my re-examination of how these two opposites can coexist in a given series."
Opening bid: $85, Valued at: $170
10. Teri Greeves: Sovereign Citizen. Size 13 cut beads, size 10 seed beads, glass beads, brain-tanned deer hide, cotton cloth. 11"w x 14"h.
"I did not grow up in Oklahoma with my people, the Kiowas. I was raised on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming among the Shoshone and Northern Arapaho. Of course I knew that my Kiowa grandmother, Sarah Ataumbi Big Eagle, did beadwork though I never did get to see her at work.
In the summer of 1995, I was going through some of the beads I had inherited from my grandmother after she had died. I found a medallion that she had just barely started...obviously Southern Plains style with a white background and rainbow colors. I finished it. I did this piece with my grandmother and in doing so, I believe I finally connected around a long circle back to the beginning of where I came from.
They say that many centuries ago we Kiowa came from way up north, maybe somewhere around where I grew up in those beautiful blue Wind River Mountains. Maybe it's not so odd then that the people who showed me how to bead are from this place. In fact, maybe that's the way it was supposed to be."
Opening bid: $5,000, Valued at: $8,000.
11. David Gurney: 9-Piece Citrus Grove Tea Set. Hand-thrown, hand-painted earthenware.
tray: 16.5"l x 13"w x 1.5"h
teapot: 10"l x 6"w x 11.5"h
sugar: 4"dia x 7.5"h
sugar spoon: 6"l x 1.25"w
creamer: 6"l x 3.5"w x 5"h
4 mugs: 4.5"l x 3.5"w x 4"h
This lovely tea set with the California orange blossoms and fruit was handmade and hand painted by David Gurney for the first Craft in America exhibition. It includes a teapot, creamer and sugar, four mugs and a tray.
David Gurney's ceramic work, like his lifestyle, is influenced by Thoreau's views of nature, Mexican culture and folk art and growing up in a time of abundant orange groves and strawberry fields of California.
Each piece of Gurney's functional pottery is hand-painted and decorated with mythical landscapes that reflect his time, place, and sensibility.
He received his MA in ceramics from California State University, Fullerton and lives on California's Central Coast where he maintains an enormous garden and a sustainable lifestyle.
The artist has exhibited widely in the United States and in Asia and has been featured in the Peabody-winning documentary series, Craft in America.
Opening bid: $450, Valued at: $900.
12. Judy Hing: Turquoise and Black Garnet Earrings. Sterling silver. 2"l.
California native Judy Hing has been creating her distinctive and wearable jewelry for many years. Her first inspiration came from designing jewelry for Fineline Glassblowing Studios, and since, the artist has successfully developed her own style.
Hing incorporates a variety of precious and semi-precious gemstones, pearls and metals including sterling silver, 14kt gold and gold fill. Her colorful pieces range in both price and style, from classic to playful, often becoming a staple for her collectors.
Opening bid: $45, Valued at: $90.
13. Judy Hing: Agate and Red Garnet Earrings. Sterling silver. 2.5"l.
Opening bid: $63, Valued at: $126.
14. Mary Jackson: Sweet Grass Basket. 8"l x 7.75"w x 8"h. The Gullah basket, in continuous production since the 18th Century. Low Country coil basketry is one of the oldest crafts of African origin in America. Today, they are purchased by museums and art collectors throughout the world. Each basket reflects the cultural heritage and history of a unique people. Each is an original sculpture that reveals the artist's skill as both designer and technician. A basket's value increases with age and, with proper care, it will last indefinitely. This basket, made by Mary Jackson has particular significance in that Mary is a MacArthur fellow as well as a United States Artist grantee. Mary is represented in the collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution as well as numerous museums throughout the Untied States.
Opening bid: $200, Valued at: $350.
15. Sarah Jaeger: Black and Green Glazed Pitcher. 6"dia x 9"h.
"I am obsessed with making pots that convey a sense of volume, that speak of the capacity to contain and also offer their contents, that express their potential to be useful, generous, and, in a way, luxurious. I choose to work with porcelain, thought to be the most precious of clays, but which is also the most durable. Its whiteness and translucency lend a luminous depth to the glazed surfaces. I use saturated colors and often layer glazes, usually in patterns that repeat themselves loosely and with variation as they wrap themselves like skins around the volumes of the pots.
I want these lustrous surfaces to attract the hand as well as the eye. I want the pots to be both elegant and easy, beautiful and friendly, capable of providing abundant nourishment to our daily lives."
Opening bid: $50, Valued at: $100.
16. Mark Hewitt: Three Gallon Vase. Hand-Thrown Stoneware, wood-fired. 10"w x 16"h.
Mark Hewitt specializes in the production of very large planters, storage jars and vases, along with a full range of high quality tableware. He mines and refines local stoneware clays, and his principal glazes are the traditional Southern alkaline glaze and salt glaze. All his work is fired in a big wood burning kiln the size of a school bus, which he fires three times a year.
Opening bid: $200, Valued at: $395.
17. Calder Kamin: Raccoon's Paw Ceramic Sculpture. Hand built, hand painted. 8"l.
"My ceramic sculptures elaborate on the relationship between humans and animals. Specifically how these relationships are represented in mythology, pop culture, art and science. Clay readily allows me to replicate sculptures based on animal experiences in my city, as a figure in a timeless allegory of urbanization. The critters portrayed
in my work desire an empathetic audience; one that will love them. I allure the viewer with a welcoming cute quality, to allow enough time for a sometimes grotesque but humorous narrative to surface.
Currently, we have the most influential affect on animals, far beyond nature. By taking the role of nature, we have made animals a function of our own existential needs. This facet of our connection to animals is the underlying theme of my work."
Opening bid: $44, Valued at: $88.
18. Tom Killion: The City from Yellow Bluff. Woodblock print, #28/175. Image: 13"w x 14"h.
Tom Killion describes his technique, tongue-in-cheek, as "faux ukiyo-ë" to emphasize his aesthetic debt to the landscape prints of early 19th century Japan, but also to acknowledge his embrace of early 20th century European / American wood-engraving and book illustration techniques and styles as well. Among his influences are both the Japanese ukiyo-ë landscape masters.
Opening bid: $245, Valued at: $485.
19. Nikki Lewis: Dove Platter. Hand-thrown, hand-painted earthenware. 12.5"dia x 2.5"h.
"I like to get dirty," she says, explaining her long-standing love for making all things clay.
Nikki Lewis is a ceramic artist who works in Los Angeles, California. She throws exquisite delicate functional work that feature intricate handles, fluted lips, and painterly glazes
Opening bid: $70, Valued at: $140.
20. Robert Liu: Antique Bead Earrings. 14K gold, with a 22K handmade East Indian bead and with 18th Dynasty or older faience cylindrical beads. The 18th Dynasty was the height of both Egyptian faience and glass, as well as the time of Tutankhamen, and these beads date to c. 1400 BC. The wire was soldered and forged, so the faience bead cannot be lost, although it is fragile and should be handled with care. The 22K beads will slide but not come off. 2.25"l. Includes the 2009 32.4 issue of Ornament Magazine, which has an article on faience written by Robert Liu.
Opening bid: $125, Valued at: $250.
21. Dona Look and Ken Loeber: Hand-Fabricated Link Bracelet. Sterling silver with lobster clasp. 7.25"l.
Ken Loeber is a jeweler who works in Algoma, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife Dona Look and their son Reid Loeber. The artist graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee with his BFA in 1970 and MFA in 1978 in sculpture. He has successfully exhibited his jewelry nationally and internationally for over 30 years, collaborating with his wife, well-respected basket artist Dona, for over 25 years.
Opening bid: $125, Valued at: $250.
22. Thomas Mann: Photo Assemblage Brooch Angel, from the Storm Cycle series created after Hurricane Katriina. Bronze, glow in the dark acrylic, photograph. Box: 24"l x 18"w x 4" deep.
"I found this collapsed neighborhood church at the corner of Peniston and Barrone streets. It was probably suffering from termite problems as well and the shock of the storm winds literally blew it down. But, standing in the midst of the ruins was a statue of an angel, missing a wing but upright and present. I found it inspirational."
Opening bid: $2,000., Valued at: $4,000.
23. Sequoia Miller: Covered Jar. Stoneware with brushwork on a matte glaze. 5"l x 3"w x 10"h.
"Each time I make a pot I try to endow it with its own life. This life comes from an active balance of the form's tradition, its use, how I made it the previous time, memories of ones I've seen in the past, ideas I've had but never tried, etc. When I make a group of cups, I recall what I was thinking about in the last series of cups, what I liked and didn't like about them, and what I'd like to try. It's like this with all of my pots.
Some forms change quickly and others slowly, but all are in a state of fluidity. My hope as a studio potter is to make the best work I can - and to find out over time what exactly that means."
Opening bid: $90, Valued at: $170.
24. Jan Schachter: Sugar and Creamer Set. Hand thrown stoneware with appliquéd decoration.
creamer: 5"l x 3.5"w x 3"h. Sugar: 5"dia x 4.5"h.
"I enjoy making pots for everyday use; each is a subtle variation of a form - usually thrown in a series. I am a perfectionist (as much as the process allows) and am constantly in search of the perfect surface and ideal form while striving to create pots that have life and vitality. I have a casserole included in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC."
Opening bid: $45, Valued at: $90.
25. Joy Stocksdale: Palm Leaves Silk Wall Hanging. Three panels, each 16"w x 44"h.
As a result of studies at Goldsmith's College, University of London in 1979, Joy Stocksdale developed polychromatic screen printing. Her printed silk garments, hangings, and quilts have been exhibited throughout the US. She has taught workshops at craft schools, guilds, and conferences. She is the author of an instructional book on her process, Polychromatic Screen Printing. She lives in rural Sebastopol in Sonoma County, California.
The innovative process of polychromatic screen printing results in a limited edition from the original painted screen - with no color registration. Similar to an extended monoprint process that produces 5-8 prints from a single painted image. With this process, all the colors in an image are painted on a single print screen, then printed on fabric or paper with one pull of the squeegee. No solvents used.
Opening bid: $300, Valued at: $470.
26. Billie Ruth Sudduth: Little Miss Sunshine. Shaker cat's head wall basket.
Billie Ruth Sudduth is a widely acclaimed basketmaker living in the North Carolina mountains. Her works are in many public and private collections including the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery; the Museum of Art and Design in New York; the Mint Museum of Art; Glaxo; and Bank of America. In 1997, she was named a North Carolina Living Treasure, the state's highest honor for creative excellence in the field of crafts. She is the tenth recipient and the first female to receive the award.
Sudduth has received an Individual Visual Artist Grant, an Emerging Artist Grant and an Individual Visual Artist Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council. For five consecutive years, she was selected by Early American Homes for their "America's 200 Best Craftsman" directory.
Opening bid: $400, Valued at: $650.
27. Dave and Roberta Williamson: Boy Scout Brooch. Sterling silver, vintage Boy Scouts of America pinback button, vintage compass. 3.25"l x 1.75"w.
Roberta and David Williamson have been working together as artists their entire adult lives. The Williamsons are jewelers who live and work together in Berea, Ohio, and are inspired by family, and from their garden. They use straight forward fabrication methods, casting, and soldering to create their jewelry.
In her jewelry, Roberta Williamson celebrates their happiness together with their daughter, Lauren, and recalls childhood memories. "...My father always showed a lot of spirit. On the spur of the moment he'd spray-paint my shoes bright shiny gold...I've always tried to find inspiration for my work from my life and my family."
Opening bid: $425, Valued at: $850.
