Geographic Profile: Buying Trends in the Midwest Collecting of Fiber and Metals Is on the Rise
by Lisa Englander

Trends, which determine the market and value of an object, can rapidly change from season to season. As swiftly as one art form comes into fashion or receives a favorable review, it develops into a buying trend. Such is the case in the field of crafts.

Collectors of museum-quality crafts are a small and highly focused group of individuals who continue to support their favorite medium. While some collectors have gained notoriety for staying within one medium, most do not. Many collectors are beginning to cross over from one medium to another -- glass collectors inaugurating art jewelry or basket specializations that complement their original focus. Possibly the tactile nature of turned wood and fiber, or the portability of jewelry appeals to a need unfulfilled by a glass or ceramics bent. We are familiar with painting and sculpture collectors crossing over into ceramics and glass, but this is now happening within crafts itself as diehard craft aficionados lane-change across disciplines.

One buying trend appears obvious. The ancient medium of fibers -- textiles, sculptures, baskets and wearables -- seems suddenly hot. Gallery directors throughout the Midwest confirm that fibers are among their best-selling works. Chicago's Perimeter Gallery reports a strong, continued interest in the two- and three-dimensional fiberworks of Olga de Amaral, John McQueen and Kiyomi Iwata. Sybaris Gallery of Royal Oak, Mich., specializes in three-dimensional fiberworks with a strong following for the sculptures and baskets of Joan Livingstone, Gyongy Laky, Barbara Cooper and Linda Bills. For their clientele, the acquisition of baskets appears to be a crossover opportunity for painting and sculpture collectors. R. Duane Reed Gallery of St. Louis, Mo., finds that fiber sales are beginning to outpace those of ceramics and paintings as the gallery places works by Jane Sauer, Linda Kelly and John Garrett in private hands.

The implication of these buying trends for the studio or production craftsperson is in the way these forms of collecting trickle down to various levels of the entire craft marketplace. Great opportunities exist for artists to sell handmade glassware, pottery dinnerware and teapots, furniture and fiber, or metal wearables to individuals who are already craft collectors or who are adding works in craft media to their painting and sculpture collections.

With prices still well below comparable works in other media, fiber offers an affordable entry to beginning collectors. Their traditionally unbreakable materials, portability and functional nature serve as selling points. Milwaukee's Katie Gingrass Gallery exemplifies the Midwestern climate's preference for wearable fibers. The gallery reports particular success in placing brightly colored woolen coats bearing appliqué and stitched handwork in private collections. The handmade jackets and coats of Mary Lou Osbolt, Gloria Walsch and Gabriele Knecht often adorn the walls of the gallery.

Continuing in the vein of adornment, Linda Richman Jewelry of the Gingrass Gallery also reports success in selling artists' jewelry in mid-price ranges (from $100-$500). The Midwest shares in the national trend which is elevating jewelry from adornment to a true artistic statement seriously supported by collectors, galleries and museums.

While few Midwestern galleries specialize in metals (as do many on the East and West Coasts), metals were the prevalent medium at Chicago's SOFA exposition last November. At this exposition, out-of-town galleries such as the Washington, D.C., Jewelers' Werk Galerie and Charon Kransen of New York exposed this audience of collectors to an exciting range of contemporary stars from the United States, Europe and Japan. Many of these artists are known to other jewelers and specialist-collectors, but bringing them to this international craft exposition will broaden public awareness of their work. As exemplified by the preferred price range, most Midwest collecting of jewelry is still for personal adornment. High-end, fine metals, such as the work of modern masters William Harper, John Iversen, Bruce Metcalf, Ted Muehling and Earl Pardon, have yet to reach a broader audience.

While fibers, metals and woods have experienced recent substantial growth, clay and glass continue to hold collectors' interests. They were, after all, the first craft media to attract serious press, as well as museum and collector attention -- which has also translated into the highest average prices in the field.

While sales of works by artists such as Toshiko Takaezu and William Carlson have fared well in Chicago, these media are performing more sluggishly in galleries to the south. The prices in these two fields which may, in part, reflect the level of breakage experienced in creation and transportation, and the expense of running kilns and furnaces, are becoming too steep for entry-level collectors.

While collectors across the country avidly seek major talents in each field, regional tastes still play a part in each locale. As an example, turned wood, an active medium on the East and West Coasts, has yet to achieve an extensive niche in the Midwest. Regional tastes and proclivities are more readily observed in the markets for collectibles and unconventional art forms.

Collectors who are not interested in museum-quality crafts find shopping at art fairs, flea markets and auction houses to be a successful route to acquisitions. These are tried-and-true venues for locating new talent, new styles and new types of materials. Collectibles in demand are those items which have outlived their usefulness such as hand fans, old tools, farm implements, vintage holiday decorations, paper ephemera, out-of-date electronic appliances, and consumer goods such as vintage televisions, radios and cameras.

Around Lake Michigan, collectors prize household modernism from the 1930s through 1960s. Cranbrook masters Eero Saarinen, Florence Schust Knoll, Harry Bertoia, and Charles and Ray Eames influenced furniture of this period through their designs produced by Knoll International and Herman Miller, Inc. Household items, such as the designs of Raymond Loewy and George Nelson, which relied on styles that were intellectually challenging rather than decorative, are equally popular. Classic historical American pottery such as Rookwood, Pewabic, Fulper and Weller, and glassware by the Italian and Scandinavian masters, have influenced and continue to effect the works of contemporary studio craftsmen. Also popular with collectors, these objects document a time when designers, artists and architects engaged in an active interplay of ideas and concepts.

As in other parts of the country with easy access to rural areas, tramp, folk and outsider art figure prominently in the Midwest's collecting activities. Available at a wide range of outlets from antique stores to secondhand shops and flea markets, these objects have begun to crop up at commercial art galleries such as Carl Hammer in Chicago. Figurines from bottle caps, frames from cigarette wrappers, and tables constructed from wooden thread dowels are just a few examples of Midwestern buying trends.

These forms of collecting also bear implications for the studio craftsperson. Many artists collect folk art or modern design furniture as a visual reference for their own artwork. In addition, budget-conscious collectors often combine contemporary decorative arts or outsider art with the works of moderately priced craft artists to broaden eclectic collections.

Collections are built upon affinities between the buyer and the item acquired. Most collectors are responding to a combination of emotional and intellectual responses to these objects. An affinity and affection is essential for whatever is collected -- whether it is matchbooks or turned wooden bowls.

Collecting is an activity in a constant state of flux. Trends are proof that this process is never stagnant as buyers educate themselves through the process and, in turn, influence the development of the craft field.

LISA ENGLANDER is a Racine, Wis.-based artist, teacher and freelance writer. She is currently a board member of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund.