by: Noelle Backer

It has been a trying few months for the crafts field, to say the least. The horrifying news of the murder of The Rosen Group’s Vice President Darnetta Love Edmondson and her 15-year-old daughter, Shauna Love, not only shut down The Rosen Group offices for several days, but it shocked and saddened people in the farthest reaches of the country. This is a close-knit field, and the trauma of something like this is shared by all.

But the bad news did not end there. Cynthia Krause, one of the field’s most respected weavers, passed away unexpectedly in June. Our readers called from East and West, North and South, to tell us of the field’s great loss. … Matt Alperin, director of MASD Inc. and a close friend of Cynthia’s, has written a beautiful and humorous tribute to Cynthia for the field to remember her by, though there is not much chance of her being forgotten.

With a heavy heart still lingering from recent events, it grew even heavier as I read the newsletter of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF). The newsletter related the story of ceramic sculptor Carol Sevick, who had been practicing her craft for nearly 30 years before she found out that she will never again be able to work in clay. A repetitive motion injury had progressed to such an extreme that it was just too late for recovery.

And Carol is not alone in her situation. CERF’s newsletter reported that “of the 72 craftspeople that CERF has helped over the last two years, 38 — more than half — have required assistance because of an illness or injury.”

The point is not to be horribly depressing, but rather an attempt to point out that while tragedy can blind-side us, some tragedies can actually be prevented. Sevick says she went through a “period of denial” about her problem; perhaps if she had gone to the doctor the first time, or even the second time she felt strange pains in her hands, and had taken the necessary precautions and time to rest, she might be wedging clay today.

I also recently met an artist whose business and home were completely destroyed by a hurricane several years ago — and she had no insurance coverage to help her rebuild. (My stomach rose promptly to my throat when she said this.) After living in an abandoned home for quite a long period of time, she was finally able to get back on her feet. Many in that situation would have been unable to recover.

If there is any possible way you can afford some sort of insurance coverage, health and business, get it. Take a high deductible if you have to — but a deductible of $1,500 is a lot more manageable to pay than $10,000 for surgery or to replace the roof to your studio.

As we’ve seen recently, there are too many disasters in the world to not at least try to prevent those that can actually be prevented.

SEPTEMBER 2001: TABLE OF CONTENTS