Architectural designer and woodworker Michael Olshefski creates custom furniture and sculptures. Photo courtesy of Contemporary Crafts Market
By Melina Paris, Contributor
The Contemporary Crafts Market, which across three decades has become one of the traditional signals that the holiday season is upon us, will fill up the Pasadena Convention Center exhibit hall in Old Town Pasadena from Nov. 13 to 15.
Attendees will discover American-made products not easily found anywhere else. Everything is hand-crafted by master artisans. The Contemporary Crafts Market features more than 200 artists with works for everyone’s budget.
Artistic, hand-crafted, American-made craft generates $30 billion a year in the United States. That is double the $14 billion first reported by Craft Organization Directors Association in 2001.
When CEO Roy Helms started this show, there was no craft show in Los Angeles. The American Craft Council recruited Helms from Hawaii to manage their craft show in New York. Helms soon realized he could do the same on the West Coast and that it would be just as easy for him to start a new show in Los Angeles.
Naysayers were the inspiration for Helms. People told him that it would never work and that Los Angeles people have no taste. Helms felt a responsibility to provide a new opportunity for the public to enjoy art they could understand.
“Paintings on the wall in a museum can be so mystifying, crafts are understandable,” Helms said. “People collect what they enjoy and understand. People need to hold it, look at it and as an added bonus, (at Contemporary Crafts Market) they get to talk to the artist who made the piece.”
Speaking of the artists, Contemporary Crafts Market boasts returning artists most every year since the show began. One of the original artists participating is South Bay’s local Marianne Hunter, who works with enamels, metals, stones and other materials. Hunter also happens to be on permanent exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as the Smithsonian.
Hunter says she has spent her life creating, refining, expanding, studying and falling in love with the ideas and details of every piece she has made over her 48 years as an art-jeweler.
“I draw on nature, archeology and human culture for the stories [that] I tell in enamel,” Hunter said. “I collect a wealth of materials including antiques, opals, and a hundred varieties of cut stones…. Each piece is like no other, comes from my heart and is engraved with its own poem. People wear my work because it reflects something essential of themselves.”
The event fosters familial relationships among artists and attendees.
“It’s been interesting growing up with some of the artists at the show and with some of the people who come to it,” Hunter said. “I’ve seen many artists not only grow into adulthood but also grow as an artist.”
Hunter will show about 35 or 40 pieces this year. She makes no more than 20 pieces in a year because they are so intense. Hunter will also be showing collaborations with her husband, William Hunter. He works in wood sculpture.
Then, there is architectural designer and woodworker, Michael Olshefski, of Primal Modern. In a world of mass production and duplicate designs everywhere, there are still creations that strike our intuitive senses. Olshefski’s custom furniture and sculptures do just that, bringing us into nature with pieces that are simultaneously tranquil and sensual.
With his deep consideration for earth’s ecosystem, all of Olshefski’s pieces are made from reclaimed wood. Handcrafted from salvaged trees, steel, glass and leather, every luxury design is one-of-a-kind. Olshefski also donates 5 percent of each sale to environmental causes.
Although featured in design shows and multiple publications such as Dwell, Luxe and LA Weekly, Olshefski, is not after fame.
“The environment is in a precarious state,” Olshefski said. “Yet, it is this very environment that gives us everything we need to live and to be inspired. We turn to nature to renew and reflect on our true purpose. Mine is to be an artist and woodworker. By creating furniture that celebrates and appreciates nature, our spaces look better and we feel better. Each piece is personal and infused with a grounding message of hope, beauty and awareness.”
In June 2015, Olshefski won the People’s Choice Award at the 30th anniversary of the Contemporary Crafts Market.
Lois Sattler has been with the show since it began. Working with clay for many years, her unique talents have elevated clay into a spectacular art form. Her well-collected handcrafted pieces are both decorative and functional. She has developed a unique way of hand building porcelain. Each piece is one of a kind and has been represented in museums and galleries across the globe.
“I love the show because it’s been an opportunity to showcase what I do in a highly professional environment,” Sattler said. “Because of it, I, along with other artisans, have met people who would never know our work existed without the show. It’s an intimate, personal experience to make craft that brings beauty into the lives of others. Artists mirror the soul.”
For more than 20 years, Sattler has been teaching art to children. It’s her way of making sure art continues to the next generation. She says craft and art communicates in a language that is so important.
“I notice that when kids have challenges and when they dive into art, their focus and their difficulties disappear,” Sattler said. “Art is transformative and it heals. It is a magical process. No one knows why art makes things better … but art always does whether you are a kid or an adult. Art enhances your life in every way, every day.”
Other artworks you can discover at the Contemporary Craft Market include photography, jewelry, wind chimes, clothing, hand-loomed rugs, furniture, handmade shoes, scarves, hand-blown glass and decorative art.
Photos of some of the crafted arts available this year can be found at
https://instagram.com/