confident and complete discus-
sion of the significance of the
“useful arts” and a more clearly
defined aesthetic mandate for
the Council and its publication.
C U R T IS B E N Z L E
Huntsville, Alabama
Editors’ Note: As you noted, the
June/ July issue was devoted to
exploring function. W e’d like to
take it a step beyond that and say
it celebrated the concept. Artists
such as Brayman who fin d func-
tion to be inspiring continue to
awe us with their beautiful, use-
fu l objects. m ile the Brayman
piece may not have answered your
question on where the magazine
stands on function, we hope you
found the many other parts o f our
June/ July issue helped, includ-
ing the two other features, on
Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman
and Margaret O ’Rorke. And,
o f course, last but not least, our
“From the Stacks” reminder of
the devotion to function o f the late,
great Sam Maloof.
More to Say
I just did your [members] sur-
vey. It did not give me the
chance to say we are required
to be members and to get the
magazine when we are artists
in
A C C
shows. It’s a shame that
the thousands of artists in all
media who sell their works at
these shows do not get better
exposure in the magazine.
The promise that the orga-
nization would raise the level
of consciousness in America
for handmade things has not
been met in the 35 years I have
been in the glass field. The tone
of the magazine has shifted to
an urban awareness of hand-
crafts as important by merit of
their weirdness and non-com-
patibility with real life. The
function and use I was taught
in school fell out of fashion.
The upcoming generation,
I agree, is a hard sell for hand-
crafts. If it’s not electronic or
something for the body, they
won’t look. Why not a return
to the value and integrity of
the handmade things that we
use everyday? Beauty, Imagi-
nation, Value—those are my
business keywords, which we
use on our printed materials.
Now artists who make
a living in the crafts are in a
mess trying to stay afloat. It is
the worst climate for the
handcraft business. I have a
vault of 35 years of develop-
ment in studio glass (we used
to save a piece from every new
series). Maybe now is the time
to reconnect with the survi-
vors of these rough times.
A N N C O R C O R A N N O U R O T
Benicia, California
Lucie Rie Query'
Following my biography of
Bernard Leach, I have now
been commissioned by Yale
University Press to write a
book on Lucie Rie, one of the
great potters of the 20th cen-
tury. This will look at her life
and work in the wider Euro-
pean context and at the way it
reflected and fitted in with the
basic tenets of modernism. I
am keen to communicate with
people who knew her in the
U .S .
or had communication
with her. Letters and personal
memories help to create a full-
er picture of her life, and I very
much welcome hearing from
anyone about this.
I can be contacted at
or by post via Ceramic Re-
view, 25 Foubert’s Place,
London
W 1F
7
Q F , UK
E M M A N U E L C O O P E R
London, England
BRUCE METCALF
September
4
th-
26
th
4
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Torch
4.75"x 1.75"painted and 23k gold leafed maple, holly, 2008
