Craft showplace
A Main Line couple crave crafts, lots of them. They mix them up in their home - and of course they'll be at the Art Museum Craft Show next week.
Elissa Topol's love of crafts goes back to her days as "a child of the '60s," that fabled time of patchwork jeans and crocheted afghans, hand-thrown pots and homemade candles.
From those groovy roots, Topol and her husband, A. Lee Osterman, have evolved into sophisticated collectors of ceramics, wood, glass, jewelry, photographs, furniture and fiber, both decorative and wearable, and ethnic art.
"Things we like, we buy," Topol says.
Some of what this busy Main Line couple likes, and buys, comes from trips to Asia, Africa and South America. Other pieces come from the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, which opens Thursday and runs through Nov. 16 at the Convention Center.
A tradition since 1977, the show is the museum's largest fund-raiser, bringing in more than $400,000 annually. This year, it will feature 195 artists from around the United States and 23 guest artists from Israel.
Topol and her husband have been attending the show since 1981. She chaired it in 2001 and remains intimately involved today. But you can tell: Beyond the cause it serves, it's the chance to explore the show and meet the artists that really excites Topol.
Crafts of every kind fill the house in Villanova, many of them - in a nod to Osterman, a hand surgeon - with a hand theme. There are brass hand doorknobs and hand-shaped clocks and soap dishes, a plastic hand-chair out by the pool, hand plates and chests, jewelry and paintings, clothing, ties and photographs.
There's even a hand-shaped fly swatter. And "hand towels" that give new, literal meaning to the description.
But there's also much more that's un-handy. As Topol relates, "Our kids would say, 'Our house is really weird. Nothing matches. Nothing's traditional.' Now, they appreciate it."
Those three Osterman girls - Meredith, Alexis and Zoe, now 27, 26 and 19 - were right. Not much matches in this house. But when you buy what you like, that's the way it is, and happily so.
What do these folks like?
They have antiques from Osterman's family, including a grandfather's clock from the 1700s and needlepoint pillows, mixed in with 1950s furniture from Topol's parents. They have special finds from far-flung travels - African drums, silver and shells - and treasures found closer, in places like the Snyderman Gallery in Old City.
From a curb in West Philly came two orphaned theater seats, joined in perpetuity, now restored to purple plushness on a pedestal, no less.
Everywhere, there are personal touches. You'll find kids' artwork - including, of course, a good number of hands - and a kitchen window dedicated to bee-themed artifacts. That's for Topol's book club, named "The Bees."
For all the artwork and high-end crafts, this is no museum. "No place in the house is sacrosanct," Topol says.
If you start in the dining room, you'll see how it all fits together.
The wallpaper's quiet, the chandelier's crystal. But there, tradition ends.
The room's centerpiece is a large table created by Philadelphia furnituremaker Jack Larimore, a frequent Philadelphia Craft Show exhibitor, from a large tree that had to be taken down in the yard. Topol can't remember what kind of tree it was, but no matter.
The wood's been ebonized, or stained black to resemble ebony, and it gleams handsomely. Mounted on ceramic legs, the table, with two extensions, seats 20.
And those seats? What treats.
They were fashioned by former Philadelphia artist Johanna Okovic-Goodman, now in Colorado, who is known for recycling found chairs with artistry and humor - and sometimes with ears and antlers. "For a theme, we talked about Africa and animals, real and mythical," says Topol, who now presides at the head of the table in a ewe chair alongside her husband, the ram.
"We're into form and function," Topol says, "but humor's very important in life." For that, she thanks her husband.
Osterman's primary collecting passion is photography, but after 29 years of marriage, husband and wife share each other's interests to such an extent, it's hard to say who first discovered what.
The photo bug bit both of them long ago; today, they have about 350 prized shots by the likes of Vincent DiGerlando, Annie Leibovitz, William Wegman (and his famous Weimaraners), and Linda McCartney.
"If we see something we like, we get it and just find a place for it," Topol says.
So there, placed inconspicuously on a wide wall or in a tight corner, are two well-known works - Ruth Orkin's American Girl in Italy, 1951 and Diane Arbus' Tattooed Man at a Carnival, 1970.
Topol also likes her jewelry. "Wearable art," she calls it, and there will be plenty of it at the craft show. Two favorite designers, David and Roberta Williamson of Berea, Ohio, will be there. They're known for unusual pins, earrings and necklaces that incorporate Victorian-era portraits of birds, insects and people set in silver, gold and bronze.
Other favorites are coming this year, too: Eric Silva of Whittier, Calif., who works with organic ivory, semiprecious stones and rustic metals; Christina Goodman of Alameda, Calif., who does hand-painted miniatures and jewelry; and Thomas Mann of New Orleans, who's known for "soulful jewelry with an edge," pieces that combine classic romantic themes with unusual metals and shapes.
Though she's been to the craft show many times, Topol looks forward to this year as if it were the first, when she and her husband pushed their oldest daughter's baby carriage through the aisles of Memorial Hall, the show's former venue.
She's tried to declare a moratorium on craft-collecting, but it hasn't worked so far. Though it's hard to believe Osterman is the only holdout, Topol insists, "My husband is a tough one."
If You Go
The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show will take place at the Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., Thursday through Nov. 16.
Tickets: Adults $15, children under 12 $5, available at the door (cash only) or online. Online purchases include a $1-per-ticket discount and are not refundable. A $1 discount coupon for tickets bought at the door can be downloaded from www.pmacraftshow.org
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and next Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 15, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 16.
Information: 215-684-7930 or www.pmacraftshow.org
EndText