HANDMADE IN AMERICA: Conversations with Fourteen Craftmasters...

HANDMADE IN AMERICA: Conversations with Fourteen Craftmasters by Barbaralee Diamonstein (Abrams: $24.95; 224 pp.). Diamonstein interviewed artisans who make exquisite, functional objects for this handsome book. Quilter Sandi Fox explains, “An artist need only be concerned with making something beautiful, a craftsman must make it beautiful and functional.” Much of their work rivals gallery art in beauty and execution: the sculptural furniture of Wendell Castle and Sam Maloof; the organic glass forms of Dale Chihuly and the Art Nouveau-influenced iron work of Albert Paley. Significantly, the least interesting works in the book are the most self-consciously artsy.