Would You Buy This or Not (ethnic crafts and folk art)

It's bright sunny and - no kidding here - 13 below zero in St. Paul today.  If there's a yard sale today, I'm not going to it.  Instead, we'll do another installment of past finds that Janie and I have around our flat.

Sometimes things end up in the yard sale that have no business being there, and maybe at other times the owners know what it is and just has so much cool stuff they just want others to appreciate it.  I've found quite a bit of it, and while I'm unlikely to part with most of it anytime soon, I'd like to at least get some pictures out there.

All I need to know about crafts comes down to three questions:

Was it made by a machine?

How much work did someone put into this?

Do I like it?

Once it's established that it's a handmade item I like and admire, I'm pretty comfortable paying for it.  Let's see a few things Janie and I have found at yard sales, craft fairs and - what we affectionately call "The Department Store" - the dumpster in our building.

Let's start with a dumpster find. Price - free.  This says "Made in Indonesia" on the bottom, and even though I don't think there are any zebras in Indonesia, I trust the sticker.

On the other extreme of the cost spectrum, I think we paid $40 for this distinguished fellow.  We bought it from the artist at a craft fair, and if I had to make a guess, I'd say he's constructed from dryer lint and glue.  He's very cool, even if my suspicions are true.

We got this Indian copper platter at the Gay Men's Chorus yard sale.  Price - 50 cents.  Even though the tooling is very consistent, I've decided it is all done by hand.  I also suspect this is very old.  The only bummer is that someone tried to polish it up and so there's a big shiny patch in the patina on the very front of it.  I think it's fading though, and I hope it will.

Here is something handed down to Jane from her family.  It's the beginning of a poem by Richard Le Galliene, and the panting is delightfully simple and cheery.  This is the sort of thing that finds it's way into a yard sale all the time, and we're very happy it stayed in the family.  The question is, was it bought at a yard sale.  No one seems to remember.

I'm going to guess this bit of welding art by Howard Tomachek ran us $27.  I love chickory flowers, and I'd be surprised if this was intended to represent anything else.

We have a couple of weavings, probably Guatamalan.  I'm pretty sure they were $5 each.  One of them I'll show greater detail from.  Man, are these fun to look at . . .

Even new these machine-formed, hand-glazed South American fetishes are cheap.  I'm pretty sure I didn't pay more than a buck for this guy.  He'll never be worth a lot, but he merits the space he takes up.

I remember Janie and I debating on whether to buy his inlaid South Asian box, so it must have cost about $8.  The detail, while not perfect, still seems to have taken someone quite a while to do.

Speaking of this work done with shells, it's something a person could specialize in collecting.  I'd just like to share two more pieces.  First this spoon.  This is as much found art as anything else.  The shell selected is just exquisite.


Choice of shell to make this box is also remarkable.  It may have been at least partially factory made though.  The barrel-stave construction of the sides is so tight it holds water.

I promise this is the last time I'm trotting out the Corn Husk Duck.  I bought him on Ebay, and after shipping he probably cost me $12 - but just look at him! each feather is separately constructed.  Usually I only see this sort of attention to detail is in third-world art, but the maker of this clearly had time on his or her hands, and made good use of it.

More often, I see these little ladies made from corn husks.  They can be banged out quickly for sale to tourists, but I still like them, and despite their small size they get quite a bit done around the house.

Now some very nice folk art that is rapidly disappearing.  St. Paul has a large Laotian population of Hmong people.  The Hmong sided with the U.S. in the Indochina war and got routed, resulting in a wave of very industrious refugees.  The older generation sews these little figurines, and my favorite is a turtle.

Note the attention to detail.

It's a little hard to pick out, but look for the stitching on the edge of this black fabric. Not the white stiches (they're huge in comparison). The black fabric is attached with the greatest of patience, and it's just a joy to look at.

Just for contrast, I picked up this more-recently made turtle, and it shows how the craft is being lost.  Gone is the detailed back.  They didn't even bother to sew any eyes on it.

I mentioned the stitching on the other one, because look at these feet!  For crying out loud, I could do that.  I know of course, that people have to make a living, and if the nice turtle sold for anything near what someone put into it, I wouldn't be able to afford it.  I think I paid $10 for the nice turtle new; a quarter for the iffy turtle at a yard sale.

Here is remarkably sustainable piece of work.  It's African - yes I know . . . duh - but it's the top of a tall, skinny carving made from a narrow branch.  You wouldn't even need to cut down the tree to make these.  I paid $6 at a craft fair, and the fellow selling it to me said he made it.  I'm not so sure.  It's about 13 inches tall.

Another Indonesian piece I found looks as though it is machine made.  Maybe it wasn't, but I just like this mask.  I paid $1.

Quite some time ago I found a box of things sitting by the dumpster in the Loring Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.  Great picking that.  In it I found my favorite book of all time, Idle Thoughts of and Idle Fellow, by Jerome K. Jerome.  I also found this Chinese wood Confucius.  He has some damage, but he appears to have been handled a lot, leading me to suspect he may actually be quite old.

I know, of course, "old" can be faked.  He has a very serene look, and I keep him in my work cubicle as a sort of mentor.  To balance him, I have an Opus doll with a hundred pins in it.

And now my favorite.  It's a gourd, and I'm guessing it may be from the Andes.  Someone put an enormous amount of work into this, and given the lack of flaws, I'm saying this person is a great artist and I'm so honored to have it.  I paid $1.

There are mountains

Dancers and field workers wearing hats

A band of musicians

And what appear to be llamas(?)

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So, I know that was longer than usual.  It just involved some of my favorite things and I got carried away.

Next week, let's see if we can't scare up some antiques that didn't get featured in a previous one of these genre posts.  See you then.

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