Crafters Shared Their Talent

During Recent Open House Event

By Shannon Hicks

A few months ago a man visited one of the art classes at Danbury High School, bringing with him a basket he had created using only newspaper. Newtown resident Barbara Allen, who teaches art at the high school, was immediately intrigued.

“I tried to replicate it, and haven’t stopped since,” she said on August 31. Ms Allen and her husband were at Brookfield Craft Center that sunny afternoon, participating in the center’s annual open house. After enjoying lunch and meeting some of the more than 30 artists also preparing for the open house, Ms Allen made her way into Brookfield Craft Center’s River Room, where she spent the next three hours working on her latest newspaper basket and answering questions from the dozens of visitors clearly intrigued by this craft.

The baskets are made only with rolled newspaper. There is no glue, string or other adhesive used, and while an occasional wooden coffee stirrer can be seen holding a piece in place while a basket is woven, Ms Allen pulls the stick out of the basket once she has woven enough stability into its form.

“It’s a very pedestrian material that we don’t think about,” she said while weaving. “It’s not going to last 500 years, and we know that. But it’s still very green. It’s recycling.

“It’s a tremendously labor intensive process,” she admitted, but also added that she loves the challenge. Ms Allen has sought the advice of a teacher in Danbury, who she studied with for another “five or six hours,” she said, but most of her self-taught skill has come from time she spends with her students at the high school.

“It’s terribly exciting to learn with your students,” she said. “I call it collective learning.”

Ms Allen, who has been involved with Brookfield Craft Center for “probably 30 years,” she said, has taught classes in weaving, basketry, jewelry, “pretty much all of it.” She will be leading a two-day newspaper baskets class this fall, in fact.

“It’s fun,” she promised. “All you have to bring is newspaper.”

Barbara Allen was not the only Newtown resident at Brookfield Craft Center last weekend. Also offering demonstrations of their talent were Suzanne Pisano, with fused glass jewelry; Carol Smith, with painted wood carvings; and her husband Wayne Smith, who did the intricate wood carvings.

Ms Pisano was in BCC’s Glass Studio last weekend, overseeing the center’s student and faculty glass sale while also answering questions about her work, some of which was on view.

The Smiths were across the campus, in the Woodworking Studio. Wayne Smith, a/k/a The grizzly Woodsmith, does very intricate wood carving and his wife provides the equally impressive painting that give each piece its character.

Mr Smith will also be teaching a class this season. He will be leading “Carving A Holiday Figure” over the weekend of October 4–5.

The entire campus was open for the open house, with all six buildings being used to present artist-instructors and their craft. Visitors were encouraged to talk with the artists, many of whom have been associated with the craft center for years. The full expanse of offerings was demonstrated during the three-hour event on August 31, with everything from jewelry making, bead stringing and wire wrapping in the Metalsmithing Studio, Navajo and loom weaving in the Lynn Tendler Bignell Studio, to woodturning and Nantucket baskets in the Woodturning Studio among the myriad offerings.