Philadelphia Weekly

Most of us are sold on the idea that food bought directly from the farmer just tastes better. We feel warm and snuggly bringing home canvas bags brimming with handpicked produce. But is all this goodness negated when we serve our locally made meal on melamine plates from Target? Is "buy handmade" the new "buy local"?

Handmade objects--imbued with the creativity and intention of the artist--make us stronger, while machine-made objects weaken us, says Kurt Ebert, who promotes the theory that "attractor fields" play on our emotional and physical well-being.

Attractor what now?

They're "non-physical energy fields generated by each individual's attitudes, beliefs and ongoing thought stream," says Ebert. These fields are located in, say, a handthrown pottery bowl. Machine-made porcelain platter from Dillard's? Not so much.

Even if Ebert's theories (which he admits on his website have no scientific basis) have links to new-age activities such as color therapy and telekenetic spoon bending, they've found an eager audience in Philadelphia.

At a recent party celebrating the opening of this week's 31st Annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, hostess and Craft Show chair Susan Zelouf served her dinner on all handmade dishware and utensils. The roasted vegetable orzo salad spilled out of a ruffled glass bowl with gold edges. The serving pieces, used to distribute a side of salmon, were crafted by a Massachussetts metalworker. Slices of artisan bread were nestled in a sweet grass basket made by a South Carolina basket weaver.

"It's important for us to know the story of the artist. It makes the piece come alive," says Zelouf, an avid craft collector. "Everything has a story," she says, serving up salad on whimsically decorated pottery plates as Ebert holds forth on the "exquisite sensitivity" of the human body, and its responsiveness to objects made by our fellow man.

"Any handmade thing is better for you energetically than something that's machine-made," says Ebert. A machine-made thing, he says, "doesn't have the consciousness" to imbue an object with energy.

Judy Pote, a potter and dinner guest, agrees. Holding one of her mugs or bowls "just feels different" than machine-made pieces, she says. "It's a different experience."

Ebert invited a guest to "test" his theory. He placed a volunteer's right hand on a machine-made lampshade. The left arm was outstretched and rigid. Ebert applied pressure to the left arm and it buckled easily. The same experiment was performed again, now with the right hand holding the solid smoothness of a German hand-turned wood bowl. This time Ebert claimed the left arm felt stronger, and it took longer to succumb to the pressure. "You see?" said Ebert.

It may take a while for the "buy handmade" movement to make it to the mainstream, but with the help of shops like 10,000 Villages and events like the Craft Show, it's gaining attention.

Take ceramacist Heather Mae Erickson's show of modern, precise wheelthrown porcelain dinnerware currently on display through December at Philadelphia Airport. A place setting fits together like a puzzle, and salt and pepper bowls balance elegantly like a see-saw.

In her artist's statement, Erickson says she "explores the possibility of changing the way we treat the vital ritual of dining. By designing functional tableware, I seek to direct the eye, hand and mouth to treat food differently. I want to create ware that raises awareness of the situation and sparks contemplation before merely devouring the elements."