As a popular art form, traditional or "folk" crafts have a certain appeal that few other objects in American life have. Unselfconsciously created by local--usually rural--artisans, they characteristically have a charm and forthrightness missing in many of the fine arts.

Equally important, we like to think that folk crafts harken back to an earlier, simpler time--an era of small town insularity before the intrusion of machine-manufactured goods and other commonplaces of the industrial age. In the North, this era ended before 1880. In many areas of the Southeast, on the other hand, continued isolation and agrarian self-sufficiency ensured that