Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Western Design Conference Presents 16 Design Excellence Awards
September 26,
2023 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
The grill, equally a dynamic steel sculpture and an ultimate outdoor cooking station, is a fitting representation for the four-day event, which each year celebrates the best of American museum-quality functional art from across the country, encompassing handcrafted works in leather, metal, home accents, woodworking, mixed media, jewelry and fashion that capture the spirit of the West.
Parent’s honor was one of 16 Design Excellence Awards given on September 8, earning artists both acclaim and a total of more than $17,000 in prizes.
In the spirit of the community of artists from across the country that the Western Design Conference Exhibit + Sale fosters—and of Parent’s motto that “people are brought together by food, fire, song”—the award-winning Peacemaker Grill was put to work cooking cheesecake, cookies, cobbler, carnitas tacos and steaks for the attending artisans.
“Andrew represents the best of American craft at its tastiest,” says WDC executive director Allison Merritt with a smile.
In the Best Artist – Woodworking category the biomorphically undulating curves of the stunning Allegretto Leaf Hall Table, crafted in American cherry, was awarded to art furniture maker Mark Levin of Corrales, New Mexico.
Meanwhile, new-to-the-WDC exhibitor and outdoorswoman Ashley Delonas’ Mountain Girl Studios of Pocatello, Idaho, received the Honorable Mention – Accents award for her lighting creations of art glass melded with naturally shed antlers that she gathers on her travels.
An intricate marquetry-work piece by master furniture maker Wayne Delyea of Granbury, Texas, won this year’s Exhibitor’s Choice Award, a favorite award that is voted on by the WDC’s participating artisans.
And returning Sedona, Arizona, Native American artist Supaya Gray Wolfe, known as Many Tears, won an Honorable Mention – Leather for her shearling chaps. A full list of the 2023 Design Excellence Awards winners can be found here: westerndesignconference.com/about-us/awards/.