Summer Trip Preparations

Preparations are gearing up for the Cabell County Glass & Ceramics Project.  In anticipation of the project, Dennis and I have been locating, contacting and visiting sites for our summer visit.  Many places that we hoped to take you have closed because they are unable to compete with low cost imports that are flooding the market from Asia.  However, many other manufacturers are weathering the unfavorable economy and are producing glass that is distributed all over the world.  Because many West Virginia glass manufacturers have closed, we will be expanding our summer trip to Western Pennsylvania to visit industries that are similar to those in West Virginia a generation ago.

One glass maker that we had hoped visit is Masterpiece Crystal in Jane Lew, West Virginia.  Masterpiece produces high quality crystal stemware.  However, when I visited them on March 8, the sales manager informed me that they are in business on a day to day basis and she could not promise that they would even be in business when we do our summer trip in mid July.

Dennis recently visited Blenko Glass to make arrangements for our visit there on June 6 when you will have hands on experiences making glass art.  You will also have an opportunity to see how the glassblowers make the glass that is sold in the Blenko gift shop where you may purchase art glass made in Milton, WV.

Dennis took this photo of glass beads made at Fenton Art Glass

On March 18 & 19, Dennis and I took a trip north to places that might make good visits for our group to see glass artistry and industry firsthand.  Our first stop was to Fenton Art Glass where company historian, James Measell met us enthusiastically.  He will give our group a history of Fenton Art Glass as well as the glass industry of the Ohio River Valley as a whole.  He will show us the raw materials that go in to making the glass and the various types of glass made in the area.  Our visit there will include viewing artists making glass beads that are sold in the gift shop.  Although Fenton is no longer producing most of the glass items from their past, most of these items are still for sale at excellent prices in their gift shop.  In addition to the history and tour, Mr. Measell will show us an episode of Dirty Jobs when host, Mike Rowe “worked” at Fenton Glass for a day.

Dennis photographed sheets of stained glass being made
at Paul Wissmach Glass in Paden City, WV

Our next stop was at Paul Wissmach in Paden City, WV where art plate glass is produced and sold all over the world.  Our guide, Carl Rice, showed us many of the colors, designs and patterns of stained glass produced there.  You will be amazed at the variety and beauty of flat glass made at Wissmach.  If you desire, you can purchase sheet glass for arts and crafts at $1 per pound.

Also in Paden City, WV, near Wissmach, is Marble King, the nation’s only manufacturer of marbles.  Owner Beri Fox showed us some of the many marbles produced by Marble King for games, art, collecting and industrial uses such as in spray cans.  Beri was featured on an episode of Martha Stewart’s television show recently and was happy to share her love of marbles with us and looks forward to our visit there this July. 

Continuing up the Ohio River from Paden City, we arrived at Moundsville, famous for the former state penitentiary and the Grave Creek Mound.  At one time, Moundsville was the home of Fostoria Glass making beautiful crystal until the mid 1980s.  Although Fostoria is no longer in business, the Fostoria Glass Society operates a museum in Moundsville.  The museum was not open when we were in Moundsville so we were unable to assess whether it would be a stop on our July trip through the area.

Bellaire, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Wheeling, WV is home to the National Imperial Glass Museum.  Imperial Glass made pressed glass in Bellaire from 1901 until closing in 1995.  Like the Fostoria Museum, we were not there at a time when the museum was open.

Wheeling is famous for Oglebay Park including the Oglebay Glass Museum.  Like the other museums that we attempted to visit, this one was closed as well when we were there.

Dennis on a mountain of broken Fiestaware at Homer Laughlin

We continued north to Homer Laughlin China, whose famous Fiesta dinnerware has been gracing dinner tables all over the world since 1936.  We were impressed with the facilities there and are anxious to visit their facility.

Our final stop of the evening was to the Hall China Company in East Liverpool, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Chester, West Virginia.   Since the evening was late when we arrived at Hall China, we were unable to speak with a representative there regarding our glass and ceramics project.

After a quick dinner in St. Clairsville, Ohio, we made our way to the Days Inn after some confusion about the location of our first choice of lodging.  We had a great day scouting locations for our visits and looked forward to continuing our search into Pennsylvania the next day.

Dennis captured a great photo of bottles
that were made at Kelman Bottle

We left our hotel at 7:30 am and fought Pittsburgh traffic to go to Kelman Bottle Company in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania.  We met with a friendly representative, Robin Williams, who informed us that Kelman is currently recovering from a fire at the plant is not producing at this time.  She allowed us to look at samples of green, clear, blue and brown bottles for soda, wine and tea that had been made there prior to the 2011 fire.  We were disappointed that we will be unable to visit Kelman this July but hope they will be able to return to production at some point in the future.

Dennis photographed glass artists
stretching a glass thread to over 40 feet

After leaving Kelman, we traveled into the city of Pittsburgh and went to the Pittsburgh Glass Center.  We enjoyed learning about the classes and projects using glass that they do at the small but versatile and well equipped facility.  On the building’s second floor we saw two glass artists from Baltimore making displays for the Phipps Conservatory.  They had been making the skeleton of a mammoth from glass.  While we were there, they were working with molten glass to make glass flowers.  We saw them stretch a softball sized lump of molten glass to a length of over 40 feet to make the stamens of glass flowers.  It was fascinating.  We will visit there on July 20 to make a glass ornament. 

Chihuly glass at the Phipps Conservatory

Our next stop was to the nearby Phipps Conservatory, one of my favorite places.  There is always an outstanding display of plants many of which change seasonally.  There are rooms of cacti, orchids and palm trees.  The plants are well marked and beautifully displayed.  The building is very environmentally constructed to use a great deal of solar power and the water is recycled and use is carefully monitored.  What primarily brought us here, however, is the display of glass by artist Dale Chihuly.  We were amazed by the beautiful giant glass flowers and the human figurines included in the displays of tropical plants.

Human figure of Chihuly glass
at the Phipps Conservatory

Our lunch stop was to one of my favorite dining spots in Pittsburgh, Max’s Allegheny Tavern located in the northern part of the city known as Deutschtown.  Max’s has been in business for over 100 years serving excellent German food.  Although I normally go for their excellent Count Esterhazy Schnitzel, I opted for the Hasenpfeffer this time.  It was quite good although I can’t keep from thinking of Yosemite Sam when I eat Hasenpfeffer (I hates rabbits!).  Dennis was teasing me about eating the Easter Bunny.

We drove south from Pittsburgh to the Guardian Glass facility in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.  The Guardian representative, Josh, told us all of the glass products that are made by Guardian from large architectural glass to tempered glass for automobile applications.  They are happy to provide our group with a personalized tour and a demonstration of how float glass is made on a large scale. They do tours for groups of all ages and will give us a 2 – 3 hour visit at their facility.

Stained glass window at the
Pittsburgh Glass Center

From there we returned to Pittsburgh to stop by the Kopp Glass factory where precision molded glass such as specialty lenses are produced.  The person who may be able to arrange a visit for us was unavailable when we stopped but we may be able to arrange a tour for our group.  Some of Kopp’s products include colored glass lenses for airport runways, lenses for aircraft, theater lighting and medical devices.  Hopefully they will be able to accommodate our group in July.

In driving south toward home on I-79, we attempted to visit Davis-Lynch Glass in Star City, WV near Morgantown.  However, we were unable to get there before they closed at 4 pm.  Davis-Lynch makes lamp bases, bodies and shades from glass.  We were disappointed that we were unable to visit.

We continued on to the Seneca Center in Morgantown that was once the site of the Seneca Glass factory that operated from the 1890s until the 1980s in Morgantown.  Seneca Glass made beautiful hand cut and etched lead crystal some of which is on display in the halls of Seneca Center.  Since Seneca Center is primarily a shopping center today, we are unlikely to include it in the July trip.  It is an excellent place to visit but we have to be careful since there is only so much time available during the week.

Dennis photographed this glass sculpture
in Weston, WV

We continued south on I-79 to Weston where we drove by Appalachian Glass and the Museum of American Glass in West Virginia but we were there late in the evening so both were closed.  We considered going over to Ron Hinkle’s studio in Buckhannon but we were tired after our whirlwind trip so we continued south.  The webpage for Ron Hinkle Glass looked interesting but since we knew they would be closed when we were there, we didn’t want to travel that far east on Rt. 33. Although we knew that Masterpiece Crystal wouldn’t be open, we stopped by their Jane Lew, WV location to check on parking and the route to their location in case they are available for a visit by our group this summer.

Mold for glass bottles at Kelman Glass in Glenshaw, PA

We got back to Milton around 10 pm, tired but feeling great about the trip that we will take this summer and the experiences we will have at the diverse glass industries in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

Potential visit locations can be viewed in Google Earth by downloading and viewing the KML file.  – GLASS.KML  If you do not have Google Earth installed, you can get a free download here: Google Earth