Review Of Events
Fall Meeting
October 27, 2001

The Fall Meeting of the Chapter was convened at 10 AM on Saturday, October 27, 2001 in the Crafts Classroom at Wheaton Village, Millville, NJ, rather than in our usual venue, Williamson Restaurant, Horsham, PA. The theme was “On the Road with Karen and Richard Federici”, the Guest Artists who provided both Morning and Afternoon Programs for this meeting. About 45 members attended on a crisp fall day to view the paperweight offerings of Guest Dealers Harvey and Doris Robinson and other displays, including the Members’ Table, meanwhile snacking on coffee, tea and Danish. At 11 AM, President Kruger called the meeting to order. After some debate, it was determined that the last “On the Road” meeting was on June 28, 1997, to visit Paul Stankard’s studio in Mantua, NJ, but this was the first time we were “On the Road” to visit with TWO paperweight artists. President Kruger injected a sad note by recalling the recent loss of Past President Eileen England and Arthur Greenblatt and mentioned Vice President Lee Kvalnes’s serious illness.

After being introduced by President Kruger as emerging paperweight artists, Karen and Richard Federici detailed their development in glass. They began working in glass in 1990. Their first class, taught by Paul Stankard, was at Salem Community College, Paul’s old alma mater. Richard’s previous work experience was in the aviation industry. The pair took a class at Wheaton Village and became volunteers there for eight years, working in glass during breaks. They studied with Chris Buzzini and eventually began making weights with optical glass. Their first studio, located behind their house, was only 380 square feet; last year (2000) they opened a 1600 square foot studio, also behind their home, that had been designed by Paul Stankard’s architect. They started with a 50-pound capacity electric furnace, but at the suggestion of Boyd England they acquired a 200-pound capacity gas-fired furnace. As both artists collaborated on their presentation, they showed slides illustrating the various topics.

Karen began her career in ceramics, using nerikomi (a multi-color millefiori technique), wax resist and metallic glazes. In 1993, even with Hodgkin’s disease and subsequent chemotherapy, she took a glass class, first making marbles with inlaid canes (trees, an Xmas series), then perfume bottles with blown forms and with flower designs, inlaid and lampwork designs, then tazza forms, then a blown vegetable series. Her first show was in 1995 at a New Jersey gallery where she showed forms with ruby glass, gold ground and metallic blue. She has made a series of production pieces of folded “handkerchief” bowls, vases with organic (vegetable) forms included, vases combined with metal parts, vases with human forms included (inspired by Italian work), glass “portraits”, lampwork beads, and marbles with Wahakan, i.e., portrait and flower designs she learned by watching a marble artist. She uses dichroic glass and makes weights with encased “portraits”.

Richard Federici assists Karen by making setups for some weights but he also creates “Vineland Rose” pieces. His crimp for this design was made by a man on the West Coast. Richard finds that rose weights are tricky to make…he has produced about ten so far. Karen and Richard share ideas with Boyd England, but Museum of American Glass Curator Gay Taylor has begged them not to complicate things by exchanging crimps. (As we all know, Boyd makes excellent crimp roses, which sell in the neighborhood of $450 at present.) Finally, the Federicis noted that their daughter makes beads, too, which she sells on eBay. Their talk ended at 11:35 AM with Karen telling us that she teaches kindergarten and thanking us for not falling out of our chairs or wetting our pants! At this point, President Kruger described the schedule for the rest of the day’s program and dismissed us to examine the Robinsons’ weight display, until 12:15 PM, when we were to reconvene at the PaperWaiter Restaurant just off the Village grounds.

After a delicious lunch of chicken parmigiana or fillet of flounder, President Kruger called the meeting to order once again, at 1:20 PM, for further announcements. He brought VP Lee Kvalnes to the podium; Lee thanked the group for their cards, letters and encouragement during his hospitalization for cancer removing surgery. President Kruger introduced a third paperweight artist lunching with us, as our guest, Tony DePalma. He said he would be stepping down in October 2002 not only as President but as de facto newsletter editor as well so the group should give some thought to finding candidates to fill those positions. He hoped the current Secretary and Treasurer would agree to stay on as officers. He alerted the attendees to a paperweight auction in Edison, NJ on November 1. He announced that Audrey Smit’s Glass Accents Gallery had moved to Brickerville, PA, seven miles west on Rt. 322 from Ephrata, PA, its former location, with a new phone number of 717.625.2973. Since he has been sending our newsletter to foreign and overseas chapters, he has received telephone contact from a Canadian chapter president and a newsletter from the New Zealand chapter with a note. Due to meeting at Wheaton Village rather than our usual venue and the logistics involved, there was no raffle today but two door prize weights, generously donated by Guest Dealers Harvey and Doris Robinson, were won by Sue Sutton and Ethel P. Henry. The Winter Meeting, our next gathering, will be on February 2, 2002 (Groundhog Day), back at Williamson Restaurant. The Morning Programs will include viewing a videotape on Josh Simpson and the Best Finds Contests of 2000/2001. In the afternoon, PCA Vice President Kathy M. Moyer will present a slide narrated talk on “The Top Ten Milestones, People and Paperweights of the 20th Century”.

President Kruger then reviewed the schedule for the remainder of the day. He invited us to visit the Arthur Gorham Paperweight Shop on the grounds of the Village and to revisit the Robinsons’ paperweight display before departing the Village. We were to reconvene at 2:30 PM at the Federici studio eight miles away in Vineland, NJ at 2:30 PM. When we arrived at the studio, we found light refreshment awaiting us and a display of Federici products for sale. Karen produced various lampwork set-ups in the smaller front room of the studio (and contributed one set-up to the Chapter for a raffle prize). She made lampwork flowers to be encased as the center of a large, open plate which Richard fabricated over roughly a two-hour period, with assistance from Karen and a number of their glassworking friends. This project was neither quick nor easy; at one point Richard saved the half-formed plate when it became off-center. The plate finally went into the annealing oven at 4:30 PM, to appreciative applause from the gathering. The last to leave finally vacated the studio at 5 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Sutton, Secretary