At this first ever virtual event  we toured the 25 contemporary glass art paperweight submissions for the 2021 PCA Annual Bulletin and then followed it up with a "meet the artists" question and answer forum. The featured PCA Registered guest paperweight artists included Alison Ruzsa, Gordon Smith, Ted Trower, Victor Trabucco and Damon MacNaught.  The Original live event occurred on April 10, 2021 but you can watch a recording of the full event here.

In this episode Connected with Glass interviews Wesley Fleming (A PCA Registered Artist), who has been working in glass for 20 years - specializing in hot sculpted solid glass on the torch. He shares with us how he's grown his career, how teaching helped him understand his own work, the value of production as a form of practice, and thoughts on 2020.

Find Wesley's work on Instagram @vetropod and at www.vetropod.com, and follow our podcast on Facebook and Instagram @connectedinglass

In this episode Connected with Glass interviews Clinton Smith(A PCA Registered Artist) who has been working in glass since 1999. He shares with us his experiences as a self-taught paperweight artist, the struggle of working multiple glass jobs, the strengths that his autism has lent him in his art, and balancing work with being a dad. Find Clinton's work on Instagram @clintonsmithglass and at www.clintonfsmith.com, and follow Connected in Glass on Facebook and Instagram @connectedinglass.

A Treasure Trove of Paperweights from the Union Glass Company

Union Glass Company of Sommerville, Massachusetts (1851-1927) is known by most collectors for their large commemorative style paperweights. They usually feature lampwork names and/or dates adorned with rather simple flowers, poinsettias, and other lampwork elements such as crosses or flags. Click on the photo below to view over 160 unique examples.

160 UnionPaperweights.pdf

This video features many of the 400 weights displayed in the Corning Museum of Glass with an emphasis on those made by French 19th century factories. Also shown are techniques of millefiori, lampworking, sulphides, and crimping, as well as footage of how weights are made today. Included are views of paperweight making at Baccarat, Saint-Louis, Wheaton Village, and the studios of Paul Stankard and Victor Trabucco.

The Crown Jewels -- Glass Paperweights

By Art Elder

“The Crown Jewels for Collectors” — that’s what Paul Hollister wrote about fine glass paperweights.  He was one of the foremost scholars of 17th to 19th century glass studies, glass paperweights, and contemporary studio art glass.  Paperweights are considered the most collectable of 19^th century glass items, and also the most challenging of the glass arts to make.  Fine glass paperweights are, indeed, rare treasures.

A behind the scenes look at Cathy Richardson Paperweights, which is located along the Mississippi River in Winona, Minnesota. This piece was shot and edited for KSMQ's "Off 90"

Craft In America interview with flamework glass artist Paul Stankard segment. ORIGINS episode PBS premiere: October 7, 2009.

What is a Paperweight?

by Steve Richardson, PCA Outreach Director

If you have been collecting for even a short time, you have probably heard that question a few times. If you haven’t heard it out loud, you’ve at least run across people who give you a blank stare of polite puzzlement when you tell them what you collect in your spare time.

The confusion starts with the word “paperweight” itself. Even the earliest modern paperweights were designed more as decorative objects than as utilitarian tools to keep papers from blowing off your desk. It might have been more helpful to refer to them as glass sculptures or miniature worlds or – as some artists today call them – orbs.

The more fundamental problem, though, is that many things have been called paperweights. There are also many small objects – think snow globes or pet rocks – that fit the broad definition of being mildly artistic and commonly found on desks. I find it difficult to explain why those don’t belong in my paperweight collection, at least without sounding a bit snobbish.

Part of the problem is that we each have personal feelings about what is “artistic”. We build a mental hierarchy that includes everything from the Mona Lisa to our grandchildren’s refrigerator art, and we draw a line that puts pet rocks on one side and real paperweights on the other. Another part is that many objects that PCA members collect are, frankly, expensive. They are items that people buy with discretionary income. If you have collected even a few costly paperweights, you may appear to be in different circumstances than people who can only afford snow globes. This is very delicate territory, particularly when we are debating about where mass-marketed Chinese weights and some Murano weights fall in the spectrum.