The Heisey Glass Show

After the museum, we went to the “39th Annual Premiere Glass Show & Sale with 40 prominent elegant glass dealers from across America” as per the Heisey Museum site at http://heiseymuseum.org/hca/convention where a large number of dealers were selling... you guessed it - Heisey! We saw Karen again at the show where she was equally charming and informative. What a sweetheart! There were some people I recognized from the flea market earlier in the day and I was able to spend a little more time talking to them at the show. One of my favorite dealers is Kim Carlisle, so nice and very knowledgeable. He had an impressive collection of Heisey glass for sale including some of the really HUGE candy jars. One of them actually sold while I was standing there and judging for what it sold for and how delighted the buyer was, they must be quite rare! In addition, Kim can work magic on "sick" glass as his ad on Kovels (just scroll down to Kim Carlisle) says "Cloudy glass cleaned: the inside of vases, decanters, cologne bottles, saltshakers, cruets, etc., cleaned." At the show he had a before and after example and it was quite amazing! Karen and James (I wrote about them previously) heartily endorse his work. Kim also shared some "tricks of the trade" with me, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you... ;) Just kidding, of course I'm going to tell you! Here's one anyway - only buy matched sugar and creamer sets. Heisey colors vary in shade and intensity and glass from different batches can be noticeably different when they are side by side. If you buy a sugar for example thinking that you will find a creamer later, it is nearly impossible to find an exact match. Here's another tip -Heisey glass isn't always marked on the bottom, sometimes the mark is on the side. On the syrups, the diamond H is on the handle. Of course, some Heisey isn't marked at all. None of the mold blown pieces are marked including the very collectible favor vases that can fetch up to $800 depending on the color, so it's definitely worth learning about these little beauties! Another fabulous thing about the show was that there were many of the same pieces that we had just seen at the museum. Right there in front of me. Where I could TOUCH them! Which I did, very carefully, usually just giving them an affectionate pat or two. With the more valuable and or rare pieces I just kept my hands behind my back. I wish I had more photos to share but I was so enraptured with the glass I completely forgot to take some shots of the most fabulous items such as a set of matching Hawthorne (I think)candelabras, 6 cups each if I remember correctly, and a massive tangerine punch set on a rotating pedestal - again, if I remember correctly. Next time I will be sure to use my camera instead of just carrying it around, obviously I can't count on my memory, lol! It was a wonderful adventure in Heiseyland and I'm looking forward to going again next year and maybe going to the select auction in October. I'll keep you updated!

The Heisey Museum

After the flea market, Alan and I went to the Heisey museum where I had a much greater appreciation for what I was looking at because of what Karen had taught me. I also think that it helped all of the new information sink in. Seeing everything with the labels in the museum let me check my new knowledge and I have to say I did pretty well naming the pieces before reading the labels – I felt like quite the Heisey expert, lol! My new favorite pattern is Saturn in Zircon, especially the handled pieces. I loved the U shaped candleholders and the three piece all glass cocktail shakers were pretty fantastic also, even the strainer is glass.

If you are ever near Newark you should certainly make an effort to visit the Heisey Museum for an impressive collection of glass in all of the different colors and patterns. So beautiful!

Learning about the colors was wonderful – I just don’t think you can really learn the colors from a book, seeing them in person is so much better and Karen of course gave me tons of information about them and also the new colors issued by Imperial. Then all of that information was reinforced at the museum and the show. Hawthorne is a lovely purple and Alexandrite is a very unusual color which is described as lavender but will look blue under a florescent light and pink in daylight, it seemed to me that the color changed depending on the angle. I noticed a broken Marigold creamer in one case which I thought was very odd ( and somewhat careless of the museum) but it was an example of how the Heisey Marigold may degrade. Due to an unstable formula it can crack, turn opaque or even shatter! To see a description of all the colors click here http://www.heiseymuseum.com/colors.html

The museum also has a history of the company including samples of molds and photos of the glass making process. The creation of Heisey pieces was quite complex with each item passing through a number of skilled hands before it was finished. An outstanding example of the skills of the cutters is a case of glass with cuttings by Emil and Willibald Krall, expert glass cutters and former engravers to the household of the Emperor of Austria before joining Heisey in 1933. The intricate details of their wheel cut pieces are absolutely amazing.

For more information including company history, Heisey colors and Heisey etchings, please visit the museum website at http://www.heiseymuseum.org/index.html

Next – The Glass Show

How to Break Glass and Lose Customers

One of the biggest complaints I hear from other collectors is how many pieces of vintage and antique glass are broken during shipping. How tragic is that! I find it hard to believe that anyone would throw a beautiful piece in a box with “a piece of used bubble wrap and a couple of sheets of newspaper.” That’s a direct quote. Seriously, who does that?! What glass lover – and aren’t the majority of glass dealers just collectors that can’t stop buying? – would treat a bit of history that way? I sell online but I had never bought online and so I assumed that everyone packed as I do. It seemed reasonable to me that people would want the items that they are shipping to arrive intact and for their customers to be pleased. I was sure my friends were exaggerating to make a point. That is until I bought an item on ebay… dun... dun... dun *eerie music*

My college age daughter’s cell phone had somehow ended up in the shower – I didn’t ask, I don’t think I want to know – so we were looking for a cheap replacement and found one on ebay. It arrived in a plain envelope with a torn off piece of a used padded envelope with “for padding” written on it. I’m guessing he wrote that so we wouldn’t think that some trash had accidentally ended up in with the phone. Of course, the screen was cracked and we had to have a huge fight to get our money back, which we finally did… but I have gone off on a tangent.

The point is that now I understand why those collectors are upset. Apparently they were not exaggerating and people do think that one sheet of bubble wrap is sufficient padding. Are these sellers uncaring or just uninformed? Let’s be nice and assume that they mean well but they need some help in the basics of packing delicate items. So just in case you, dear reader, may be one of those people :) here are some hints on packing glass or any other delicate object.

1. Wrap the item in tissue paper – it’s cheap, it looks nice and an extra layer can’t hurt.

2. Use new bubble-wrap unless your recycled wrap is like new. Broken bubbles don’t protect anything.

3. Wrap the item in the bubble-wrap. If you can still feel the edges, use more bubble-wrap.

4. Roll your bubble wrapped item in one or two sheets of newspaper. I don’t know why this works but it does, maybe it protects the bubble-wrap. In addition, it’s recycling.

5. If it’s a very fragile item, wrap it an additional time with the big bubble bubble-wrap that you have cleverly saved from something.

6. If you have more than one item in the box, it’s extremely important to tape them together, after you wrap them separately. More items are broken from hitting against another item in the box than from outside forces.

7. I like recycled boxes but make sure that the corners and sides haven’t been compromised by being dented or creased. I do admit that I have used these when desperate but I reinforce the bent part with additional cardboard on the inside of the box.

8. Make sure your box is big enough for 2” of padding around the item(s). It sounds like a lot but it’s not really. I like newspaper because it’s free and I can vary how tightly I crumple and how densely I pack it into the box. With heavier items, I use denser packing so that I don’t worry about the item shifting in transit.

9. A way to check if there’s enough padding is to push on the padding with the amount of pressure you think the item would exert, if you can feel the box add more padding.

10. Sometimes, if I’m feeling especially paranoid I will push on the outside of the box to see if I can hear any bubbles popping. But that’s probably going overboard. (probably?? girl, get a grip!)

11. Shake the box, if you hear anything there’s not enough packing.

12. Write Fragile and Glass on the package. I actually don’t think this does any good– I’ve seen how packages are tossed around in the post office - but it makes me feel better.

13. Ship Priority, not Parcel Post. A small package gets a lot more beat up shipping by Parcel Post because that’s how many heavy, bulky items are shipped.

14. Oops… somewhere above step 13 you should seal the package securely with packing tape. (duh) If it’s a recycled box, be sure to reinforce the existing seals.

This is by no means a comprehensive list – it’s just my little hints. Please feel free to add your own hints to the comments!

Karen

Beads Glorious Beads!

In addition to vintage glass and collectibles, I love beads! Could it be the glass connection? Maybe, but whatever the reason its fun to spend the day at a bead show. The International Gem and Jewelry Show was in Columbus this weekend so of course I was there.

On Friday I bought these cool skull beads and these awesome naked ladies from J & K Trade Inc.


Deciding that wooden beads would make a masculine skull choker I picked up this bunch.

Janet Wolery of Contemporary Glassworks Gallery J Inc. has beautiful Swarovski Crystals, I bought some vintage crystals last year. However, this year I snatched up some of these gorgeous silver spiral tubes – she actually makes these herself! She also makes dichroic glass, so far I’ve resisted but maybe if I go back tomorrow…

Treasured Glass was the only Czech glass dealer at the show – everyone else had beads from China. It’s cheaper but Czech glass is sooo much nicer! Great prices and I finally discovered Vaseline glass beads. I’m a glass dealer so I know about vintage Vaseline and (unfortunately) new Vaseline reproductions and fantasy glass, but beads? I had no idea! If only I would have had these back in my hippie days, lol! I think they will be fabulous in a skull necklace.


I spent 3 hours at the show on Friday at which point all the dealers started to run together in my head. I was feeling good because I had shown some remarkable self-control and put down strings and strings of beads that I didn’t ‘need’ even though they were really pretty! I was gosh darn proud of myself but just when I was about to leave a lady at the exit gave me a free pass to come back Saturday and Sunday just in case I didn’t spend ALL my money. So I was there again today and maybe tomorrow.

I don’t want to waste the free pass after all! ;)