The Vaseline Glass Collectors Inc. President, Bob Harry, asked if we could provide a speaker and presentation at their annual convention.  Of course we could not pass up an opportunity to share our enthusiasm for Carder Steuben glass.  Bonnie Saltzman and Steve Skalsky developed a presentation to showcase the beauty and diversity of Carder’s glass, and Jenny Monroe volunteered to deliver the presentation.

The VGCI convention was held at the Corning Radison in October.  It was their 25th annual gathering.  After the event Jenny wrote, “My husband, Steve, and I had a blast last night with the Vaseline Glass Collectors.”  A handful of attendees had been to Corning before and remember the Carder Gallery. “With decades of Tom Dimitroff’s and Bob Rockwell’s quips flooding into my memory (plus the hundreds of tours that I’ve given at the Rockwell Museum and in the Carder Gallery over the years, remembering what visitors’ questions were).  So I added in a few more details…”

Jenny reported: There were about 75 people in the audience, crammed tightly auditorium-style into the middle section of the three ballroom spaces on the east side of the hotel.  On the right was the dining area, complete with clattering dishes by the wait staff setting tables for the group’s dinner (they were finally silenced by members of the Vaseline group!) and on the left was another convention group’s wine reception that had hired a murder mystery to take place. We didn’t find out that it was a murder mystery until my talk was over, but we had to endure very loud voices, gunshots, and shouting most of the way through my presentation! It was very hard to keep focus, but the group remained interested and attentive. At the end of what was a 60-minute presentation, the group applauded wildly (mostly to give back to the murder mystery group a little of their own medicine, I think!) and many came up afterwards to thank me. Since Vaseline glass is mostly mold-formed they were interested in the hot techniques of art glass-making that I had tried to explain. They had also been to CMoG that day and seen the hot glass shows there.  I gave out all of my copies of our brochures and directed them to check out the shape gallery and photos on steubenglass.org.

Check out the Vaseline Glass Collectors website where they have a reference to Carder’s glass in the “Glass Manufacturers Gallery” section.  It includes some images of Steuben glass that will fluoresce under UV light including Topaz, Yellow Jade, and Bristol Yellow.

If you know of other groups who might be interested in learning more about Steuben glass please feel free to contact the CSGA.  This presentation is ready to go and we’d love to share it!  It can also be edited to focus on particular aspects of Steuben that might better match overlapping interests with other groups.  Please contact our President Karen Beeman (president@steubenglass.org) and she’ll put you in touch with members who can help make a presentation happen.

Wanted:  Tall Gold Aurene Shades.  In search of three (3) Steuben Gold Aurene trumpet shades. Dimensions — Fitter: 2 1/4″, Bottom diameter: 6 1/8″ (6″ is good), Height: 6 3/4″.  These are a typical shape but the height is taller than most commonly found shades.  (An example of the shorter height is shown below.)  After contact, I will email a picture of my shades to show exactly what I have to compare with what you have, before purchase.  Will buy one, two, or three plus will pay all shipping costs.  Please contact Mark Bradish at mbradish@new.rr.com.  Thank you!