MILTON — The historic Blenko Glass Co. in Milton kicked off its annual Festival of Glass on Friday as glass collectors and enthusiasts traveled from across the country to make and purchase some of West Virginia’s most famous glass pieces.
Blenko is a family-owned and operated company that has been around since 1893, and in Milton since 1921, producing hand-blown, colorful designs that have become iconic.
From its renowned water bottle to the yearly West Virginia piece, Blenko has been part of the state’s history, economy and culture for almost 100 years.
Dean Six, vice president of marketing, said the glass industry has been a huge part of West Virginia but tends to not be as talked about as the other money-makers in the state.
“Anytime we have the chance to talk about West Virginia, we end up talking about coal, which has been a big part of our story,” he said. “We talk about labor unions, a big part of our story; we talk about timber, chemicals, industries that were and are important. But we don’t talk enough about the glass industry, where factories around the state employed over 2,500 people each. Not many coal mines had 2,500 employees.”
Six said that, at one point, about 60 factories were billowing away making glass in West Virginia — and, over 200 years, there have been 473 come and go.
“We’re one of the places to tell, show and preserve that,” he said. “So I think that what we’re doing here is not only continuing a great legacy but reminding people of where we’ve been, and celebrating something that’s very, very, very West Virginia.”
Hosting the 12th annual Festival of Glass is part of how Blenko is doing this. Evolving from a collector’s convention that lasted for about 10 years, the get-together has been going on for more than two decades.
“Blenko people come from all over the world, and I think we have people in our classes from 11 or 12 states,” Six said. “We have people today enrolled in class — 300 today, 300 tomorrow, plus visitors from all over.”
Just in the parking lot, there were cars from the neighboring states of Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but people also had traveled from as far away as Michigan, Georgia and Missouri to visit the factory.
Blenko will have more than 20 classes over the weekend for customers to make vases, mosaics, wind chimes and other collectibles they can design and create.
“We let people get hands-on,” Six said. “We do simple things for children, so they can actually get hands-on, up to, and including, advanced glass-blowing classes. It truly is a celebration of one of West Virginia’s great industries.”
Groups were gathering on the floor of the Blenko factory Friday to blow their very own, unique glass pieces in the classes.
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Jennifer Wayne, of Ripley, decided to celebrate her birthday by creating a custom two-handled vase she designed by choosing the colors and helping mold the shape.
The process starts by taking the molten glass and beginning to shape it by rolling it on a long rod. Next, the glass is blown, shaped and trimmed to create the specific look the piece is supposed to have. Other parts, such as handles, are added and shaped while still hot, and then the finished piece is cooled.
“It was a lot of fun,” Wayne said. “It was a lot harder, because that steam comes back up the tub, and I didn’t know it would do that, so that was kind of a surprise, but everything else was great. They’re really step-by-step and make it easy for you.”
Wayne said she’s always loved glass making but has never been able to come to Blenko to create anything. She said she was excited that she got to create her piece from scratch.
“It’ll probably go on the kitchen table so I can tell everyone, ‘This is the vase I made. Yeah, I did that,’ ” she said.
Wayne said she’s already planning to come back next year and take a bigger class.
“If you get the chance, come down, because it is amazing,” she said. “It’s definitely worth it.”
Eight years ago, the future of Blenko was up in the air. The company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because of an excess of expenses it was not able to keep up with. Since then, business has increased.
“We’ve been out of bankruptcy for several years. It was a long struggle,” Six said. “We did a lot of very smart things, and we kind of asked ourselves what we do best and focused on that.”
Six said changes in natural gas prices, which caused a significant amount of its financial struggles in the past, has also helped them a little. The company has also hired new designers and has tried to put more of an emphasis on the designs that were so popular in the 1950s and ’60s.
“We’re buying into making Blenko an experience, so people want to, like this weekend, come, see, do — not just buy — something,” he said. “Watch the glass, make the glass, touch the tools and, collectively that, plus a very heavy presence on social media, all combined together, has given us hope for another hundred years.”
The 2019 Festival of Glass will continue through Saturday with only a few class options still available.
Those interested in signing up or purchasing pieces may visit www.blenko.com.
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