August 2016 - Fenton Finders of Greater Kansas City

Fenton Finders of Greater Kansas City
The next meeting of the Fenton Finders of Greater Kansas City will be
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13TH, 2016 at the RAYTOWN CITY HALL, E 59TH, Raytown
Missouri. The meeting will start at 7:00PM.
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Now a word from President Jason Herman
Summer is coming to a close and before we know it, it will be time for school, football,
and all things Fall. Of course, that means our annual Gala is quickly approaching as well. In
just over a month, we will once again meet for a weekend filled with a bit of education, a lot of
fun, and a whole lot of Fenton glass. If you haven’t made reservations yet, there is still time to
do so at the Gala Rate, but only until Aug. 17th, so don’t delay! We have so much planned for
this year’s Gala. Our featured speaker is Martha Reynolds, who will share her experiences as a
decorator and Head of the Design Department at Fenton. In conjunction with this, our main
display will feature Designer Special glass, designed by Martha and the other skilled designers
who worked at Fenton through the years. These big displays are always quite impressive. Do
you have your small displays ready? I know Amanda doesn’t, we’ll see what she comes up with
this year. Every year, the variety of small table displays is amazing and eyeing other’s
collections is a favorite of mine. Of course, we will also have a member favorite, Glass
ID. Melvin Lampton and the Blackmores will share their vast knowledge of glass and help you
identify that piece you picked up that you just can’t find anything about. I always learn
something that night. The Hospitality Room is sure to be packed with delicious goodies. If you
bring a dish, remember to label it and bring the recipe, we love to share great food. And last but
most definitely not least, the room shopping! This is my personal favorite. The rooms are
always filled with incredible glass, and I hear Martha will be selling from her room as well, that
should be a real treat. The 2016 Gala is shaping up to be one to remember, so don’t miss it!
For hotel reservations please call 1-816-891-7788 and ask for the Gala rate. The
dates are September 8th, 9th, and 10th.
There was a lot of sadness as well as excitement when we attended the
auction for Ann and John Fenton’s store in Republic MO on July 23. Ann and John
have been members for a long time and have always done more than their share
to help the club. So we were very sad when they announced that they were
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closing their store and glass shop. Good news, the plans to close made so they
could retire and no longer have the pressure of having a shop to run. However,
John and Ann have plans to continue to make glass with Dave Fetty, making very
limited runs that will be produced in their new studio by Dave Fetty with John
Fenton helping, and Ann Fenton has some Fenton Blanks left that she plans to
paint and offer for sale. This is all in the future but we hope they will have more
information for us at the Gala. Somehow it is not a surprise that their idea of
retirement is to continue to make glass with our beloved Dave Fetty. This may
well mean there will be more pumpkins. It made us very happy to hear that. We
also talked with their son, Mark Fenton, who is doing very well after his surgery,
his only complaint was that his hair had grown back and covered the scars and he
was no longer getting the sympathy that he had been.
Have you made your plans for the Gala yet? We still need some people to
bring glass for the small display tables, last year was wonderful with all nineteen
tables full. We have in the past reviewed the tables in the newsletter but was
unable to do all of them this year we had so much going on in the club that had to
be covered in the newsletter. Hopefully we will do better next year. So all you
people taking glass to display for the National conventions don’t forget to bring
your glass to Kansas City.
We still need glass for the big display as well. We would love to have
examples of Louise Piper, Michael Dickerson, Robin Spindler, Frances Burton, Kim
Plauche’, Dianna Barbour, Beverly Cumberledge, Susan Bryan, Linda Everson,
Martha Reynolds and any others that you have that you are willing to share with
us. Please bring your examples of the designer’s work and Richard will find a
place for it on the display. He would like you to have your name on the glass, the
bottom if possible along with the designer’s name so that we can group
everything on the display without having to do any research. One of the first
things that you might do is to pick out your favorite piece of Fenton and then find
out who designed that piece. Please remember just because an artist signed a
piece does not mean it was designed by them. There were a large number of
painters at Fenton and they will have signed their name and painted by. Many of
the Connoisseur or family member pieces will have designed by annotated on the
bottom to help us out in researching a piece. It might take a little research but
the information is in the books so please add to the big display with glass
designed by your favorite Fenton designer or as many examples of your favorite
designers as you can bring. Don’t forget, Martha Reynolds, one of our favorite
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Fenton designer will join us at the Gala this year and as Jason has pointed out we
will have the opportunity to buy some of her original one of a kind pieces of glass.
We will also be able to see some of the new things she is creating now that she
will have glass for sale in her room.
We also want to thank all the people who have already sent in donations to
the hospitality room. It is a big help. It is also a big help for all of you that have
plans to bring something to put on the tables. Hint Hint. The club will provide the
barbeque dinner, with beans, coleslaw, meat and cheese trays, drinks, all the
paper goods needed as well as forks and spoons. There will be cake and a veggie
tray, some fruit and cheese dip. We also have all the serving utensils needed for
anything you choose to bring but we do need salads, veggies, desserts, and
anything that you can think of that will be enjoyed by tired people who just want
the energy provided by the food you bring so that they can shop the rooms one
more time. So many people have told us that we have the best hospitality room
that they have ever seen (thank you), it is all because of our members who take
the time to make something special for the hospitably room, or find something
special in a store to bring and share with our friends. Please plan on bringing
something with you to the Gala, and don’t forget to bring recipes as well for many
people want try their hand at making some of the wonderful dishes that we have.
Please bring as many dishes as possible in disposable containers. If the container
is a not disposable, please make sure your name is clearly marked on it
somewhere. We will try to clean each one as it is emptied and place the clean
containers in one of the back rooms to be found by the owner. Again, utensils are
the hardest thing for us to keep tract of and we don’t want to lose anything. So
please let us provide any serving utensil that is needed. Thank you for all that you
do.
We had a wonderful turn out for our small display table for Our Favorite
Fenton Designer in our July meeting. Please check out page one and four. There
were one of a kind examples of Louise Piper, Martha Reynolds, Frances Burton,
and Kim Plauche’ to name a few. We were also very glad to have Melvin Lampton
back after his accident. We have really missed both Melvin and Norma at our
meetings and are very much looking forward to seeing Norma at the Gala.
Our show and tell table was also full with many wonderful finds. Some
Fenton and some made by other companies, some were brought in by members
hoping someone would know who made the item. For those who did not get the
information that they needed we have the Gala. There will be many tables set up
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Thursday night that will hold a lot of glass, all of which we hope someone knows
something about. Or, in some cases, our members are hoping to stump our
experts. Ann and Max Blackmore and Melvin Lampton are some of the best glass
experts around and we are very proud that they are attending the Gala and doing
us the honor of providing this very important program for us, every club who has
a convention has glass id, we think ours will be one of the best around with our
experts and the glass our members bring for them to id. One of our favorite
memories of a national convention was a glass id session with Frank Fenton and
two other glass experts (whose names we do not remember, it was many years
ago). Someone held up a piece of glass and Frank looked at it and said, not
Fenton, at which point, one of the other experts said, Yes, it was Fenton, made for
Rubel in the 1950’s, we believe that she even knew the ware number. Frank
looked again and had to say – yes it was indeed Fenton. Frank Fenton was one of
the greatest glass experts ever. This was a lesson learn, one person no matter
how knowledgeable cannot know it all but working together we can find the truth
and begin to become glass experts ourselves. So please bring your glass to glass
id and help educate us and maybe stump our experts.
Our program for August will be a group program on Glass that Glows. Our
favorite is, of course Topaz, or is that Burmese? Or maybe Custard, or maybe?
Bring in your glass that glows under a black light or some that you think should
glow and we will black light test everything and see if we can put on a show. We
had a program many years ago on Topaz hobnail and at one point the lights were
turned off and the glass glowed under a black light. Let’s do this program again,
and this time we can include all glass that glows under a black light as well as
Topaz – but please don’t forget to bring your Topaz, some of the glass that glows
may surprise you.
Dan Madura will bring treats. This is the last meeting before the Gala and
any unfinished business will be taken care of at this meeting so please be sure and
attend and see how bright the glass is under a black light.
Take care, keep cool, and see you soon
Jackie Oglesby
Secretary fentonfinderskc.net
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