Jack Preston

Placed 18^th in the challenge. Crystal stemware.

Placed 14^th in the challenge. From our collection, Kaziun Glass Rose circa. 1950 More detail: Charles Kaziun, born in 1919 in Massachusetts, was a self-taught glassworker who learned by watching glass artists at fairs in the 1930s. After working in New York, he went to work for the same people from whom he had learned the basics. He was working with home-made lamps at this time, and developed ways of making high quality work without a furnace. In 1942, he was hired by the University of Pennsylvania, where under the tutelage of James Graham, he became proficient in making canes, including silhouette canes, and filigree. Kaziun was a friend of Emil Larson, whose roses he studied and tried to copy for three years until he finally succeeded in making one. Kaziun was assisted by August Hoffbauer, a German glassworker who built a furnace for Kaziun, and taught him some of the formulas and techniques of the trade. Kaziun's goal was to rival the skill of the great French paperweight makers.