FENTON ART GLASS - Williamstown, W.Va.

Fenton Art Glass is back in business. http://www.fentonartglass.com/.

Buoyed by support from dealers and collectors, www.fentonartglass.com/clubs Fenton Art Glass Co is back in business.
The Williamstown-based company and BLENKO http://www.blenkoglass.co/ are among the last hand-blown glass makers. On Tuesday Fenton President George W. Fenton announced a surge of orders and the company restructuring its finances provide them with orders to .remain open until at least Spring 2008. This is great news for WV Glass Collectors.
If you haven't started collecting WV GLASS, this is a great time to start! While the Companies are in business and producing glass.
Fenton Art Glass offers tours, a gift shop, and many wonderful handpainted art glass items.
Fenton is famous for developing Carnival Glass ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_glass - 21k ) a distinctive look that marries iridescence with a patterned surface. Some companies had been doing patterns and others had been doing iridescence but FENTON ART GLASS was the first to combine them all in the 1970s.
While I collect only BLENKO GLASS, I have a few pieces of Fenton and I covet more
the items I have that are designed and signed by DAVE FETTY. Mr. Fetty worked briefly at BLENKO and is the friend of my friend SHORTY FINLEY. Mr. Fetty like Shorty is blessed with talent that is beyond words. Check him out on the Fenton website, Fetty has retired but often returns for special projects. ( www.fentonartglass.com/history/davefetty.htm ) hjh