Paperweight Collectors Association of Texas

Recent Activities of Interest

Lowell Switzer is preparing a talk for our June 21, 2003 meeting at Texas A&M University. His subject is “Ya Gotta Have Hearts” and will demonstrate the use of hearts in paperweights and other decorative glass objects. He has asked members to let him know of hearts in your collections, so that he can come to your home and photograph them for his talk. It will only take a few minutes! Please call Lowell at 713-777-7690, or e-mail him.

On August 17 and 21, 2002, Al Bates made presentations to members of the Ontario, Canada Paperweight Collectors Association in Cambridge (near Toronto) and in Ottawa. The subject of the program was "Advertising, Commemorative and Souvenir Paperweights". Al and his wife, Marion, were invited to Canada by Kenneth Wright, President of Ontario PCA. Thirty-six members of the Ontario PCA attended the meetings. While in Canada, Al and Marion spent time sightseeing in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Al will also give his entertaining and educational talk on advertising weights at the PCA OK meeting in Tulsa on March 23, 2003. He will share the speakers program with former Houston artist Drew Ebelhare, who will be showing his latest work.

PCA TX intends to book Al as a featured speaker at one of our meetings in the future, but at this stage, the date has not been set. PCA TX members may want to consider crossing the Red River to attend the Oklahoma meeting.

These books are important because they document the activities of our organization. The books are available for checkout from the librarian Joyce Elder (tel 281-444-8535).

Barbara Dokell visited Colorado in July, and reports on visiting ex-Texas artist Drew Ebelhare. Her report follows.

“The highlight of my trip to Colorado was visiting former Texan Drew Ebelhare. He relocated to Canyon City, Colorado a few years ago to get away from Houston’s very hot weather. Well, the day we there, it was 98°F in Canyon City!

I tried to tease him about why he left Houston for THIS kind of weather, and he said because of the low humidity in Colorado --- you don’t feel the heat as much. Well, I said that 98° is the same heat in Canyon City as it is anywhere else! It was HOT!

He seemed to be very happy and excited about his move. His main studio is spacious, and about as tidy as his old place, plus he now has two large dogs who delight in greeting each visitor with wagging tails and wet kisses. Drew is thrilled with the town of Canyon City and its prospects for growth into an artist’s colony. He was happy to show me the other properties that he has purchased to renovate and lease.

Naturally, I purchased two paperweights and one small clear bowl with a paperweight base. His pallet of colors is beautiful and I can’t wait to bring the new weights to our next meeting for everyone to see! His millefiori is still muted, but more clear and precise, I think, than his previous work. I think that Drew does miss PCA TX and would love to make all our meetings.

Our day in the mountains visiting Drew was really lovely, and seeing him, and his new work was the highlight.”

Art Elder took a group of 21 seniors from the 60+ group of the Northwest Assistance Ministries on October 15, 2002 to see the Smith paperweights at the Forsyth Center Galleries. Art had spoken to the group with a slideshow about paperweights in June, and was asked where they could see more of them. He told them the largest collection west of the Mississippi on public display was just 100 miles away at the Forsyth Center Galleries. They planned a bus tour to see what they had seen pictures of, and asked Art to accompany the group. Art also spoke at the Friends of Forsyth weekend at Texas A&M University on November 2, 2002. Art’s talk was titled, "A Rose by Any Other Name; Clichy Paperweights from the D. C. & Ruth Smith Collection". He discussed the history of the Clichy factory and the characteristics of Clichy paperweights, which many authorities consider to be the finest of the antique weights. The Clichy weights from the Smith collection were featured in a special exhibit at the Forsyth Center Galleries.

In this series, we update our members on past guest speakers to learn what they have been doing since our past meeting. We consider our previous guests to be part of our PCA TX family of friends. It is important that we “keep connected” through occasional updates. Today we feature the update of paperweight artist Randy Grubb, speaker at our June 15, 2002 meeting in San Antonio.

At the meeting, Randy spoke about his encasement techniques of paperweights and his large cylinder art glass, but his enthusiasm bubbled over into the custom car he is building, and much of his time was spent talking about the car. Our members were as interested in listening about the car as much as Randy was explaining it. He named it the “Blastolene Special”.

At the time of the meeting, he had nearly completed the car, and was getting it ready to enter it in the annual Pleasanton, CA West Coast Nationals hot rod show, which was held on August 24-26, 2002.

Randy’s car was the star of the show, and attracted huge crowds. He would start the engine every hour, and its roar would always attract several hundred admirers. As a result of the exposure in the show, Randy has been invited to have the car featured in several of the nation’s top hot rod car magazines, with one publisher committed to up to 12 pages. He has been invited to enter (or exhibit) the car in several of the major auto shows around the country. An avid car collector even offered him a very significant sum to buy it on the spot!

The car was custom built around a Korean War vintage tank engine that Randy was able to acquire in nearly unused condition. The engine was designed to power a 50-ton M-47 tank. The air-cooled V-12 engine has 1790 cubic inches of displacement and generates 900 HP, with 1500 foot pounds of torque. To handle the power, Randy installed a transmission designed for a Greyhound bus. Randy built the car around the engine, and designed it in the form of a retro Indy racer. He handcrafted the custom aluminum body shell. The car weighs 8500 pounds and is 21 ½ feet long. He spent most of the past year finishing it. For additional information and pictures of this car, see the website.

Randy reports he still has some problems with controlling the power. Even though the engine is idling, when he puts the transmission in gear, the wheels burn three feet of rubber, and each time the automatic transmission shifts to a higher gear, the wheels burn another 3 feet of rubber! He has not revved the engine while it is in gear. It sounds like a fire-breathing monster suited for the name of “The Blastolene Special”.

Randy’s plans are to continue promoting the car by taking it to prestigious national auto shows and by encouraging car specialty magazines to write about it. We all wish him much success in this new venture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t leave much time for making paperweights.

An internationally recognized and award winning Houston quilt maker, Marie Moore, has made a quilt with paperweight designs, and it was shown in the 2002 International Quilt Festival, one of the largest and most prestigious in the country. She was inspired by the paperweights she has seen when visiting PCA TX members Art & Joyce Elder’s home, and thought the paperweight designs would be very effective in a miniature quilt format.

Marie has titled this year’s entry “A Touch of Glass”. Click the thumbnail picture to read more about this!