Mother's Day gifts

Mother's Day is approaching. Consider a meaningful, locally handcrafted gift. We have plenty of choices for you. Here are a few samples.

Mother and Baby Lamb Drawing by Susan Gaber	Beautifully scented soaps by Susan Linares in an ebonized bowl by Harry Wicks
Horse hair vase with red banding by Sue Adler In the background a trivet made from recycled cork by Wayne Jeno	Eye/sun catching crystals by Sharon LaMonica
Small jewelry box by Janet Bruce	Elegant cheese plate by Donna Ferrara
Serving dish with butterfly motives by Gina Mars	Colorful, hand-made glass beads by Gea Hines
All photos by Agata and Tom Behrens

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Historical Long Island bottles in the collections of George William Fisher

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

George William Fisher - bird watcher, poet, historian, civil servant, volunteer, photographer, collector, music lover. The list is hardly complete, George is quite a Renaissance man. We have already written about George's involvement in the Nassau County Photo Archives. In this article we will concentrate on his activities revolving around collecting and cataloging historical Long Island bottles.

Throughout the years George built two distinct collections: one of Long Island medicine bottles dated c. 1830-1920 and another of Long Island beverage bottles dated 1840-1970.

George first started collecting Long Island bottles of any kind, but was always drawn to Art Deco soda bottles. Then his interests expanded to earlier years. Through trades, purchases (eBay opened new horizons for bottle collectors), or donations George managed to enlarge his collection and to focus it on the two areas listed above.

George's medicine bottle collection is a completely unique undertaking. It is worth mentioning here that George collects embossed medicine bottles as opposed to generic medicine bottles where only a (paper) label distinguished a product of one pharmacy from another. Of the 175 known Long Island medicine bottles roughly 80% are in George's possession, including nearly all known pontil bottles. George published a book 'Long Island Medicine Bottles: Patent Medicines, Bitters, Sarsaparillas, Hair Products & Citrates' on the subject.

Photo by George Fisher

George's beverage bottle collection is remarkable for its breadth. Most collectors were originally not interested in bottles past 1900. Since George started with Art Deco bottles he covered later years and then expanded the collection to include bottles from 1840 - 1970. The beverage collection contains about 1,000 objects which he successively donates to the Nassau County Museum Division. About half of his collection is now under the county's care.

George is not only a collector, he is also involved in the cataloging and dissemination of knowledge in the area. Together with Donald H. Weinhardt he is an author of the authoritative compendium 'A Historical Guide to Long Island: Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies 1840-1970'. The 4th Edition of the guide was just released in an electronic version. With its 800 pages and 500 photographs it is a true font of information.

Tracing of bottles and their history frequently feels like a detective work, one has to ferret information in various historical sources. George cross references advertisements, newspaper articles, business directories and documents to narrow down the operating dates of the 806 geographic Long Island (including current Brooklyn and Queens) bottling companies which marketed nearly 3,000 various beverage bottles, and over the years employed thousand of Long Islanders. His goal is to collect bottles from all 130 or so Long Island communities as almost each one had at least one bottling facility. In addition, many large hotels bottled soda, beer, and mineral water for their guests to take on the road or to pack into a picnic basket.

The beverage collection reflects changes in tastes and technological advancements from first crude, low production hand blown pontiled bottles and bottles made in snap molds to standardized bottles mass produced using the Automatic Bottle Machine. The transformation of bottling was marked by changes to the shape of bottles, method of glass production, color and chemical contents of glass, type of enclosure, and marketing approach.

Let us present some of the bottles from George's collection. Please see the excerpts from 'A Historical Guide to Long Island: Soda, Beer & Mineral Water Bottles & Bottling Companies 1840-1970' with the catalog descriptions of the first two bottles listed below.

	A beautiful Deer Park L.I. pontil bottle. There are 17 recorded remaining bottles. Did not appear in auctions in over 10 years. Photo by George Fisher
	L.S. Sammis, Hempstead L.I.. Scarce as teal color was not that frequently used at the times. Photo by George Fisher
	Hutchinson style bottle from L.O. Wilson, Oyster Bay. Seal was kept wet by storing bottles upside down. Bottle was opened by pushing the top inside. Outlawed as unhygienic by 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Photo by George Fisher

George is available for lectures and appraisals. Please contact him directly at 516.375.9410 to make arrangements or to purchase any of his publications.

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Meet the Maker: Jane Cairns Irvine, glass artist

Thursday, December 2nd, 5 pm - 7 pm

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Renown glass artist, Jane Cairns Irvine, will present her glass art at Think Long Island First in Oyster Bay on Thursday, December 2nd between 5 pm and 7 pm.

Think Long Island First store carries her colorful glass jewelry, her captivating wind chimes, wine stoppers, swizzlers, and one of a kind decorative glass items.

Jane runs a successful studio in Glen Head, NY, where she creates her own work and introduces students of all ages to the magic of fused glass.

Fused glass applies an ancient technology where glass is fired in a kiln to a high temperature producing very strong, colorful glass. Modern designs push the creative aspect of fused glass to a new level.

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Jane Cairns Irvine, magic of fused glass

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Jane Cairns Irvine, glass artist from Glen Head, comes from a family of Scots from Edinburgh. True to her Scottish origin Jane played drums in a Scottish band where her father played bagpipe. Jane attributes some of the characteristics of her more complex artistic designs to her heritage.

The family had a well exercised creative touch - her father, an electrical engineer, built a model space ship with an airplane control for the kids ("it was called the X15!  it was made of wood and masonite panels, painted, with cut out little airplane style windows and real airplane controls inside.  it was wonderful! :)  we spent hours and hours, weeks, years playing in it. we took many wonderful adventures with friends!") and is now designing architectural lighting installations; Jane's mother engaged in crafts of all kinds. Growing up Jane participated in the 4H program of the Cornell Cooperative Extension, an activity she remembers fondly.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Though Jane's formal art training included painting lessons at the Stevenson Academy in Oyster Bay and training with Nan Coffey, portrait artist from Locust Valley, she is entirely self taught in the matters of glass art. She has and is experimenting with designs, shapes, colors and techniques. This gives her an expertise that comes with a fearless trial and error approach. Jane can now well predict the outcome, with, as she modestly adds, occasional surprises.

She does her own firing in one of her four kilns. Firing is a lengthy and expensive process; it takes about 14 - 16 hours to fire the kiln to 1,440F and then to cool it down to the room temperature. Fused glass can be surprisingly sturdy as a result of the process; it is strong enough to withstand the beating of strong northeasters as tested by Jane on a few sets of wind chimes on her own porch.

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht

Fusing glass into submission involves various steps and techniques; some cheerful like color and pattern selection, some a bit dangerous like glass grinding and sawing which should be exercised with caution. Jane created a wonderful piece called "Shattered Dreams", a work of personal significance, where crashed glass was used to a great effect.

Jane designs glass jewelry, glass sculptures and wall hangings of various proportions. Some of the larger formats are on display at the gift shop of the Nassau County Museum of Art. Jane's www.glassworksbyjci.com website displays photos of many of her works. Our store carries her colorful jewelry and the captivating wind chimes made from recycled bottles.

Jane is not only a working artist, she also teaches classes at her workshop Studio 44 at 44 Railroad Plaza in Glen Head (phone: 516.216.4630) and also at the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills and at the Great Neck Adult Program in Great Neck. One of her former teaching projects, a month long undertaking at a Sea Cliff school attended by her daughter, had students create a school mural of their own design; Jane donated her time and firing.



Jane will be our guest artist at the Meet the Maker event at the store on December 2nd, between 5 pm and 7 pm.

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