Glassblower, Beth Melecci of Chestertown, has been working with glass since 1979.  As stated in her bio, "Beth Melecci is a professional full time glass artisan who designs and creates her own pieces, which sell throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan."  She had previously studied graphic art and later moved to New York State and applied for a “job grinding and packing glass”.  This resulted in an eight year apprenticeship with Nancy Freeman, one of the few women glass artisans in the country and whose stemware and drinking glass sets are in the White House collection.  During this period, Beth attended classes at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and then became a hot shop apprentice with Tundra Glass Works in Red Hook where she began blowing glass.  She has studied under renowned glass artists Dante Marioni and Benjamin Moore.  The glassblowers at Tundra were instrumental in helping her begin selling through wholesale shows in the late 1980s.  At that time, she was blowing “two tons of glass” per year. 

Glassblowing is a many step process:  designing, mixing colors, blowing the glass, grinding, and polishing.  Although some glass pieces can be blown in three to five minutes, they then have to cool in an annealing oven (The oven controls the heating and cooling of the glass so that it becomes less brittle.) for many hours.  Beth works with clear recycled glass that is set to a specific formula.  Her colored glass is from Germany and comes to her through a company in Washington state.  It can come in many forms:  powder, frit (pieces measured in centimeters), and rod, each with its own purpose.

Much of the creative aspect of an art of this nature is experimenting with shape, temperature, and color.  As colors melt at different temperatures, they create very different effects.

One of her first loves was the creation of perfume bottles, which come in many shapes and colors.  Her unique pieces vary from blown ornaments, oil lamps, paperweights, perfume bottles, vases, yard art, hummingbird feeders, platters, bowls, sand etched vessels, and various sculptural forms.  Currently, she is developing sculptural pieces showcasing flowers and other forms with the idea of showing and selling her work through galleries.  She also teaches classes privately and through Adirondack Community College. 

Beth is a member of the American Glass Society and the American Craft Society.  Women still are a minority in this profession, with about ten registered as little as twenty years ago and possibly as many as one hundred at this time.

Beth states, "I believe that surrounding ourselves in our homes with household necessities and utensils that are handmade creations will give us the essence of art and beauty in our daily lives."

If interested in learning more about glassblowing, you can contact her at her studio in Chestertown about classes, purplesage13@yahoo.com