Behind the scenes of Thames St Glass

By: Sarah Iani
Posted In: Entertainment

Head Glassblower Matthew Buechner is in his element. Carefully but surely, his hands expertly twist, pull and craft the glass as he speaks, rarely looking down while he creates vase after vase perfectly. To Buechner, who has been blowing glass for 30 years, crafting glass comes naturally.

“It’s like typing,” Buechner explains. “I couldn’t tell you where the keys are, but I can type. My hands just know what to do.”

That easy confidence spills over into the cramped and overwhelmingly stuffy back room of Thames Street Glass that Buechner, 46, and three of his team now occupy as they create a Baton vase, one of 12 they will make in the four hours of their morning.

Eamon, a young worker sporting a camouflage hat and sunglasses, starts the vase by dipping a pole into a vat of clear glass at the temperature of 2050 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, he puts a small bubble in it, and covers it with clear glass. The glass moves to Eric Hornowski, who lays the pole flat across a bench handmade by Buechner himself, and rolls the pole along it, giving the vase its shape.

The vase resembles a rectangle with slightly curved sides, glowing orange from the heat, then slightly cooling to a reddish hue, while tapering to a bluish tint at the top. Eamon keeps the vase hot while Buechner dips another pole into the clear liquid glass and spreads the glass clump equally on both sides of the vase, giving it handle-like structures, or “bits”, the decoration of the piece.

Buechner swings the vase upside down by the pole to stretch it out, and alternately measures it and puts it into the fire until it is at the precise measurements as the rest. The vases must each be exactly 13 1/2 inches tall, and Buechner has done thousands in his career.

“I’m good at vases, I’ve made them for 20 years,” Buechner said. “They’re pretty boring for me.”

Buechner’s art doesn’t prove boring for the many that visit his shop on Thames Street since he founded it in 1981. Originally from Corning, New York, Buechner settled in Newport during a visit on Saint Patrick’s Day, after looking at places such as Essex, New London, and Mystic, Connecticut. The $38,000 shop then had no second floor, heat or a garage, all of which Buechner put in himself over the years.

The front room of the shop today is bright and airy, loosely cluttered with retail glass pieces made right in the store that change with the season. The recent theme is still Easter, with the brightly colored glass eggs and snowmen dressed for Easter prominently displayed on a center table in the small room. A $30 blue and white striped drinking glass displayed under the counter is more authentic with the pungent aroma of fire and melted glass coming from the back room, which is visible through a glass partition so that tourists can watch the pieces being made.

Pictures of Buechner crafting glass and a Better Homes and Gardens Nov-Dec 2003 feature issue on the shop are framed on the walls behind the small counter that holds glass beads for $1.50 each.

Counter girl Amy Cheever has run the front end for two years, having begun with a summer job and just never left. She says that people of all ages come into the shop, all for their different reasons. “Some people walk by and come in, and some hear about us from other people,” Cheever said. “They bring their kids and even their dogs sometimes. That’s nerve wracking.”

Cheever’s nerves may further be ravaged as all of the pieces in the shop are sold retail, and original, not replicated the way the ones Buechner makes for wholesale are. But while retail sales are steady, including the 600 Easter eggs he just made for the season, most of Buechner’s business is wholesale, taking and distributing orders at craft shows in places such as Philadelphia and Washington.

“I see more people in a weekend at a craft show than in a year at retail,” Buechner said. “But it’s a great way to sell off the imperfect pieces.”

The competition in retail is fierce as well, and Buechner cannot compete with large chains such as Crate and Barrel and Pier One for their public. Instead, Buechner uses years of experience to create one-of-a-kind pieces that the public can’t find anywhere else, and it shows.

Handcrafted Christmas ornaments of all kinds dominate the shop, as well as vases, bowls, perfume bottles, and paperweights. Seasonal items for Mother’s Day and Christmas always do well, because as Buechner puts it, “People have to give gifts.”

However, Buechner has made a few pieces even the most devoted Mama’s boy wouldn’t buy, such as lamps. After a “ton of energy” was put into them, only ten lamps sold. His wholesale accounts sold thousands, “so I figured anything I made would sell,” Buechner said.

Like a musician with one hit song, he also had no success with drinking and wine glasses, although he would love to make 100 funky martini glasses one day. “Yeah, I’m the Billy Ray Cyrus of glassblowing,” Buechner kidded.

With only a few misses under his belt, Buechner still has many years of glassblowing before him. The synchronized movements of the back room show skill and patience with the team, all having worked there for at least seven years.

It’s difficult to craft glass by yourself, and Buechner relies on his team to have a smooth assembly line that allows him to keep up with his vast amounts of orders. As he waits for the body of the vase to be completed by Hornowski, who has worked at Thames Glass since 1982, Buechner is thoughtful.

“I’ve been standing in this room, this spot for 23 years,” he said. And as long as he keeps crafting glass, visitors will still come to watch his effortless style and buy his handcrafted pieces.