[PA-NJ Glassblowers] Slow Business and New EPA Standards Push Spectrum Glass Out of Business

Tony Patti gaffer at glassblower.info
Sat May 14 00:16:15 EDT 2016


http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/05/12/24078472/slow-business-and-new-ep
a-standards-push-art-glass-manufacturers-out-of-business

 

http://spectrumglass.com/5-11-16PressRelease.pdf 

 


Slow Business and New EPA Standards Push Art Glass Manufacturers Out of
Business

by  <http://www.thestranger.com/authors/26622/jen-graves> Jen Graves . May
12, 2016 at 10:11 am

 

Spectrum Glass, headquartered in Woodinville, is shutting down after 40
years of specialty glassmaking that serves studio glass artists, among
others. Spectrum will keep producing glass through July, then sell what's
left until it's gone.

 <http://spectrumglass.com/5-11-16PressRelease.pdf> According to a press
release, business is way down:

Our facility was built to support product demand at the height of the art
glass movement, but our sales never fully recovered following the Great
Recession. We have watched our sales dwindle dramatically to only 40 percent
of production capacity, while overhead expenses have continued to increase.
Our consistently reduced levels of sales simply cannot cover the fixed costs
required to operate a facility of our size.

Additionally, the entire U.S. art glass industry is now being evaluated by
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with respect to potential new
regulations. Long-standing interpretations of air quality regulations are
being reevaluated, and if new regulations were applied to our facility, it
would require substantial capital expense.

 

I called  <http://www.travergallery.com/current_exhibitions.aspx> Traver
Gallery this morning, where many glass artists show their works in Seattle,
including, this month, Gregory Grenon. Gallery manager Jeffery Kuiper
answered the phone, and said he hadn't heard yet from artists who use
Spectrum Glass, but he had heard that the EPA regulations may be affecting
the major specialty glass hub in Portland,  <http://www.bullseyeglass.com/>
Bullseye Glass Co. He didn't know specifics but said, "There's definitely
questions going on down there."

To follow up, I have a few questions:

1. Is this affecting you? How will you get your glass if Spectrum and
Bullseye both close?
2. How would you describe this era of studio glass? Do you agree with the
Spectrum assessment that "the height of the art glass movement" is in the
past?

 

 

http://spectrumglass.com/

 



 

 


Tony Patti
  
www.glassblower.info
  
gaffer at glassblower.info

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