Charles Flickinger, founder of Flickinger Glassworks, spent the better part of his life dedicated to the preservation of the glass-bending craft. His decades of commitment established our place as a respected team of artisans. From humble beginnings to a cornerstone of Red Hook, Brooklyn, and the larger glass-making community, his vision for quality, innovation, and a customer-centric focus endures today.
The artists, artisans, and inpirational individuals listed in our Hall of Fame helped us along the way and have had a hand in our continued story. We honor them here.
Shorty Morales began working at age 16 for the Job Corps in Puerto Rico. There he learned the electrical and plumbing trades as well as carpentry. The Job Corps wanted to hold onto him, but Shorty was destined for a career in glass in Brooklyn, NY. His first stop, at Kreston Glass, a glass bending facility in Williamsburg, lasted for 26 years. He cut, seamed and silkscreened glass while also driving the forklift, packing and crating.
When Kreston closed Flickinger Glassworks hired Shorty. For the next 20 years, Shorty continued to hone his already formidable skills while also mastering the techniques involved in restoring and recreating antique light fixtures. Some of his most standout work can be seen at Pennsylvania State House, the Ohio State Capital and New York’s Grand Central Station.
Hans Deutsch’s involvement in glass started at Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City in 1949 with his professional thesis regarding the chemical resistance of different types of glass. During the 1950’s he completed post-graduate work at the Technische Universität München, and worked at a glass factory in Frauenau, Germany.
In 1961 he began bending glass commercially at Nemo Glass S.A., in Mexico City, and for the next 15 years, he designed, manufactured, and marketed a complete line of bent glass for lighting fixtures. Nemo Glass created more than 250 models of ceiling shades, wall sconces, and bathroom units. In addition, they successfully introduced and marketed a variety of decorative bent glass giftware and promotional items.
John Morgan came from a long line of glass craftsmens dating back to his great-great uncle, George Morgan, who came to America from Wales in 1832 to establish a stained glass business with his brothers. Family documents indicate that several of the first-generation Morgans were killed by falling from scaffolding while installing windows in a church.
The business was passed down from father to son until it reached John’s father, George, who changed the focus from stained glass to glass bending and moved the shop to Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn in 1916. John inherited the business and continued specialized glass bending for custom lighting, antique restorations, and other custom designs until 1985, when Morgan & Co. was closed. John at age 57, retired to Florida and was killed in a car accident in 1992.
In the late 1980’s when Flickinger artisans had little experience, John was a guiding force, showing us, on a job-by-job basis, how to bend glass.
Thousands of the Morgan steel molds, some dating back to the 1830’s, are in everyday use at Flickinger Glassworks.
K Flickinger was born in Lodi, Ohio and was raised on the family farm in nearby Medina. He went to Ashland College and during these years attended flight school. K learned to fly a biplane and love the thrill of a simple barrel roll. During World War II he was a Navy bomber pilot stationed in Morocco. After the war, K became an insurance professional and was president of Flickinger Insurance in Norwalk, Ohio for 29 years.
When Flickinger GLassworks was founded in 1986, K was a major supporter. Over the years he provided sound business advice, financial aid and the moral support necessary for a small business to succeed. As a result of his generosity and guidance, he plays a large part in continuing our glass bending tradition.
A truly great American glass artist, Maurice Heaton was a third generation glass worker. He was born in 1900 in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and came to America with his family in 1914. Maurice worked with his father, Clement, designing and building stained-glass windows for many churches throughout New York City. Work dried up during the Depression so in the early 1930’s Maurice began experimenting with enameling on glass. During the next 50 years, he created a beautiful body of work that included bent enameled glass tableware, lighting and backlit murals. Charles Flickinger apprenticed with Maurice from 1983-1989 and his enameled tableware are designed and executed with Maurice’s techniques. In his lifetime, Maurice blacksmithed over 100 steel molds and he left them with Charles. These molds are used everyday in shaping Flickinger’s tableware.
Maurice Heaton’s work is in the permanent collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corning Museum, and the Museum of Art and Design, and select pieces from Charles Flickinger’s private collection are on display at the Flickinger Glassworks showroom. In Heaton’s heyday, art critics called his work entirely different from any of the familiar types of craftsmanship in glass and modern art with a craft based on engineering.
Sculptor Sydney Cash has been working with glass as a primary material for over 35 years. His work is exhibited internationally and is in many private and public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art and the Corning Museum. He has been a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded him a commission for his series of large optical panels in the Queensborough Plaza Elevated Subway Station.
Sydney Cash was Charles Flickinger’s first glass-bending teacher. In 1983 he led a two day class at the Experimental Glass Workshop on Mulberry St. in New York’s Little Italy. The first day was devoted to building a small kiln. The second involved fabricating a mesh mold and bending a glass panel. An enlightening workshop. Sydney continues to be our inspiring teacher and friend and his glass jewelry is featured in our showroom.