Flickinger Glassworks
Flickinger Glass
Custom glass bending workshop has been operating in Red Hook since 1990. The workshop is open to the public where custom designed and crafted glassware, tableware and lighting fixtures are on display.
Here is a 2022 Instagram post of theirs that tells a little of the rejuvenation of the Statue of Liberty and how Charles Flickinger embarked on his glass bending career:
- "Flickinger Glassworks sits about as close to the Statue of Liberty as one can get. You can literally stroll to the end of the shop’s pier and wave to her standing on her island perch in New York Harbor. Charles Flickinger additionally knows her inside out — from his first glass bending job when he helped restore the flame in her raised torch.
"It was three months before her hundredth birthday on July 4, 1986. The flame’s glass parts were broken and missing. Charles’s employer at the time, Rambusch Decorating, had been contracted to repair it. So every day, Bruce Gutilius, Michael Davis and Charles (see second slide in order) boarded a work boat to her island. They removed the broken glass and constructed molds of the missing parts. They bent new glass, reinstalling everything in time for her birthday extravaganza.Millions of spectators ringed the harbor that day. Fighter planes shot overhead. 25,000 new citizens were sworn in around the country. Before the fireworks commenced, President Ronald Reagan pushed the button that relit her torch, saying, “We are the keepers of the flame of liberty. We hold it high for the world to see.”
That initial bent glass assignment reinforced Charles’s desire to start his own business specializing in slumped glass. One year later he opened Flickinger Glassworks."
Flickinger Glass
Address: 175 Van Dyke St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Phone: (718) 875-1531
Open weekdays 8 am-4:15 pm
Website: http://flickingerglassworks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flickingerglassworks/
