Rain can't keep glassmakers, visitors away at Mt. Pleasant festival

Peter O’Rourke can’t help but return to the Mt. Pleasant Glass and Ethnic Festival every year.

As a longtime attendee and glass vendor at the event, O’Rourke jokes he’s “addicted” to glass. He has attended the event and showed off his trade there for all but a few of the festival’s iterations since its founding 36 years ago.

This weekend, amidst falling rain and chilly temperatures, he demonstrated glass cutting, which uses diamond wheels to trace complex patterns into vases, bowls, and other pieces.

“We don’t do set patterns. Almost everything is one of a kind,” he said.

O’Rourke’s stand also features a plethora of antique and colorful glass, some dating back to the 1800s. Those pieces are some of his favorites, he said.

“Most of my work is inspired by this,” he said. “You can’t afford to do it today, because it’s too expensive.”

As a glassmaker who once worked at the local Lenox workshop, O’Rourke, of Mt. Pleasant, is one of a number of craftspeople and vendors who come back to the festival year after year to keep the spirit of glassmaking alive.

The annual three-day event held in Mt. Pleasant showcases the area’s heritage and its glass industry.

“Mt. Pleasant was so well known for Smith Glass and Lenox, and now it’s all gone,” O’Rourke said. “Now, you have some of the guys who used to work there, and they all like to come and reminisce about the good old days. It’s kind of a social thing, and you get to meet lots of people.”

Craftsmanship on display

Bad weather put somewhat of a damper on attendance to the festival this year, according to festival team members Sharon Lesko and Susan Ruszkowski.

Around 25,000 people attended between Friday and Saturday, they said. The event had to end an hour early Saturday because of the rain and cold temperatures in the evening. In past years, the festival has seen attendance of 40,000 across three days.

Despite the weather, Dan Sullivan of Original Glass Worx, a glassmaker from Beaver County, slowly moved a hollow glass bubble over a flame before expanding a hole in the center into a goblet shape. He says he tends to make cups like these for demonstrations at events, and had a few finished ones on display—customers don’t always realize how much work goes into them, he said.

“I don’t normally make those things, but it’s fun to watch,” he said. “Making those smaller pendants, they’re so small, people can’t see anything that’s going on.”

He’s been working with glass for 21 years, and has attended the Festival since 2011.

Pamela Heller of Ladybug Glass Garden Art in Greensburg assembles existing glass pieces — plates, candle holders, ashtrays, nut dishes, statement pieces, and more — into colorful flowers that can be displayed outside.

“I take vintage glassware and then I repurpose it,” she said. “Whatever I can find that kind of works — they’re adhered with an industrial strength adhesive.”

Donna Rendos, of Rostraver, arranged her glass fusing pieces at her stand, “Kiln’ It by Donna.” A relative newbie to the festival, this is her second year attending.

She makes her pieces by layering pieces of glass and putting them into a kiln to melt. She then can bend the glass into a shape or mold.

“It is a dying art, especially the glassblowing, but we’re all trying to keep it alive,” she said.

Food in the rain

The varied cuisines featured at the festival brought many visitors out to brave the weather and grab a bite to eat.

For Liza Nicholson, who came from the Normalville area, the festival was a way to bring the whole family out to spend time together. She attended many times in the last few years.

Chicken-on-a-stick is her favorite at the festival, she said.

“We hit the pie shop, we got funnel cake,” she said. “A little bit of everything.”

Melissa Nitterright said she and her family “came for the food.”

“I got a gyro from Aumer’s, and my husband comes to get chicken-on-a-stick,” said Nitterright, who is from Mt. Pleasant Township “Literally, that’s why we come. We were here yesterday, he was here twice yesterday, we’ll be back this evening for the dinner!”

Jeff Aumer, who runs a sausage and steak stand, has attended the event with his food since it started 36 years ago. The rain kept some customers away on Saturday and Sunday, he said.

“With the rain, it’s been slow,” he said, emphasizing the community aspect of the festival. “It’s always been a small, hometown event — it was always based off the glass companies in Mt. Pleasant.”