Buzzini Paperweights Blog
Latest blooms 2008
Western Columbine
Evening Primrose
Rhodie
Blue Lupine
Red Lupine
Aster and Friend
Foxglove and Friend
Bleeding Heart
Veined Wonder
Japanese Iris
Green Oddity
Lady Stratheden Geum
Buzzini Garden June 2008
Well, after weeks of non-stop gardening, mostly in the wet and rain, I have finally whipped my garden into shape!
This set of photos will be an overview of the yard and hopefully in a week or two I'll have some spectactular close-up shots of some of my favorite blooms. I hope you enjoy the pictorial.
Front Yard
Left side back yard
Overview main garden
Closer view main garden 
Even a bit closer
Right side looking toward main garden
Left side again towards studio
Closer view toward studio
Apple trees and vegetable garden (Japanese style)
From cold shop towards house
Wisteria and arbor
Left side rear towards main garden
Right side rear towards main garden
Main garden from deck
Buzzini "Ribbon Bouquet" at L. H. Selman Ltd. Fall 2004 Auction
Lot 169
Chris Buzzini 1996 "Ribbon Bouquet" paperweight, with red azaleas,
blue phlox, golden asters, buds, green leaves, and white ribbons looped
around the stems. Signed/dated. One of one. Diameter 3-3/8".
$2250-$3000
Current Bid: Sold
$3750
Buzzini Ribbon Bouquet
This is my "hot plate" where I place all the finished components for the "set-up"
I am working on. Not every single item will end up in the paperweight, but it is
better to have a few extra components, than not enough!
This is the final "set-up" ready to be encased. It is only 2-1/4"
in diameter which is the same for all my designs.
The completed "Ribbon Bouquet" paperweight.
Buzzini Paperweight Showcased on Austrian Postage Stamp
http://www.paperweights24.de/shop/index.php
"What you see in this attachment, is the first offical stamp, showing a Chris Buzzini Paperweight! It´s a limited edition of only 100 stamps and is a special service from the Austrian Post, but it will work, when I send letters from Germany to my customers. I think you will like this idea and it is also a special thank to you, for our wonderful relationship!...All the best, Ronny"
Buzzini Wallpaper Bouquet
For over a year I have been thinking of and dabbling with the idea of creating some kind of "glass" wallpaper
or linen or fabric to use as a background for floral designs. So, throwing caution to the wind, I finally just sat down at my torch and worked on this until I got, what I think, is a pretty unique and excellent result.
I tried several different ways of trying to create the background and ultimately I settled on the following procedure. After pulling out about 150 small diameter rods of pink and purple glass encased in clear, I sized and grouped the rods in sets of two. The longer ones to use for crossing the center of the paperweight and decreasingly shorter ones for use on either side of the center rods. Then I fused each set of two rods together at both ends and pulled a bit of a tip on each end. After all the rods were done in groups of two I started from the center with two rods of purple and started adding groups of two pink rods on both sides. The groups of two are fused to the next two with a very small dot of clear between the points of each end. So working from the center to each side I fused all the tips of the rods together, creating the 'circle' of wallpaper background. Then the lampwork flowers were fashioned, the design created and fused together and then all was placed right on top of the "wallpaper" rods. My major concern was that after all the work was done, when I encased the design, that the "wallpaper" rods would not allow the vacuum system to properly draw the air out of the design. I had visions of bubbles trapped all along the rods. But, low and behold, the result was flawless!
I would greatly appreciate any comments on this new direction, be they positive or negative. Any comments submitted to the blog will be published and that would allow readers some insight into what others collectors might think. There is a "Add Comment" link right below the image of the paperweight.
Sincerely,
Chris
Buzzini Paperweight at L. H. Selman Ltd. Auction
this paperweight originally sold for about $1500, and if you include Selman's 15% buyer's premium fee, it pushes the price realized for this paperweight to a bit over $3700!
Lot 143
Chris Buzzini 2002 one-of-a-kind flowers and berries
Bouquet paperweight. Small yellow sunflowers bloom
among white gentians, a spray of purple lilacs, dark red
raspberries, two large brown-speckled green leaves and
spiraling tendrils on a clear ground. Signed/dated. Dia. 3½".
$1600-$2500
Current Bid: Sold
$3250
The Oregonian - HGNW - A Torch for Nature
This latest post from... www.buzzinipaperweights.com ...contains
a recent article and most of the included photos which appeared in:
The Oregonian
Portland · Oregon · Homes & Gardens Northwest · September 27, 2007
NW ARTISANS
by Nanine Alexander Photos by Marv Bondarowicz
A TORCH FOR NATURE
A glass artisan re-creates his visions of flower and leaf
A week's worth of Chris Buzzini's work can be lost in the seconds it takes to pour molten glass over one of the floral sculptures he has painstakingly created.
"I can literally feel my heart muscle tighten," says the artisan, who re-creates nature in botanical paperweights. "The results are made or lost in the blink of an eye."
It is this do-or-die outcome that makes glass an irresistible medium for Buzzini, a solitary and spiritual artist.
"I try to take my vision of flowers and put it back into the glass," Buzzini says in his 500-square-foot workshop just beyond the garden of his Oregon City home.
Every paperweight is a miniature marvel. His artistry and technical skill shine through the crystalline spheres that cover his molded-glass bouquets of lady's slippers, lilacs, peonies and numerous other blooms.
Buzzini, 57, says he feels the pull of nature and art as a spiritual calling. "My talent is God-given. . . . I've asked for more talent and it's been given."
The work is tedious; the material temperamental.
Turning a slender rod of glass in the torch's flame until it softens into a green teardrop, Buzzini touches the tip with another glass rod, pulling it into an elliptical shape. He flattens it with tongs and returns it to the torch.
The technique is known as lampwork, and every petal and leaf is formed this way.
The behavior of glass under flame is predictable only within a narrow range of temperatures. It can't be touched by hand while it's being shaped. Everything, Buzzini explains, must be manipulated with a tool.
Buzzini began working in glass in art school and worked professionally at several highly regarded California art glass studios, including Orient & Flume, Lundberg Studios and Correia Art Glass. After 13 years as a studio artist, Buzzini launched his own studio in 1986. It was a step that both excited and frightened him. But he had strong encouragement from colleagues and fans.
"What I needed was a 16-hour day in my own studio, not eight hours in someone else's," says Buzzini. In 1991 he moved to Oregon, settling on a half acre on the outskirts of Oregon City.
Today, Buzzini works his own schedule, selling his paperweights through his Web site, www.buzzinipaperweights.com.
His floral creations shine as expressions of beauty and light.
By: Nanine Alexander: 503-221-8340; nalexander@news.oregonian.com 
Potpourri of Oregon Paperweight Personalities
Those of you that have perused the Buzz Blog in the past, know of my love of gardening. (If you haven't been here before, please view the other posts. Of late, in watching all the flowers grow in my garden, I have been absolutely intrigued by the centers of disk style flowers. So the other day I set out to make something a bit different for the centers of some "Oxeye Daisies" I was working on. The idea was to create a flower center that had greater detail and although it might not be botanically accurate, it would still be kind of botanically credible. I made a "honeycomb" style cane that has about 50 segments in it and then took two short pieces of that cane and headed out to my cold working shop to grind and polish them into small dome shaped pieces. Then back to the hot shop to fire polish them and use them in my flowers. The results are in my latest paperweight on my website and here are a couple of close-ups to allow a better look at the final result.
Oxeye Daisy with complex center
Straight in view
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Ken Rosenfeld was recently approached by a paperweight collector wanting a memorial paperweight created
in memory of a beloved family member. The creation of that paperweight and others since have lead Ken to
start a new paperweight sideline venture. The following two photos are from his new website for this venture at: www.cremainsincrystal.com
Website banner
Memorial paperweights by Ken Rosenfeld
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On a recent visit to Gary Scruttons "hot rod" shop in the Sellwood District of Portland I asked Gary how many
Parabelle paperweights he had remaining in his "retirement fund." The answer was about forty. Wow! I thought. After twelve years of producing magnificent millefiore paperweights, there are only about forty more to choose from. I picked up a half dozen and have posted them on my website. The stock number on the remaining Parabelle's on my website will be numbered starting with Parabelle_1 and when you see Parabelle_40 hit the web, you will know that the only place to acquire Parabelle paperweights in the future will be at auction or eBay! Here is Parabelle_1. http://www.glassartworld.com/M10023/105.asp
Parabelle_1
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As you might know, well known paperweight artist Randy Grubb, turned his attention to building monster size Hot Rods some years ago. His first build, the huge "Blastolene Special" was purchased by none other than car collector Jay Leno. Well, Randy has just completed his third car, the "Blastolene B-702" and he will be rubbing elbows with the rich and famous car collectors next weekend at Pebble Beach, California. Here is an excerpt from http://www.good-guys.com/news/newsStory.aspx?newsid=798
"Randy Grubb of Grants Pass, Oregon is putting the finishing touches on a creation he's calling the "B-702." A spectacular roadster based on the "French curve" boat tail roadsters of the 1930s. Built almost exclusively in house by Grubb (he hand built the entire car and performed all the fabrication other than the interior - which was done by Randy's Rods in Williams, Oregon), the "B-702" will make its long awaited debut the weekend of August 17-19 at the Pebble Beach Concours. http://www.pebblebeachconcours.net/
Inspired by the great "French Curve" cars of the 30's with a shot of Blastolene, the hand formed aluminum body and fenders ride on a custom 155" wheel base made out of 2"x 5" x 3/16" wall steel box tubing. The front axle is a custom oversized I-beam located by hand made hairpins and a custom tranverse leaf spring.
Here are a few "in progress" photos from the GoodGuys Rod & Custom Association.
Tail end
Front end and engine
Engine side view
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On now through October 31, 2007 "Beautiful Botanicals":
Vintage botanical prints from 1613-1920. On loan of courtesy Elisabeth Burdon and Oldimprints.com
Forty paperweights from area artists and collectors. Chris Buzzini, Ken Rosenfeld, Gary Scrutton in the billiard room. Others shown upstairs are Perthshire, Baccarat, St. Louis and Paul Stankard.
Pittock Mansion in Portland Oregon
Latest Blooms
One of the greatest rewards of gardening is to watch the flowers as they go through their different stages of growth. On my last post, I chose a close-up of a Raspberry Wine Bee Balm blossom. I was out in the garden this morning and to my surprise, the Bee Balm is blooming again right up through the first set of blossoms! Also included are some close-ups of other flowers that have just started blooming in the last few days.
Raspberry Wine Bee Balm
Bee Balm with double blossom
Frilly Shasta Daisy
Black-eyed Susan's
Red Gladiola