Autobiography by Ferenc Albert

I was born in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to the United States in 1956.  My wife, M.M., and I have been married for 38 years, 1963, and have two daughters.  I received my training in scientific glassblowing at the Budapest Institute of Technology, and off-hand (art) pipe glass blowing at Southern Connecticut State College.  My experience comes from years in the department of scientific research at the University of Budapest, five years in Cleveland, Ohio, working at Euclid Glass Engineering Laboratory and 25 years with IBM in New York.

In days past, I have enjoyed the sport and hobby of the kayak.  I held the National Championship in Hungary in 1952 and 1953, and was National Champion in 1963, 1964 and 1969, in the United States.

I have always been interested in miniatures!  In a glass lab in Budapest, many years ago, I started making tiny apparatus for a miniature still!  But it was here in the United States in 1975 that my career in miniatures started seriously.

Helene Norris, who had a large collection of full-size Sandwich Glass, asked me to make miniature reproductions of her Diamond Thumbprint pieces.  She provided me with reference books, anthologies, and lots of help and encouragement.  The result was my Diamond Thumbprint line of glass miniatures, and later the old English Hobnail and, more recently, the Rib pattern.

What was originally a hobby, became a full-time obsession!  In 1987, I elected to take early retirement from IBM to become a full-time miniaturist.

Through the years, I've found the best part of being in miniatures is the people you meet.  I've had the good fortune to collaborate on projects with many fine artists such as Nic Nichols, Phyllis Tucker, Chet Spacher, David Krupick, Pete Acquisto, Bruce Phillips, Ernie Levy, and Monique Jouvenel to name only a few.