West Virginia
Blenko Glass Company’s West Virginia Day piece goes on sale Saturday
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MILTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – West Virginians are getting ready for one of the most competitive days of the year. Blenko Glass Company is preparing to roll out the 160th West Virginia Day Piece.
West Virginia Day is Tuesday, June 20, but the big sale of this year’s piece kicks off at 12 p.m. June 17.
For the past five weeks, their team of artists has been spending a lot of time by the fire, creating some of the most sought after pieces in the Mountain State.
James Arnett designed the annual West Virginia Day piece, for West Virginia’s 160th birthday. It’s called ‘Specimen’.
“The inspiration for West Virginia Day this year has been West Virginia’s coal,” Arnett said. “We’ve had 43 years of West Virginia Day pieces, but this is the first one that explicitly enshrines coal as the topic for our piece.”
Only 160 of them have been made, and West Virginians know the demand of getting your hands on one of them. For many years, people would camp outside to get one, but now the queue is virtual.
A COVID protocol that’s kept going to give people throughout the state a chance to get a piece if they can’t come in person.
“There are so many supporters and collectors out there waiting in line virtually, now to get ahold of a piece that celebrates West Virginia’s heritage,” Arnett said. “It’s a really big deal to be able to design something that’s going to sit in museums as a representation of this moment in West Virginia time.”
At least 30 pairs of hands work on each piece, with locally sourced materials.
“Our wood plinth is hand carved by our veteran mold maker Daniel Chapman,” Arnett said. “He’s been with us for 45 years. The trees come from the factory campus from a tree that fell over.”
The coal in the center of the piece is a dark piece of glass, frosted to have a shimmer. It’s all closed off with a tangerine dome.
“Altogether they come together like a museum piece thinking about how coal is central to West Virginia’s heritage and thinking about how we preserve and talk about coal as part of our heritage,” Arnett said.
Each piece is carefully packaged with the help of the shop cats, and sent off to homes to spread the history of the state’s birthday.
The first 50 ‘Specimen’ pieces will be auctioned off, and the rest are first come first serve. Last year, they sold out in two minutes and 30 seconds.
There will be another piece available at Blenko Saturday for those who can’t get their hands on the limited supply, known as the Companion Piece. Artists will make as many of these pieces as long as there’s a demand for them.
Copyright 2023 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
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West Virginia
West Virginia Native Plant Society looks for rare plants in Mercer County
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MERCER COUNTY, W. Va. (WVVA) -If you are looking for something fun to do this summer, you might want to start by looking at the natural beauty to be found in your own backyard. That’s what brought one state-wide botany group to our neck of the woods this weekend.
The West Virginia Native Plant Society (WVNPS) is a group of people who travel to different places looking for rare plants found in the Mountain State. Their journey brought them to Mercer County, first to the Brush Creek Preserve on Saturday and then to Pinnacle Rock State Park on Sunday. There, they looked for rare plants like the Carolina lily and the highbush blueberry patch.
Kevin Campbell, a trustee for WVNPS and one of the organizers for this expedition, says the natural uniqueness of this part of West Virginia makes it the perfect spot for plant-based tourism.
“You start getting different geologic formations. You are on the edge of the ridge and valley region here of the state, so you have a lot more varied habitats to look at, and that means a lot more plants to look at,” says Campbell.
Campbell says this was the Society’s first visit to the area since their last visit a decade ago.
If you would like more information about the West Virginia Native Plant Society, how to join the group, or the plants to be found in the state, Campbell encourages you to check out the WVNPS Facebook group.
Copyright 2024 WVVA. All rights reserved.
West Virginia
WVSports – 2027 OL Jaiden Lindsay adds first offer from West Virginia
Olney (Md.) Good Counsel 2027 offensive lineman Jaiden Lindsay competed in the second West Virginia big man camp of the summer and walked away with a scholarship offer.
Lindsay, 6-foot-3, 275-pounds, was one of the standouts during the event, especially during the one-on-one portion and once it was over he met with offensive line coach Matt Moore.
“He told me he was very impressed with my skills at such a young age. My reactions were I was shocked and proud of myself because I know that I worked hard for this opportunity,” he said.
The Mountaineers became the first Division One program to offer the versatile offensive lineman who was impressed with the set up of the big man camp as well as how the coaches taught him. He was especially impressed with how the coaches treated every kid on campus the same.
But his performance did warrant some additional feedback.
“The type of feedback I got was Coach Moore told me I could be a great offensive lineman if I keep working and hit the weight room,” he said.
West Virginia is targeting Lindsay anywhere from tackle to center depending on how he continues to develop his body and that versatility is something that caught the attention of Moore as well.
“That would help me in the future and they want to see me develop and grow,” he said.
The plan is for Lindsay to get another look at West Virginia in the future.
“I would love to come back for another visit,” he said.
West Virginia
Babydog is a minor celebrity in West Virginia. Now she's enshrined in the state Capitol
![Babydog is a minor celebrity in West Virginia. Now she's enshrined in the state Capitol](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/9be7bdc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1620x911+0+84/resize/1440x810!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fce%2Ff9%2F08eae1708cdbd84e6102c028f86d%2Fus-wv-babydog-mural-20240630cr-1920x1080.jpg)
Gov. Jim Justice has made his English bulldog, Babydog, a minor celebrity in West Virginia where she often joins him on gubernatorial trips. Now she’s enshrined in a new mural under the golden dome of the state Capitol.
Gov. Jim Justice has made his English bulldog, Babydog, a minor celebrity in West Virginia where she often joins him on gubernatorial trips. Now she’s enshrined in a new mural under the golden dome of the state Capitol.
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