When Ray Folio brought his older daughter, Kim to visit him one day at his stained glass studio, little did he know that she would be staying on for years to come. The seven-year-old was soon making her own suncatchers and planning for the day when she would graduate to full window treatments such as the ones her dad was making. Ray, meanwhile, was looking at his daughter with more than a father’s pride; he was looking at her as a future partner.
At that time, Ray was toiling in a nine-to-fiver with plenty of possibility for advancement but none for satisfaction. He would spend all of his off hours working in his studio on the hobby that his wife, Barbara, had started him on in 1975. If only I could turn my hobby into my profession," he mused. Barbara concurred, "Why not?"
Within the next year, the two established Folio Art Glass, Inc. Soon they were exhibiting at art and crafts shows up and down the Atlantic Seaboard, building a clientele of loyal and discerning collectors. Joined now by Kim, who forsook a career in law to return to the family business, the Folio’s today book themselves into some 35 art shows every year.
Over the years, the Folio product has evolved from stained glass windows and Tiffany reproductions to painted, kiln-fired, and fused glass pieces. Fused glass is their latest enterprise, and it is finding new audience among patrons who are looking for both function and durability in their glass designs.
