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hen she moved into her first
home as a newlywed, Pauline
Beckman's artistic eye told her a
Tiffany light fixture would look
perfect in her hallway.
"But I couldn't afford one," Beckman says.
"My brother, who's a world-famous silver
sculptor, told me, `You an Make your own. -
Her brother, Earl Krentzin of Grosse Pointe
Farms, took her to buy glass from a glassmaker
who created church windows. Then she bought
a glass cutter and made her own lamp.
"Later, I found I could make three-dimen-
sional things out of the glass," Beckman says.
its become my claim to fame."
Born in Ru-ssia, but a Detroiter since child-
hood, Mrs. Beckman and her husband, Irving,
recently moved from her West Bloomfield
home to Providence; R.I. to be near their chil-
dren.
The move invoked packing a house IA of
glass objects and other art pieces that 90-year-
old Beckman created though the years, includ-
ing a four-foot-high stained-glass giraffe.
"The taller pieces, like my three-foot-high
kangaroo with its baby, were built from the
floor up," she says. "I just create what comes
into my head, I have to start working on it. It
just has to come out of me."
Each piece she creates is, carefully arranged
throughout her home. "I try to place my glass
work in front of the window so the sun comes
in behind it," Beckman says. "I'm very careful
about the lighting."
THE ART on page 4 1

Pauline Beckman brings bek loving touch
to handmade glass and fabric ware.

