New Jersey artist built global fused glass business from humble start

New Jersey-born self-starter, Peggy Karr’s career evolved from cleaning houses and waitressing to running a fused glass empire which, at its peak, employed 72 people with an annual income of $ 7 million. It was the largest fused glass facility in the world. This was at a time when it was difficult for women to have non-traditional careers and nonetheless create enterprises.

Karr was raised in Caldwell, New Jersey, the eldest of her parents’ three children: two daughters and a son. Although her father was an electrical engineer, he learned how to repair antique clocks and opened a shop selling clocks and what Karr calls “junk.” Karr spent many years at her father‘s side learning how to take apart and repair clocks. Her mother, part artist and part poet, was a therapist for DYFUS and a teacher at the New Jersey Institute for Therapy. Karr inherited her father‘s engineering ability, her mother‘s artistic bent, and used the skills to create a unique art/folk glass business called Peggy Karr Glass (PKG).

Early in her life, Karr realized she had two passions: horses and art. At 10 years old, she wanted to be a kangaroo for Halloween. Since kangaroo costumes were not available in the stores, she designed and sewed her own costume. The only flaw was that she had to carry her tail over her arm. Later on, she designed what she called “hermit huts,” stained glass enclosures for hermit crabs. She sold these at craft markets in New York City.

After graduating high school, she was able to pursue her second passion, horses. Through waitressing, housekeeping, and babysitting, Karr was able to purchase her first horse in 1971. At some point, she decided to go to William Paterson University, while working full-time and matriculating full-time. She took only the courses she was interested in, such as ceramics and chemistry, resulting in her dropping out of school when she realized she had to complete the requirements before she could graduate.

In 1981, Karr found the ideal situation with the Morristown Unitarian Church, where she had an apartment on the third floor in exchange for caretaking for the church. Her apartment had enough space for a studio, where she could make ceramics and stained glass creations, which she sold at craft shows. PKG was born in that third-floor attic in February of 1987.

Her work with ceramics and stained glass evolved into creating fused glass decorative, but utilitarian, items. Through selling her creations at street fairs, Peggy Karr realized there was a market for decorative glass. Because she is an introvert and was uncomfortable with direct contact with the public, and because she wanted to have more secure work, she decided to take her creations to wholesale shows. Her fused glass creations were a hit from the start with orders from Mom and Pop craft shops flooding in. It soon became cumbersome to haul the raw materials up three flights of stairs to her attic apartment and bring the finished products downstairs, so she rented a 3000-square-foot factory space that the business outgrew in a year and a half. She had two more moves to larger spaces after that.

After the New York gift show one year, she had so many orders that she realized she needed help and hired her first employee. Later, she hired friends, family, and local workers. Karr remarked that most of the blue-collar workers from Dover, N.J., worked for her at one point or another. At the business’s zenith, 72 people were employed by PKG. She created an enjoyable work environment; milestones were celebrated, and employees appreciated. For instance, after PKG reached the first million dollars in sales, Karr and her employees celebrated with champagne toasts. Being community-minded, after 9/11, Karr and her employees raised $172 thousand for United Way.

Karr is very much an innovator in the design and technical aspects of glass works. For instance, KPG had only one supplier of pigments, concerning Karr about the risk to her business if the supplier’s business failed. She took the problem as a challenge and, using her knowledge of chemistry, created her own colors, adding to the palette each year until she had 50 colors. She created a technique for clearly photographing individual catalogue items and was known as a pioneer in fused glass techniques.

In 1987, Peggy Karr married Tim Seitz, a professional tenor. Later, he became the sales manager for PKG, while Karr managed the more technical aspects of the business. They met while Karr was living and working at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Church. Unfortunately, their marriage ended in 2017 upon Seitz’s death. A year later, Karr closed her business because of declining sales due to the aftershock of 9/11 and the Internet’s decimation of small gift shops.

Karr moved to Newfoundland from Montville because of her love of horses. She lives in a charming home with a barn where she housed her horses and various animals. Although the horses and goats are gone, her three adorable terriers remain. She loves her neighbors and the rural community that provides her with ample hiking and horse trails. She is active in the Folk Project located at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Church and the West Milford horse community.