Douglas & Renee Sigwarth - River Falls WI

Douglas and Renee met in 1993. They started blowing glass at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Minneapolis, MN. In 1995, the couple transferred to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where they completed their training in studio glass. In 1996, the couple married. While traveling to Venice for their honeymoon, an airline ticket agent recognized the couple's last name. She told them that three members of her family worked at a glass factory that was owned and operated by a family named Sigwarth in Hergiswil, Switzerland. This came as a huge surprise to the couple. Upon further discovery, they learned Douglas was related to this family, and he was a descendant from a family of glassblowing tradesman who blew glass for centuries throughout Europe. Douglas' great-great-grandfather, Ludwig Sigwarth, emigrated to the United States in 1850 from Germany's The Black Forest. Ludwig and his two eldest sons blew plate glass windows in factories in New York and Pittsburgh for a few years.