STAR WARS - A Blenko Connection?

In the late 70s  Star Wars was a craze,   everyone - men women and children loved this film.
At Blenko Glass -  Shorty Finley ( who along with Jessie Carpenter) were considered the best
finisher / blower / and creative characters.   
    Shorty Finley and Jessie Carpenter both were part of the 70s Factory Glass movement.  Both accompanied Don Shepperd  ( the Blenko Designer) to give lectures and demos at Universities. 
    During this time Shorty Finley created several STAR WAR pieces - he designed a Chess Set 
with Star War Characters, and he made 5 free standing Star Wars characters out of glass.
    We are adding photos of the STAR WAR couple ( which is for sale on line at $1200, )  and a single Star War character ( also on sale for $500 on line) and a photo of an individual chess piece ( not for sale).  
    The factory workers at Blenko like much of America was enamored with STAR WARS.
We are delighted to learn these pieces survived the 40 years since production.  

For those of you who are not STAR WARS fans  the following paragraph is from WIKI 
Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", following the main story of Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke.
The first film in the series, Star Wars (later subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope), was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. It was followed by the similarly-successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was later released between 1999 and 2005, which received a more mixed reaction from critics and fans compared to the original trilogy. All six films were nominated for or won Academy Awards, and were commercial successes, with a combined box office revenue of $4.38 billion, making Star Wars the fifth-highest-grossing film series. The series has spawned an extensive media franchise—the Expanded Universe—including books, television series, computer and video games, and comic books, resulting in significant development of the series's fictional universe. Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the "Most successful film merchandising franchise." In 2012, the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $30.7 billion (£19.51 billion), including box-office receipts as well as profits from their video games and DVD sales.
In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and announced three new Star Wars films, with the first film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, planned for release on December 18, 2015.20th Century Fox retains the physical distribution rights to the first two Star Wars trilogies, owning permanent rights for the original 1977 film and holding the rights to Episodes I–III, V and VI until May 2020. The Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, excluding A New Hope.

Shorty Finley - much like Randy Rider ( current Blenko Employee)  always stood out - the work ethic, the devotion to Blenko...the skill.  It was visible.

Shorty Finley and the Star Wars  - 1980