Robert T. Parmer was a public school teacher before retiring in 1995. He worked with the silversmithing and lapidary hobbys for several years before becoming interested in paperweight buttons. Robert studied under Mr. John Gooderham from Canada. He makes paperweight buttons with free-floating flowers, free-floating insects, free-floating objects, simple millefiori and complex millefiori cane sections. He is making peperweights with cold techniques-faceting, and paperweights containing tiny paintings. He makes and uses in his buttons evenly shaped silver colored wire shanks, which do not respond to a magnet. He signs all of his buttons with the letter "R" on the back of the button. The "R" represents his first name and also the name of his workshop "Rosebriar Glassworks".
Robert's daughter Naomi Lohmann hand paints images for the buttons and creates unique jewelry designs to complement these beautiful paperweights. Visit www.mistymtndesigns.com to see some of her "one of a kind" jewelry.