On Monday, we also toured
Waterford Crystal. While there we
watched the entire procedure from the blowing of the glass to the sanding and
grinding and lastly the etching.
The furnaces that are used
to blow the glass take 1 week to cool down before maintenance is
performed. Then there’s a week for
maintenance…and then another week to reheat.
The temp of the furnace is
1040 degrees Celsius.
They use wooden molds to “shape”
the glass while blowing it. Each mold is
made of pear wood and has a life span of 7 days.
Each etcher has to work 5
years to be a craftsman and an additional 5 years to be a master.
They have 1 year between
each 5-year span to make a bowl to show their skills. If they aren’t able to make the bowl within
the year, they have to start over.
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