Waterford Crystal Factory and Showroom

We arrived in Waterford to visit the Waterford Crystal Factory.  There, we went on a tour of how they produce their beautiful crystal pieces:

This clock was from the 1700's and originally had a wooden frame on it.

Waterford purchased it around the 1970's to replace

the wooden case entirely with crystals.

Very hot mixture just pulled out of the oven. 

It will be shaped by large paddles into a vessel or dish.

Continued shaping.

It is prepared for the hot kiln to cool off.

Into the kiln to cool. I think the tour guide said it takes three days to cool!

By the time a piece is cut and decorated, it actually weighs less

than when it started as an unmarked bowl because

cutting takes out glass, thus reducing the weight.

Here they ink the designs on the newly blown glass pieces.

Here you can see the ink design on the pieces above.

This is a football piece that was cut and completed.

Our guide is showing us how the name "Waterford" is sandblasted

onto the piece.  This is something they do for ALL

of their pieces - from glassware and vases, to trophies.

The cutters here are doing a "wedge" cut - creating a "v" shape design

into the crystal piece.

While cutting is 95% accomplished by the artisans by hand,

there is one piece of equipment that handles cuttings that

were too intricate or precise to be done by hand.  This will

usually apply to "one off" pieces, such as trophies.

These artists above are creating artistic pieces that requires joining together

multiple pieces to create special artwork such as what you see below:

This is a shamrock bowl duplicate of one presented to

President Obama.

There are only two 9/11 displays - this one and the one that

Waterford gave to NYC.

When the tour is over, we head to the showroom!  We picked up

a few pieces, Lincoln was a lively visitor but he managed to

avoid any contact with the crystal.  I hear he may be getting

in the mail a crystal sea horse ornament for being so good . . . .