|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
Waterford Crystal Factory Tour
I was excited about our chance to tour the Waterford crystal factory while we were in Ireland this past summer. I'm always interested in tours of production facilities, and this one was all the more interesting because my sisters and step-mom collect Waterford crystal.We got there at about 9:00 in the morning, and got our tour slot. We had a few minutes to wait, which gave us time to browse the gift shop and see all of the sparkles.
We even picked up something from the gift shop for Amanda, though she doesn't know what it is yet. You can see me in the second picture below with a look of trouble. We also spent some time in the cafe, which was very nice.
Our tour started with a short bus ride. It was clear that they are serious about tours. I don't know how many they do per day, but the factory has quite a bit of infrastructure in place just for visits and tours. The first room we saw was the wood shop. Production pieces are blown into cast iron molds, but specialty pieces like trophies and commission work are made in wooden molds. The last picture on the first row below shows the cast molds. After two more pictures of the wood shop we went to the next room. They were using furnaces to heat some crystal pitchers. They were adding the pour spout and the handle.
The next stop was the blowing room. They told us that it takes many years to be able to do this well enough to be working on production pieces. You can see that they hold the blow pipe vertically and place the molten glass into the mold below their feet. In some cases it took a couple of stages to get to the final size.
As we walked past a few of the trophies that they've made, they told us that for each work they make three identical pieces. They keep one at the factory, and then send two to the event. The last picture is in the quality control room.
They had a piece for us to break, and Christina volunteered to do the dirty work. The last picture below is a machine that draws a series of grid lines on the blanks. The cutters use these grid lines to help locate the cuts that will make the patterns.
The ball is identical to the one that they made for the new year's celebration in Times Square. The lights inside were colored and rotated through from one color to the next.
The pictures below show the cutting room. It was a holiday when we were there, so there were only a few people cutting. The cutters also have a learning period of several years, partly because they do all of the patterns by memory. They are able to take a piece with the grid lines and essentially free-hand the grinding by knowing just where to make the cut and for how long and thus how deep to make the cut. The cutting wheel doesn't cut skin, so that's why they don't use any gloves. When they are done cutting the pattern into the piece, it is still not exactly ready to go.
They also had some interesting displays set up. The first one is sort of a library of designs. The second is a showy display of part of the Lismore collection.
Below the tour guide shows off some of the more interesting pieces in the library.
The room in the pictures below is where they do special pieces like the horse and carriage in the second picture.
After the cutting is finished, the crystal has a translucent sort of texture to it. They dip it in an acid bath that makes it look perfectly clear again, then it's either out the door or off to the engraving room. The engravers use copper discs, which are not abrasive. They dip those discs into an abrasive compound, and that is what actually does the cutting. You can see a few examples of their work here. The last picture is of a depiction of the Lismore castle, after which the lismore line is named.
The first picture below is a demonstration of the cutting art, and the second picture is of one of the many flower planters that were scattered around. I didn't notice until they pointed it out to me, but in the seahorse logo, picture 3, there is a shamrock in his tail.
We also learned why that part of Ireland was so popular for crystal factories. Back in the early days, they used to burn wood to create the heat to melt the crystal. Areas like Waterford were close to a great supply of firewood, so until the days of gas-fired furnaces, they had a competitive advantage over more urban locations.
Cick here to see the continuation of our trip.
| Home | Contact Me | Copyright © 2009 Jared Yates - All Rights Reserved |
|
|
|
| This page last modified 03/27/09 | |||||