Waterford Crystal, Ireland (Saturday, July 27th, 2019)

We finished our day with a tour of the Waterford Crystal Factory in Waterford, Ireland.  



We received a very extensive and interesting tour of the Waterford Crystal factory, ending in the showroom.

Temporary molds for one time items like trophys are made from wood.  Long term molds are metal.

The glass is heated in ovens.

Then shaped and cooled.

Then it is removed from the blowing rod.

It is then fired again.

The refining process of each piece then begins.

Each piece is then carefully marked with the pattern that will be cut into it.

Examples of some pieces at various phases of refining.

One of a kind pieces are always made in triplicate, so there is a spare, and a backup of the spare just in case anything ever happens to the piece.  They are all stored on these shelves.

The pattern is then cut into the crystal.

It's interesting how he is looking directly through the vase at what he is cutting.

Then the final etching.

A few special pieces.

An Apollo 11 commemorative piece

A piece made for Barack Obama.

A 911 memorial piece

Then we had time to tour the showroom and see all of their beautiful pieces.  Steve's mom had a lot of fun with this!

It think this is her puppy eyed look, just hoping he'll buy her some.