About Crystals

History of Crystal Making

The history of crystal making starts back thousands of years ago when ancient societies started to melt sand to make glass in a way of replicating the appearance of natural crystals found in nature such as quartz and amethyst. Plain glass was considered a luxury and jewelry and small statues made of this material were very precious.

Glass making traditions persisted through the ages and expanded throughout Europe and the Middle East, evolving with modern technologies. Artisans started to perfect their art by understanding the components of many different types of glass and experimenting with these.

The original raw materials used to make glass are silica sand, soda and limestone. Looking for a way to perfect this recipe by adding different components, English glass maker George Ravenscroft discovered in 1673 that adding lead to glass in the melting process corrected a variety of imperfections and made the crafted pieces heavier, more durable and easier to cut. Lead crystal was born.

Today’s Crystals

Today, the recipe used to make crystal is of about 50% silica sand, 20% potash and 30% lead. The term crystal is now submitted to very strict norms in Europe. To be called crystal, the glass has to contain at least 24% lead. Superior crystal contains 30% and more lead. However, no such norms exist in America and any kind of glass with a percentage of lead can receive the name of crystal, a phenomenon which gives European crystal houses a better reputation around the globe.

Crafting Crystal Pieces

Crystal pieces, unlike glass manufactured products, cannot be molded into a particular shape using machines. The crystal has to be blown first, then cut by an expert to give it its final shape.

The crafting starts in the ovens where the glass recipe is mixed together. Then, artisans blow the glass into a certain form, attaching parts to the original piece and crafting all curves by hand. After their shape and width is right for the model crafted, the pieces all go through a cooling process to prevent any breaks in the glass that could be caused by a fast cool down.

After hours of cooling, the crystal raw pieces get through a cutting process where an expert glass cutter creates a series of pattern into the glass to give it its reflective qualities and shine. Finally, the piece is bathed in an acid solution to polish its surface.

Advantages

Comparing to traditional glass, lead crystal has many advantages. Crystal is heavier, more robust and makes for better quality table dishes. It’s more robust molecular structure can sustain a larger variety of cuts and patterns and therefore gives an opportunity for spectacular design.

Additionally, lead changes the refractive index of glass, thus increasing the amount of light reflected by the material, making it shine more significantly.

Finally, lead decreases the fusion temperature of glass, making the defective parts easier to recycle, minimizing the losses at factories.

Leading brands

Today, the leading crystal brands are mostly European, they each have their own specific recipe of crystal, their own cutting angles (some of them patented), different models of jewelry and decorative art pieces and sometimes special coatings to make their products shine differently.

At Euro Style, we offer crystals light fixtures with Swarovski, Asfour and Iris Bohemia crystal. These European brands have a long history of crystal making and make for peculiar and fascinating pieces, molding simple light to a shining beauty, a pure harmony of design and passion.