Cristalerias San Miguel

The glasses from Cristalerias San Miguel are all hand blown using traditional glassblowing methods. Each glass is unique and requires five skilled craftsmen to create and finish. There may occasionally be small variations and bubbles found inside the glass. This is normal for this technique, which remains virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.

Below you can see the main glassblower's workroom with furnace. In the center, a glassblower walks from the furnace holding a blow pipe with molten glass attached.

Step 1.

Glassblower shapes and slightly cools molten glass, preparing it for the mould.

Step 2.

Molten glass is placed into a hinged metal mould in the floor and glassblower shapes with breath from blowpipe. The mould is then separated with a foot pedal and the glass shape removed.

Step 3.

Initial glass shape is slightly cooled with air in preparation for master glass-maker.

Step 4.

A second molten glob of glass is brought and attached to glass form.

Step 5.

The master glass-maker clips the glob.

Step 6.

The glob is then shaped by hand tools into a stem.

Step 7.

Yet another glob is attached to the stem, spun and formed to become the foot.

Step 8.

The glass, which is still enclosed in the original, mouth-blown form, is cut from the blow pipe, then placed into a clamp and heated to prepare it for finishing.

Step 9.

The glass is lowered into a small, round furnace to remove excess glass bubble and form the rim. The finished glass is then finally placed into an annealing oven to temper it.