Waterford Crystal - Visitor Centre

Special Commissions - Art Glass

In June 1998, Waterford Crystal invited U.S. artists Dan Dailey, Richard Marquis, Richard Royal, and Japanese artist Hiroshi Yamano, to work at the factory in Waterford.

The idea behind this experimental residency, organised by U.S. artist Joseph Rosanno and our head of Design, Jim O' Leary, was to cultivate new relationships between studio glass artists and Waterford craftspeople.

For two weeks each artist had unlimited access to the resources of the Waterford Crystal factory, including our designers, our master glassblowers, cutters, and engravers.

The sharing of technical knowledge and, through exposure to new work and methods, the inspiration for new ideas - proved to be mutually beneficial to all of our artists. Many of the special pieces created during these workshops are available to purchase at the Waterford Crystal Visitor Centre.


�The initial stage of creating a Claret decanter involves taking a small amount of molten crystal on the blowing rod and forming it into a small ball shape. Then a second gather of molten crystal is taken and this is pre-shaped using wooden tools made of Beach and Pear wood.		After the piece is pre shaped it is then blown into a mould so that is fills out to the full shape of the mould; this stage of the blowing process is vital as the thickness of the crystal depends on the skill and the dexterity of the craftsman. Next comes the handle, which is another amount of molten crystal that has been shaped into along cylindrical shape and attached to the side of the decanter.		As the handle cools, it is manually teased into the shape of an arch, until both sides of the handle have been firmly attached�.