How are hand-blown Christmas ornaments made?

Custom glass Christmas ornament begins with the design of a mold. First carved in wood, the form becomes the imprint used for shaping the heated glass. A glass tube is attached to a blowpipe and heated until it softens and gives off a beautiful orange glow. The glass blower inserts the molten glass inside the mold and blows, forming the shape and imprinting the precisely carved form into the ornament. The ornament is then removed from the blow tube with a pair of glass shears to cool. Each ornament can be decorated with color by adding silver nitrate or other metallic compounds to the inside and painted or decorated with metallic paints, pearls, rhinestones papers, metal, or synthetic materials on the outside.

The finest holiday ornaments utilize all of these techniques resulting in custom-crafted decorations of heirloom quality that can be enjoyed for generations to come.