There's something just elegant about glass, maybe it's the delicate nature of it, maybe it's the care that it takes an artisan to create a work of art out of it, maybe it's the way it makes light bounce around, maybe it's the way it glows, and emanates a warm feel when it's sitting on a sunny window, we've importing glass from St. Petersburg for many years, and still we can't quite put our finger on it, and we're constantly coming across new customers, with interesting stories of why they love our figurines.
History of Russian Glass
Glass has a long and storied history around the world. It occasionally occurs naturally, usually in the case of lightning hitting a sandy beach, or around a meteorite impact, or near a volcanic eruption, but a little over 5000 years ago mankind began to understand the science behind it's creation, and it has harnessed that knowledge to create beautiful works of art.
Even today it is thought that wearing amber jewelry (such as a ring, earrings, bracelet, pin or necklace) will instil confidence in the wearer, balance a person's mood, and lessen depression and anxiety.
The name Russian glass carries with it a certain clout, and esteem, it's almost synonymous with quality, but what makes Russian glass so great? Why are these imported figurines from St. Petersburg better than the others? Especially now that glass has become so readily available. Well the answer lies in a tradition of excellent yet to be surpassed. Around roughly 1,000 AD in what cities scattered throughout Russia, and what is now modern day Ukraine, glass workers not only perfected the art of glass blowing, but they came up with the perfect ingredients, pigments, and methods to make their glass more colorful than anyone else.
To quote Dwight P. Lanmon, director of the world famous Corning Museum of Glass in New York City, “'There is one aspect of Russian glass that separates it from the rest of the world, they used more color earlier than anywhere else. You get brilliant green, brilliant red, brilliant blue, brilliant purple and opaque white.”
This knowledge of color has been passed down throughout the generations of Russian glassblowers and remains to this day; modern technology helps speed up the process, but generational knowledge assures the process will lead to perfection. Though knowledge is more readily available now, Russian craftsman still have a thousand years on the competition, knowledge of glass, how to shape it, how to color it, is in their blood. Compare some of our imported glass figurines to other competitors, and you'll see, in plain color, that ours are the best around.
Set them on a window sill, or on a shelf, and when the sunlight catches the trunk of that glass elephant, or the neck of that glass giraffe figurine, you'll realize that Russian glass truly benefits from its long past! Come check out our blog to see some Russian Glassblowers at work!
