Sunday, August 14, 2011
BEST HOUSEWARMING GIFT IDEAS
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
GLAMOROUS GLASS AT THE INTERNATIONAL HOME SHOW
Thursday, September 30, 2010
END OF SUMMER AT GLAMOROUS GLASS
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
SIMPLICITY WITH ELABORATE FUNCTIONALITY OF GLASS VASES
Vases, first made of ceramics, later of glass, could have been found even in the ancient cultures. Nowadays, they vary in material they are made of, design, colours, shapes and sizes. Functionality represented by their capability to hold flowers, and decorative purpose are combined in order to create an exceptional item which can easily transform your room.
An artist’s touch can add exceptionality to a glass vase. A vase can provide an artist with a surface for his craft. In this manner these decorative items can become pieces of art no matter if they are with or without flowers. Beautiful shapes, curves and colours make vases wonderful enhancers of whatever you put in there.
Why would you need a glass vase?
No matter what your age, social status or interests is each of us wants to be unique and stand out from the crowd. We want our personality and our individual style to be highlighted. It is often achieved through a smart home decor. One of the simplest, inexpensive and quick ways to dress up your room or office is through a stylish display of high-quality glass vases or other centerpieces.
A vase is definitely not a simple container where you hold your flowers. When exhibited properly, it will become a point of focus of your guests. It will emphasize beauty of your new coffee table, or take away attention from a little bit scratched walls. Vases can do the trick to make a statement about your uniqueness and individual style. They don’t always need to carry flowers; use your imagination to utilize your vase in the most original way. It will definitely draw attention to and awareness of the vase as a key element in the room.
Glass objects can be a huge focal point for your home or office. However, as decorative items, they need to be properly matched with the design of your room and, if the purpose of your vase is to hold flowers, with the kind of flowers that will be placed in there. Recently, interior designers started relying on utilizing two identical double glass vases when creating the mirror effect.
High quality, hand-made glass vases are a decoration by itself. They are often placed on a pedestal in order to enlighten a room and become a centerpiece. Placing a glass vase near a window will beautifully reflect the light and illuminate the room. A pair of large vases can be placed near the entrance to your house. If they are made of high-quality glass, do not put anything there. They are the attraction and decoration by themselves.
When we think about a vase we almost always think about flowers which complement the vase. Although the real ones will bring wonderful colours and scent into your room, more and more often we lean toward artificial flowers. Indeed, you can easily find artificial flowers which are hard to distinguish from the real ones.
One of the most known types of glass vases are bud vases. A bud vase is fairly small and is usually created to hold only one flower. They are an expression of simple elegance. No matter if you decide to use your bud vases to hold flowers, a few bud vases placed together in the same room will bring sophistication and grace into your house decor.
You may have a vase in your house which has not been displayed or utilized for a long time, besides when holding fresh flowers. If it is a large, cylinder-shaped vase, why won’t you use it as an ice bucket, a fruit bowl or a gold fish bowl (if it is a clear-glass vase)? A medium-sized clear-glass vase can hold colourful marbles, stones, or sand and star fish brought from your vacation. An original idea would be to fill the vase with water and place there a floating candle. It will be a wonderful decoration of your table. Small vases can become decorative jars to hold your bathroom items, such as cotton balls, or office supplies, such as clips, pens, etc. They can be filled with shells, glass beads, or flower heads. All depends on the theme of your home.
A high-quality, hand-made vase can be a relatively inexpensive way to decorate your house and increase the overall appearance of the rooms. It is necessary to remember to choose vases which style and colours is a good match for the overall design of the room it will be placed in.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
GLAMOROUS GLASS AT THE SOUTHSIDE SHUFFLE
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
OUR TRIP TO EUROPE

Monday, July 26, 2010
DELIBERATIONS ON DECORATIVE GLASS
- blowing: a glassblower works at a furnace full of molten glass using metal rods and hand tools to blow and shape almost any form of glass;
- kiln-casting: can be done at the furnace at the torch or in a kiln; generally the artist makes a mould out of refractory, sand, or plaster and silica which can be filled with either clear glass or coloured or patterned glass;
- fusing, slumping: usually glass is only heated enough to impress a shape or a texture onto the piece, or to stick several pieces of glass together without glue;
- flame working: the artist generally works at a bench using rods and tubes of glass, shaping with hand tools to create their work;
- hot sculpting;
- cold-working;
Monday, July 12, 2010
UNCOMPLICATED STORY OF GLASS
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
SUMMER AT GLAMOROUS GLASS
Monday, June 21, 2010
WHY WE LOVE GLASS AND ACTUALLY...WHAT IS GLASS?
We use them every day. Glass vases, plates....They are usually made of glass, often painted in various colours or richly decorated. But...
What is "Glass"?
Don't be afraid-I will not provide you with a chemistry lesson. Nevertheless, I'm not a chemist but a person who is fascinated with the beauty and functionality of glass and who has already gathered a number of beautiful glass vases.
All of us are aware that glass as a final product is solid, typically brittle and often transparent. Before becoming a fragile vase or a piece on our dinner table, it is actually silicate sand melted with alcalic additives. In a little bit more complicated terms, glass is a silicon dioxide (70-75%) melted with sodium or potassium oxide in a temperature of 1300-1500 C. Another important compound which needs to be mentioned here is the calcium oxide which stabilizes the whole structure. The glass-forming liquid becomes actual glass when it is rapidly cooled.
Glass shows fascinating properties which change depending on its composition. Soda glass is soft and plastic. It slowly changes its structure when becoming solid so it can be shaped into various, often complicated forms. Potash glass is harder, and it was used for the greenish forest glass as well as for the crystal glass when the technology of cleaning and decolouring had been mastered.
As in this place we do not intend to analyze physics of glass, we want to refer you to the literature of glass making available in your local library.
Glass in Our Lives
The term "glass" originates from the Germanic word for transparent, lustrous substance. It was developed in the late Roman Empire, in the Roman glassmaking centre located in Trier (today Germany).
I find glass to be fascinating. This material has a few thousand year-long tradition of making. Today, glass products are taken for granted-we use them on an everyday basis when serving food, decorating our homes or as purchasing them to make them gifts for our special ones.
It is impossible to mention all areas in which glass is used nowadays. My interests focus on glass as a gentle material which can be extravagantly used in home decoration. I'm talking here about unique glass pieces used as accessories or gifts, such as glass vases or decorative bowls. Contemporary glass artists and glass works create artistic vases, bowls or candle holders which bring to our homes distinctiveness in their functionality and decoration. Elaborate centerpieces can be used in a variety of ways and in various settings. Place it in direct sun or light, and you will create a rainbow of colours which will enlighten any, even the darkest, room.
However, it is easy to become deceived by cheap copies of so called "artistic" glass pieces. You can easily find glass pieces advertised as "Murano glass vases" or "Murano bowls" which are in fact not original products-they do not originate from Murano Island (Italy), represent lower quality and can be purchased for lower prices. The same goes with the Bohemian pieces which are often manufactured on a massive scale in anywhere but not in the Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Always check if your supplies can provide you with a certificate of authenticity of a product you are interested in. Only when buying original glass vases, centerpieces, bowls, etc.you will fully enjoy the beauty of this grateful material.
