Lead Crystal: How Its Manufactured.

Whether your choice of stemware manufacturer is Waterford Crystal, Lalique, Riedel, Swarovski or whoever else. They all manufacture it in more or less the same way.

The following is a short description of how crystal stemware and other crystal products are made.

Adding lead oxide to molten glass creates crystal, or lead crystal, as it’s otherwise known. The molten crystal can then be either blow molded or pressed into shape.

Once cooled, the crystal can then be worked using abrasives to cut flutes and/or make facets. Because the lead oxide gives the glass more “sparkle”, the defined edges of these cuts allow the light to refract and give a “rainbow” of colors. When gently struck with a metallic object, lead crystal will ring like a bell.  If the lead content is 24% or more, then the crystal is known as "Full Lead Crystal".

For centuries, these cuts were all made manually until Daniel Swarovski had the idea of creating a crystal-cutting machine. The result was phenomenal, not only was the machine much quicker but, the accuracy of the cuts meant that detail and symmetry that, prior to this invention, would have been almost impossible, could now be achieved relatively easily.

Having received numerous design awards for his glass art forms,  it was Claus J. Riedel who was one of the first to observe that the look of a drink could actually be enhanced by choosing the appropriate stemware. Today, most stemware manufacturers have followed Claus' lead and there are numerous beautiful designs to choose from.