In Vladimir, you can try to learn the art of glass blowing

Gusev masters are reviving glass traditions. In Vladimir, now you can not only admire works of art made of crystal, but also learn how to create them. The bewitching play of fire and glass in the skillful hands of the master takes on recognizable forms.

Glassblowers are people who create figurines using well-heated crystal. The homeland of glassblowing is considered to be the island of Murano in Italy. In Russia, production was established only in the 18th century, when the Gusev Crystal Factory was opened. Until today, the craftsmen managed to preserve the technology of manufacturing products in their original form.

To heat up the glass dart, from which the figurine will turn out, combustible gas and an oxidizing agent are fed into the glass blowing burner. Such a fiery mixture is heated to two thousand degrees.

Yuri Dister, master glass blower:

- Warm up to such an extent, like plasticine, so that it is soft like that.

Yuri Dister has 40 years of experience as a glass blower. The man came into the profession after the army, before that he was a milling machine and worked with metal. Friends advised me to try myself in the "crystal" business, and so I got a job at Gusev's "experimental crystal factory". At first, Yuri didn’t like the work, because it is almost jewelry, it’s hard to get used to fragile glass after rough metal.

Yuri Dister, master glass blower:

- At the beginning of work, when I just came to work, I did not like it because it required perseverance. If you come in a bad mood, nothing may work, because it is handmade. But then he got involved, well, things went slowly.

Yuri has no favorite figures, all of them are especially beautiful for him. He takes ideas for work from the surrounding nature,

Yuri Dister, master glass blower:

- I never invent anything, so if something is serious, I can sketch it. No, ideas just come by themselves. So I love nature. You walk through the forest, you see something - and once the thought comes, how to translate it into glass, for example. That's life.

The project of the glass workshop was born 6 years ago. Yura and Nikita say: this is the work of a lifetime.

Nikita Slepnev, head and organizer of the glass-blowing workshop:

- What was in Gus-Khrustalny has long been, as if for a long time, few people have been doing this. We ourselves are Gusevs, we decided to renew these traditions of ours here.

The main goal for the team of glassblowers was to attract young people to the folk craft and return the former glory of the forgotten art. Their workshop is located in the very center of the city, in the Crystal Museum near the Golden Gate. Master classes are held here for children, schoolchildren learn something new and, perhaps, for the first time think about choosing a future profession. Not only children can feel like glassblowers.

- Look, fragments fly off, so I hid my eyes behind the glass, at least at the very beginning. And now we are gradually bringing it into the fire, this is our wand with you, and at the same time we are still scrolling it.

- The longest thing is to collect a drop of glass. The figure itself is quickly done.

- Faster?

- Well, of course. Glass does not like being treated with ceremony for a long time.

Lampwork became the most popular technique among the visitors. This is a technique for melting large glass beads with various patterns. The technology is simple, hot glass is wound onto the mandrel, which is a large knitting needle. With due imagination, you can put the whole world in them.

Alexey Troshichev, master glass blower:

- Lampfork is exactly the manufacture of beads. Each bead is made separately and subsequently connected to a bracelet.

At first glance, everything is simple, but crystal is very fastidious and requires a special approach. It took two weeks for master Alexei to make such a product.

Alexey Troshichev, master glass blower:

- Each glass, its color behaves differently. You can’t mix certain types of glass there, because they don’t get along together and the product cracks.

The craft of glassblowers does not stand still, it develops, technologies keep up with the times. Traditions remain unchanged. Thanks to the masters, craftsmanship is still alive and gradually gaining popularity.

Source: "Vesti-Vladimir"