Alum Bay Glass 'a touch of glass' Individually created and finished at the furnace by craftsmen on the Isle of Wight
	From tiny glass animals to vases and paperweights to perfume bottles, jugs and decanters, Alum Bay Glass offers decorative and functional pieces for galleries, stores and private collectors, either working to commission or from our existing product range. Alum Bay Glass studio and showroom is situated close to the famous Needles Rocks and coloured sand cliffs at Alum Bay, at the western tip of the Isle of Wight
Contact Alum Bay Glass The Mystery of Glass Making View a selection from the Collections Shop & Studio Opening Alum Bay Glass makes a complete range of coloured handmade decorative and functional glassware and jewellery. Visitors may watch the glass being made and select their gifts from our extensive showroom. Shop open 7 days a week all year. No glass making on Saturdays. Closed Christmas Day Please phone and check for opening times out of season.
Alum Bay Glass, Alum Bay, Isle of Wight, PO39 OJD, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1983 753473 Fax: +44 (0)1983 753422

The Mystery that is Glass Making

The glass we use is a potash crystal to our own recipe. We melt it only as a clear colourless glass. The glass is made once a week during Friday night and Saturday, and enough is made to last all the next week. On Fridays the raw materials - sand, soda ash, marble, dolomite, potash and borax - are weighed and dry mixed. At the end of work on Friday the furnace is first emptied of any residual glass with a ladle and then charged with raw materials called 'Batch' and broken glass called 'Cullet'. The furnace is heated to 1400° C, and the contents melt to form a clear, colourless, viscous liquid - this is glass.

Glass as it cools thickens, and so it is cooled to 1050° C to make it easier to 'gather' from the furnace. Because glass thickens as it cools it is possible to shape it, and it will hold the shape. The rising viscosity also stops crystallisation so we have a unique material that can he worked by artists, craftsmen and machines. The furnace is a 'tank furnace' and is never turned out between rebuilds; normally every two years. The techniques we use have not changed for 2000 years - the basic shape of our blowing irons remains the same, as do the tools we use.

Top

Isle of Wight Origin Approved Scheme

Business Directory
Tourism