Waterford Crystal Factory

I went with the students to tour the Waterford Crystal factory.  They make crystal stuff, like chandeliers and wine glasses.  They also make a bunch of famous trophies like the NCAA Football Championship Trophy and the Players Championship golf trophy.

This is a video of the blowers.  They pull a red ball of burning crystal out of an oven.  They put it in a wood mold and then blow through a tube.  The crystal takes the shape of the mold.  Then they have to cool the crystal.  The guys in the video are making a vase.

There were a lot of trophies being made while I was there.

This is the plans for the NCAA Football Championship trophy.  It is the crystal football given to the winner of the National Championship game.

This is the model for the trophy.  You can see how the wood gets burnt by the lava hot crystal.

This is me actually holding the almost finished replica trophy.  I had to be really careful not to drop it.

This is an etching station.  When the crystal comes out of the hot mold and cools it is smooth and plain.  Then it goes to other parts of the factory to be decorated.  This is me at a etching station.

I took this pic of a piano for Mrs. Verity.

The factory was one of my favorite things in Ireland.  It was really interesting to see them make all the crystal.  It looked like a hard job!