Two Months 'til Christmas

Yikes—there are only two months left until Christmas!  Perhaps this garland of mercury glass beads will help you (a little) get ready for the big day.

Since the time of the Renaissance (and possibly much earlier), Germans have been decorating evergreen Christmas wreaths and boughs with colorful fruits and nuts.  In the early Nineteenth Century, German glass artisans began blowing fancy glass ornaments—initially replicating those colorful fruits and nuts.  In time, the designs expanded and evolved to include balls, bells, eggs, and figural shapes (all called "baubles").  In 1847, Hans Greiner (of Lauscha, Germany) began developing the first commercially-produced baubles in his family glassworks (which had been founded in 1597).  England's Queen Victoria (at the urging of her German husband, Prince Albert) helped popularize the German tradition of decorating Christmas trees inside the home—and the commercial production of glass ornaments took off.  The end of a glass rod would be heated and the molten glass blown into a clay or plaster mould.  (In time, metal moulds would replace clay moulds.)  Silvery paint (often with mercury) was swished-around the interior of the ornament which was then hand-painted.  Of course, the quality and ambition of the painting varied greatly—and is one of the signature differences which separate the best ornaments from the others.

Strung garlands of glass beads are blown (from a glass rod) much the way any glass ornament would be.  However, a continuous line of such beads would be blown at once—then cut apart after being silvered.  The beads would then be strung, such as the example shown above.  Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome garland of mercury glass beads.