How $13,000 Paperweights Are Made The Oldest Crystal Factory in France | Insider Business

I appreciate that even though they won't give away their exact, secret recipe for their lead crystal that they do at least give us the basics of glass batching. It's the least that the French could do for us.

The video's mostly about the coolness of Saint-Louis glass blowers and carvers, but it's really cool to watch the glass being worked - especially the millefiori paperweights. Again, if you're looking for something to get your friendly, neighborhood blogger for Christmas...

It looks like the nearest Saint-Louis store to me is in Chicago...one more reason to get back to the Windy City.

The Bismuthsmith

I've made bismuth crystals once or twice. I'm no Todd Bollenbaugh or anything, but I'm getting there.

Even Todd, however, isn't any sort of Bismuthsmith. He - actually, his name is Kyle Lauzon according to his Facebook page - seems to be an absolute bismuth master.

He makes tons of gorgeous hopper crystals and casts loads of varied figures.

...and he seems able to control the oxidation rate well enough that he can get consistent coloration from the oxides.

If you check out some of his live stream videos - through which he apparently sells his wares at discounted prices, I'm not sure how that works - you'll see that all the figures of a certain type have very similar coloration. He's obviously not doing that randomly.

And he seems able to control the color on the hopper crystals, too, because you can order specific colors.

I'm impressed, man...really impressed.