Did you know that the IKEA glass decoration range includes beautiful mouth-blown glass objects? By supporting mouth-blown glass and its artisans through our business, we're working to keep this ancient craft alive.
Glassblowing is a technique dating back thousands of years, that’s still popular today. For more than 25 years IKEA has supported this ancient craft by including mouth-blown objects for the home. Loved for its endless design possibilities and unique finishes, a small part of our glass range is mouth-blown by skilled glassblowers who have mastered the art of creating beautiful, finished glass products over many years.
Breathing new life into an ancient artform
Mouth-blown glass is an artform that requires plenty of skill and patience, not to mention a steady hand. Even learning to blow a simple glass bubble can take years. A decline in the number of skilled craftsmen has, in some countries, led to a shift to more female glass blowers. Women account for two-thirds of our mouth-blown glass supply chain, providing them with jobs, skills and a responsible income.
Colourful and creative
Unlike industrially produced glass, mouth-blown glass offers the freedom to create limitless shapes, finishes and colour combinations. From stripes and ombré effects to patterns and form, although each mouth-blown vase in the IKEA range may be produced in the thousands, no two are exactly the same.
How is glass blown?
Glass blowing is a mix of skill, creativity and heat! Silica sand, soda ash and limestone is melted in a hot furnace to create molten glass. The blob of molten glass – otherwise known as a gob – is collected on the end of a steel blowing pipe. Then it's shaped and inflated by blowing into the pipe and shaping it in a mold or on a steel surface.
Often, the blower turns and blows the hot molten glass at the same time, before it goes into the mold. The ability to combine blowing and turning the molten glass continuously while using a variety of tools like tweezers, scissors and paddles, all at the same time, is a skill that takes years to master.
Colour comes in a number of forms, such as powdered pigments, strips and dots of coloured glass. The addition of colour enables the glassblower to create different decorative effects. And best of all, unlike machine made glass, mouth-blown glass offers the freedom to use many different colours, and with a different result each time.
Make it big
Free of the constraints of industrial glass production, glassmaking by hand and mouth allows the craftsman to create glass objects in any shape or size. The glass is shaped in a mold during the blowing process, then stretched and expanded by swinging, blowing and pulling the glass into larger shapes.
"Handmade glass has a special quality. It’s the human hands or mouth blowing that makes it as beautiful as it can be. I also think that the more simple the form, the more demanding it is in terms of skill for the craftsman."
Lisa Hilland
Designer
Setting standards
We are always looking to find new ways to not only improve our products, but also the working conditions of those who make them. Working with IWAY – the IKEA supplier code of conduct – we set social and environmental standards for our suppliers and service providers. Through IWAY, we can ensure that every step of the way people are well-treated, workplaces are safe and resources are protected.
