Crystal Spirit offers a variety of decoration processes executed with great dexterity and extreme care.
These operations, which can be combined, give a unique character to the decanters and their stoppers, while enhancing their aspects.
THE ART OF BEING UNIQUE
Partial Sandblasting Process
This method consists in projecting sand grains onto the glass by means of a jet of compressed air so as to obtain small cavities which give a frosted appearance, more or less deep, depending on the desired effect.
It is thus possible to obtain designs of great finesse by protecting certain areas by means of an adhesive film.
Hand made metallization
This process consists in applying manually with a brush a liquid metal oxide on the surface of the crystal. The decanters are then annealed at high temperature to fix the decoration. If the surface of the painted glass is smooth, the metallization will have a glossy appearance, if the surface of the painted glass has previously been sandblasted, the metallization will have a matt appearance.
Cutting
This process offers many possibilities (bevel cutting, diamond cutting, matte cutting, etc.) thanks to various types of cutting wheels, each corresponding to a notch shape. The crystal is thus finely incised, furrowed, diamond-shaped, hollowed out on different thicknesses. At this stage of the ornament, the article is said to be “carved matt” ( the cuts are frosted white). To get a “smooth cutting”, that is, a glossy finish, it is polished again. Immersion in an acid bath or mechanical polishing gives it all its brilliance.
Hot stamping
This process consists in transferring onto the surface of the glass a pigment carried by a special colored ribbon (or foil). Hot stamping produces brilliant decorations (usually gold or silver, but also other metallic colors) with a relief effect giving the product a luxury aspect.
Colouring
Under certain conditions, it is possible to color the stoppers of the decanters in the crystal mass, in one of the 10 semi-standard colors of the crystal Factory.
The production is carried out in pot furnaces, which makes it possible to limit the minimum order quantity and production.
Decals application
The decals (or transfers) are images printed in flat screen printing with organic ink, enamel or precious metals. They are manually applied on the decanters and fixed on the glass by being annealed at high temperature. This process has a double advantage of decorating non-printable areas directly on the glass, and producing multi-color patterns with high marking accuracy.