Christmas Ornaments

Catherineshinn.com supplies the most beautiful hand blown glass Christmas ornaments. We select the best glass Christmas ornaments from skilledcraftsmen mainly in Germany. The worlds most exquisite glass Christmas ornaments have become available once more as a result of the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989. Until the second world war people in the Thüringer forests were famed for their hand blown glass Christmas ornaments. After the war Christmas was removed from the calendar by the new regime. Many of the molds used to produce the glass Christmas ornamentswere confiscated. The glass blowers were coerced into working for the state in the local light bulb factory.

When Germany was reunited there was rejoicing but it soon led to widespread unemployment in the east. The precious wooded moulds were uncovered from cellars and attics where they had been hidden by their grandfathers. Now moulds that had half a century before been used to create the glass Christmas ornaments for which the region was known, began to reappear.

Small numbers of glass Christmas ornaments are produced each winter by these craftsmen.The skills are past down from generation to generation. Each family has particular molds handed down as heirlooms and their own style of painting and finishing the glass Christmas ornaments.

The tradition dates back 400 years when itinerant glass blowers from Venice introduced the techniques. The German glass blowers soon became famous for their skills to the extent where in the 1600's they produced faux pearls for the robes of Elizabeth 1st, Queen of England. The mid 19th century saw the first lustrous silvered Christmas ornaments being produced.

These exquisite hand blown glass Christmas ornaments are both familiar and nostalgic. Because of the age of the moulds many ornaments are evocative of the 1900's, 20's and 30's. The glass blowers took inspiration from nature, folklore and their surroundings. Many designs are symbolic, for example fir-cones for eternity, shoes for fertility, birds for good fortune and little teapots for hospitality.