see the flyer here: 2015_Jason_Christmas_flyer_4
www.jasonstropko.wordpress.com
Such a rare opportunity to touch and drink from such a unique glass. I didn’t know that this kind of glass even existed, it’s not exactly what you find in Ikea or even more upmarket home interior stores.
A completely handmade glass: blown by hand. Recently Jason had a mould custom made from a drinking glass that he created. He uses the mould to make the drinking glass creation process more streamlined and the products more easily reproducible. Each drinking glass is still finished by hand, this is not the same as a completely mould blown process where the tops are ‘popped’, instead this mould acts as the guide to the final shape, which then has room to vary slightly, giving the lovely handmade feeling.
This particular drinking glass was blown very thick and sturdy to allow plenty of room to battuto it. What is battuto? It is effectively carving of the glass, or rather grinding it with a glass grinding disk against which the glass is pressed to grind each facet that you see.
A single glass takes a good 90 minutes to battuto (this one actually took 2 hours!). But first it needs to be blown, for which it is really quite useful to have an assistant who can open and close the blow mould (it operates with a hinge and is tricky for the glassmaker to use alone unless he/she is an octopus).. After the glass is blown it enters the annealer, which is effectively a slow cooling down oven. The glass will idle in the annealer overnight on a long cooling cycle. This is essential or else the glass would be prone to cracking when it is knocked slightly, or it could just spontaneously combust, too.
Nobody wants a combusting drinking glass, right? After the glass has cooled down it then goes through the battuto process after which it is hot torched to soften sharp edges. And this is where I am not sure if it will be annealed once more..
You can imagine how rare such a battuto drinking glass is, but it also is a very old and traditional technique. If you ever are in need of a present that nobody else will bring to a favourite family members wedding or super special occasion then you now have an idea…
I just found this great link to A Murano website that explains Battuto better than I.
Trying to catch up with documenting all of the many, many glass objects that are populating the studio.. Hopefully this vase / lampshade will find a new home, soon!
Sorry there have been so few personal words lately, it’s been a busy time getting geared up for the seasonal occasions as well as Jason starting a new part time glassblowing job with fixed hours. They threw a party the first day that he worked! What a welcome that was!
Jason has been working for other people’s glass dreams in the last 3-4 weeks and not created as much as we would have liked from his own projects. Slowly but surely he is continuing his own line of tableware and Nuts & Seeds projects.
.. the acorn is shown photographed from the same angle but with slight changes in the light direction.. 
This particular acorn is currently unique in Jason’s collection because of the way that the acorn cap was created. Every time Jason is in the studio we try and experiment with one thing so expand the overall range. We haven’t made more of this one yet, so in case you love it: it is here and has no twins and might never have any, but it fits really well with all the other acorns and nuts and seeds… 
Yes, sorry, I am getting a little bit ‘salesy’, its coming up to that time of year and Jason is coming to spend Christmas in Germany & England, he might depart as early as December 15th, so we are ‘laying our eggs’, ready to hatch as early as we can this year..
We imagine these seeds to look just fantastic in window displays, on table settings, anywhere where light reflects, at Thanksgiving dinner tables or displays. The symbolism of acorns is reflective of the symbolism of Oak trees, their strength and the characteristics of prosperity and wisdom. Seeds in general are great symbolic gifts for anybody who is planting seeds in life, starting something new, beginning a journey of education, career or health… Glass like this acorn is a really good gift idea for minimalists as well as those people who love to populate their home with treasures and objects of desire..
We will upload more pictures of acorns in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes on Jason’s blog.
Jason Stropko 