The parts that have received protective surface treatments remain clear, whereas the uncovered parts become frosted. In the cold glass workshops, once retouching, cutting, sculpting and engraving are meticulously carried out manually, the pieces are polished or satin-finished by sandblasting or plunging in acid baths. In the hot glass workshops of Lalique in Wingen-sur-Moder Photo François Zvardon After gathering, shaping, reheating and casting the crystal in the mold via various techniques (including blowing and pressing), they anneal it for one week, as otherwise the thermic shock would cause it to crack, shatter or explode. Lalique painstakingly fabricates its own molds by machine then by hand before glassmakers in the hot glass workshops bring molten crystal in electric or pot furnaces to extremely high temperatures (1,400☌). A single piece may require up to 40 different steps. ![]() Eleven in-house designers in Paris use traditional techniques such as drawing and modeling and new technologies thanks to digitalization and 3D printing before the production process begins. ![]() It takes over a dozen years to qualify as a master glassmaker, and the finished product depends on the alchemy between the creative team’s sensibility and the artisans’ skills. With 230 employees including six with the highly-competitive title of Best Craftsman of France preserving ancestral savoir-faire, the 20,000-sqm factory produces half a million handcrafted items annually. Raw materials of silica, potash, lead oxide, cullet – and metal oxides for colored crystal such as cobalt oxide to obtain blue – are mixed in proportions that remain secret. Crystal is glass containing at least 24 % lead oxide, the ingredient that gives it its weight, brilliance and sonority. Upon René’s death in 1945, his son Marc instigated the shift from mid-range, utilitarian glass to high-end crystal, and the Lalique factory has only manufactured crystalware since. Some of his notable commissions include the design of decorations for the legendary Orient Express train and the ocean liner Le Normandie, the luminous fountain representing the springs of France mounted on the esplanade of Les Invalides in Paris, the doors of the palace of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko in Tokyo, and the cross, altar and windows of Notre Dame de Fidélité church in Calvados. Eschewing the multi-layer, multicolored glass produced by other glassmakers, he favored clear and colorless glass and created forms displaying simplicity, balance and symmetry, experimenting with the effects of transparency, opacity and opalescence inherent in the material and filing 15 patents between 19. By 1920, he became known as a master glassmaker, and a year later built a second glassworks in Wingen-sur-Moder, Alsace – the only Lalique crystal production facility today – thanks to French government incentives post-WWI to restore this region famous for its long-standing glassmaking tradition, which was well-forested at a time when wood-fired ovens were used. Lalique then moved into the glassmaking industry at the height of his jewelry career during the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, thereafter abandoning jewelry-making in 1912 to concentrate solely on glass, tired of his jewels being counterfeited. His philosophy was: “Better to seek beauty than flaunt luxury.” Inspired by classical antiquity, Japonism, Byzantine and Florentine art, nature and the female body, the avant-gardist ornamented his creations with unconventional materials, combining gold and precious stones with semi-precious gems, enamel, glass, leather, horn, ivory and mother-of-pearl. He said, “I work relentlessly… with the will to arrive at a new result and to create something never seen before.” Hailed as the father of modern jewelry who apprenticed with jeweler Louis Aucoc and studied goldsmithing and design at the Decorative Arts School in Paris before working for celebrated brands like Boucheron, Vever and Cartier, he started his own business in 1888. A leading figure in 19 th- and 20 th-century jewelry and decorative arts, he was beloved by royalty and the intellectual and artistic elite. Whether it was jewelry, tableware, perfume bottles, vases, objets d’art, luxury car mascots, furniture, lighting, wall decorations or architectural elements, visionary artist René-Jules Lalique, born in 1860 in Aÿ in the Champagne region of France, succeeded in sublimating every object he touched, leaving his mark on the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements.
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