The gather
The glassmaker takes a gather of molten glass from the furnace on the end of a blowpipe. It glows, and it has to be kept turning.
The first breath
A breath into the pipe opens a bubble inside the gather. From this moment every movement of the hands will show in the finished glass.
The bowl
Turned in a mould, the bubble becomes the bowl. The walls stay thin, which is why a Květná glass feels almost weightless.
The stem
The stem is drawn out of the same piece of glass. Nothing is glued on, so the glass keeps its strength where other glasses break.
The foot, then the cooling
A foot is added while the glass is still hot. Then the glass is cracked off the pipe and left to cool slowly. Often ten pairs of hands have touched it by the time it is finished.
Made by hand, or by machine
A machine cannot make a glass from a single piece, so the stem has to be glued to the bowl. That joint costs strength, and machine glass rarely gets as thin.
