Here I was approached by a young woman with a striking accent, obviously a foreigner, and she said: “Where do you go to this Crystal Valley?” It’s very difficult to explain. CRYSTAL VALLEY is a very large area. It starts near Kamenický Šenov (and could easily be in Chřibská) and continues for another seventy kilometers as the crow flies to Harrachov. So it makes sense that it is not one real valley, but, similar to Silicon Valley in California, an area connected by a phenomenon, in this case glassmaking and glass in general. We can find the most glass and costume jewelry companies in the world here.
It is a chain of glassworks, design studios, museums, galleries, but also glass schools.
All of them operate independently, although some of them only decided to open to the public by joining the Crystal Valley project. Several times a year, a weekend takes place when people can visit places they would not otherwise be able to visit. For example, the private studios of glass artists, often literally in their living rooms. Waiting for such a weekend is a gourmet’s delight.
My Radunka and I manage to visit six destinations in a day – and we live off those experiences for a long time. Well, and if someone wanders into Crystal Valley at another time, there are still plenty of places left with clearly declared opening hours. So accept the scapular insight, a flight through several remarkable places in Crystal Valley. For comprehensive information, including dates of weekend events, visit crystalvalley.cz or www.facebook.com/visitcrystalvalley/. And when you’re on the Crystal Valley website, don’t forget to check out the Stories section. Here you’ll find my stories about the focal points of the glassmaking phenomenon in northern Bohemia.
Let’s start unconventionally – with what is not in Crystal Valley (but should be). Since the project was taken over by the Liberec Region, Crystal Valley has come a long way and great work has been done. However, it does have one disadvantage – the borders of the region have also become the borders of Crystal Valley. And so the oldest continuously operating glass factory in Central Europe, the one in Chřibská (1414), was left out. Well, you might say, but the glass factory was closed in 2007, of course, for economic reasons. So what would we probably see there…
But it is a flash in the pan. Efforts to revive glassmaking in Chřibská are most visibly manifested by the holding of the Glass Festival. There are also rumors about the creation of a museum glassworks in the reconstructed rectory near the church of St. George, and perhaps even that glassworks will not remain completely deserted… Anyway – it is simply impossible to ignore Chřibská in the history of glassmaking in northern Bohemia. (And what’s more – Chřibská is a magical village that is worth walking through and discovering, for example, a cascade of waterfalls, meadows full of orchids, breathtaking folk architecture…) Photo Ivo Šafus
The second missing phenomenon is Šluknov, which was put on the glassmaking map by the unique glass artist JAN FRYDRYCH when he settled here in a beautiful villa called art, which he saved from extinction.
You can find his works in prestigious museum collections around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum, and if you were invited to visit by one of the world’s celebrities – for example, Elton John, Prince Albert of Monaco or the Clintons, you would certainly be proud of Jan Frydrych’s works.
So – enough about what is not in the Crystal Valley, let’s get to the many amazing places that are there. It is not the ambition of this part of the Scapular to cover everything. That would have to be really packed.
Let’s focus on (some) places within reach of Krásná Lípa, or rather Kamenná Horka, or more precisely, the Bohemian Cottage guesthouse. The closest is Kamenický Šenov. Here, the center of our interest would logically be the GLASS MUSEUM, which focuses on engraved and cut glass from the 17th century to the present. However, reconstruction is underway and the reopening of the museum has not yet been specified.
Kamenický Šenov is still a very remarkable town. It is definitely worth visiting the oldest functioning glassmaking school in the world – the SECONDARY SCHOOL OF GLASSWORKING. It was founded in 1856 and still educates glass designers today.
You will succeed here even if the school is not currently involved in any Crystal Valley event. The school gallery, the shop with students’ works are accessible and, by arrangement, it is also possible to visit the school workshops and studios and watch the students at work.
uch sadder, but also extremely interesting, is the walk to Eliáška. Probably the most famous glass entrepreneur here was Eliáš Palme, who made the Kamenickošenov chandeliers famous all over the world. When he died on the last day of 1893, his sons took over the company, who built a beautiful Art Nouveau factory building on Skřivánka in 1905, which is still called Eliáška, but in its time the locals also nicknamed it the Chateau.
And even though it’s now just a wreck, it’s still somehow breathtaking. There’s been talk of saving it for decades. But the ravages of time continue to gnaw away brick by brick.
Still not enough? Then take the Palme Glass Trail. It starts at the Kamenickošenov train station and runs through the entire city.
Kamenický Šenov also includes Prácheň. Here you will pass one of the biggest tourist magnets in the Czech Republic, the legendary Organ, or rather Panská skála, a spectacular proof of columnar basalt separation. Just a few hundred meters further, the attentive wanderer will spot a house with a studio, Studio BYSTRO DESIGN.
The creative duo Dagmar Pánková and Leoš Smejkal are celebrating twenty years of joint work this year. During Crystal Valley events, it is possible to try out the Tiffany technique, glass cutting and, above all, admire selected works. And believe me, that is a great experience.
Here, as elsewhere in the Crystal Valley, the layman (and often the expert) is left speechless by the astonishing combination of talent, creativity, experience, and use of technology.
Some works are downright intimate, so close to the person that they leave with the need to be surrounded by such beauty and to touch it daily.
lthough the Crystal Valley is so vast and long, it is usually no more than a quarter of an hour from one glassmaker to another. You can reach Nový Bor from Práchne even earlier. Right on the edge of the town, on the slope of Borský Hill, stands a monumental art deco villa, home to one of the most important glass artists in the region, the former director of the Kamenickošenov Glass School, whose students today hold the banner of glory for Czech art glass. But he himself still belongs among them. He came up with a unique technique of carving glass with a hammer and chisel.
The resulting works are extremely exclusive and have an extraordinary, unusual effect.
The front side is polished, the back is rough and chiseled. The result is stunning. The light in this colorful fish reveals strange and intoxicating shapes and colors…
This relatively new egg is breathtaking. It’s worth standing all day at this sculpture.
It changes every moment. Vladimír Klein started it, the light finishes it and metamorphoses it.
It is actually a great privilege to be able, as a complete stranger, to walk into an artist’s studio and talk to him about his story, his work, his inspiration. In the case of Vladimír Klein, the conversation is so natural that after a while you feel like you have known each other for years. A wonderful person.
The GLASS MUSEUM is located on the Novo Bor square, in a Baroque house with a mansard roof, which was built in 1804 by a prominent Novo Bor glass merchant. Here you will learn about the stylistic and technological development of glass from northern Bohemia, you will encounter painted, engraved, molded and cut glass, and you will also see exhibits from historical glass workshops.
In addition to modern exhibition spaces, there are also exhibitions located in the natural spaces of the historic house. But you can be sure of one thing right now – glass, especially art glass, looks good everywhere.
Nový Bor is a city of glass, you will feel it on every corner. When you come to the NOVOTNÝ
GLASS area, you will not know what happened before. You can eat here in a restaurant with a comfortable view of the glassworks.
While debouching and drinking, it is possible to watch men with pipes inhaling strange shapes into the glass, exactly according to the wishes of the artists, who have long since become accustomed to being able to trust them, that even what they did not hope was possible can be born here.
On the main street of Novo Bor you will also find a very inconspicuous shop of the group NATĚLO – ŠPERKY.
Here you can buy glass jewelry from four glass artists – ŠÁRKA BARTKO, KAROLÍNA KOPŘIVOVÉ, EVA RANŠOVÉ and BOHDANA VYDROVÉ. They are amazing, original and extremely imaginative.
But where to wear it – you might ask yourself. A small example – my wife loves large jewelry and wears it to work quite regularly. Well, look… (This one is from Bohdana Vydrová.)
And this one from the wonderful Karolína Kopřivová – we even went to Mrs. Kopřivová’s studio to see it. That’s what’s great about Crystal Valley – no one is making fun of you here, the craftsmen are pleased with your interest and are happy to show you what they do.
And this one from the wonderful Karolína Kopřivová – we even went to Mrs. Kopřivová’s studio to see it. That’s what’s great about Crystal Valley – no one is making fun of you here, the craftsmen are pleased with your interest and are happy to show you what they do.
And one more beauty of Novobork you must not miss. The Glass House. It is part of the headquarters of the LASVIT company. It is a unique combination of traditional timbered buildings, in which glassmakers worked already in the Baroque period, and contemporary architecture using the material that this Scapular is all about.
Just to put it mildly, Nový Bor is half an hour by car from Krásná Lípa. And it is exactly the same distance to Kunratice near Cvikova. Here is Pačinkovo. I mean, this is where the PAČINEK GLASS company of the artistic glassmaker JIŘÍ PAČINEK is based. You can go here all year round, tours of the glassworks, glass gardens and church galleries are held regularly. The glassworks also has a large shop where you can buy glass in a really unusual range, and it just depends on your taste. For example, I love Pačinkovo’s sea paperweights.
The Glass Garden surrounding the smelter is also diverse. Despite the immutability of the glass sculptures, it changes from month to month as nature, sun, clouds, rain, etc. coexist with the glass.
Right next to the smelter is the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which has been converted into the Crystal Temple Gallery. I have seen several exhibitions there and it has always been remarkable.
The sacred environment creates an unusual and very captivating platform for glass artifacts
Going to the area of Sloup in Bohemia and neighboring Svojkov is a good idea anyway. Whoever hasn’t seen and experienced this hasn’t been to the Lusatian Mountains. Amazing places: rock towns and castles, the mysterious Prayer Mine, the lookout tower, the wonderful Na Stráži restaurant, the castle ruins, incredible views – but more about that in one of the next Škapulířy. We are still within a quarter of an hour of Krásná Lípa. At the end of Svojkov, another gem of the Crystal Valley awaits us – the HAIDL A SYN Glassworks. Glassmaking has been carried out in family clans since time immemorial, fragile beauty was created by glassmaking families. Today, it is no longer so obvious – getting descendants to catch fire for the passion of their ancestors is not so easy. But it works perfectly here.
Father and son Haidl focus primarily on replicas of medieval glass, and they also collaborate a lot with filmmakers. One by one, glowing glass tears flow down the glass, becoming typical “growths” of medieval cups. What were they for? Perhaps so that the glasses would be easier to hold with greasy hands and not slip, perhaps so that the decorative elements would cover the imperfections of the glass. Glowing glass in its liquid state is an unimaginably beautiful material.
Here too, the glassworks has a small shop. If you come here on a weekday morning, they will welcome you and let you watch their work. And it is quite easy to choose from the glassworks’ range.
You can also easily get to Lindava, where you can find one of the most famous and most visited glassworks – AJETO. Here too, you don’t have to wait for the Crystal Valley event, they are ready to show you around the glassworks itself – during the glassmakers’ working hours.
If you have more time, you can go to the Szklarská pub opposite…
…where you can try out your hand at blowing, do some beadwork, satisfy your hunger and thirst,
sit…
…and then head to a garden full of water, glass, free-running nutria, peace and natural beauty.
The charming village of Slunečná is only a few kilometers away. It is a somewhat secret place, a narrow road leads here, which at times may feel like it will probably lead you nowhere. And then you are suddenly in a magical nest surrounded by the last spur of the Bohemian Central Mountains and the undulating foothills of the Lusatian Mountains. There stands a house full of love and glass.
You can only really get here during Crystal Valley events – unless you have a special interest and request a visit from a remarkable creator who lives and works here. RICARDO HOINEFF is a Brazilian who, enchanted by Bohemian glass, settled far from Copa Cabana beach and became one of the indispensable members of the local glassmaking community.
Ricardo’s massive sculptures amaze, captivate, and enchant.
For example, this dragon head is simply breathtaking.
This does not mean, however, that Ricardo cannot work with smaller formats. Here he was able to materialize the heart of glass, which became fatal to his life, in a completely original way.
This does not mean, however, that Ricardo cannot work with smaller formats. Here he was able to materialize the heart of glass, which became fatal to his life, in a completely original way.
We will end our journey through the easily accessible places of the Crystal Valley in Jezvá, a village near Horní Police or Žandov. Be careful – this does not mean that there are no more glass-making sights in the area – this Scapular would just be unbearably long. So let’s go to the ZLATOHLÁVKOVÝCH family glass factory, which you will find (anywhere in the world) like EVPAS GLASS.
This is something else entirely – utility glass in every conceivable form, because, as the owners told us, they sell all over the world and every country has different tastes, different drinking habits, different obsessions with design.
And so you will find almost everything here – from classic and inherited designs to new decors to unexpected and completely original patterns.
At the Crystal Valley events, workshops are opened here, in which visitors try out glass drawing, grinding and other techniques. For some, it is their first experience with glass, while others welcome the opportunity to create something that may one day be their profession or calling. For example, this student from the Kamenickošenov Glass School… But we know her well! You can easily meet her at Bohemian Cottage, she belongs here. Ema Kubicová.
There is someone to copy from, local master painters and engravers are happy to advise, demonstrate, inspire…
The Covid shadow is gone. Glassmakers are no longer in despair, no longer crying, they are laughing again. And that laughter echoes
from Chřibská to Harrachov.
If you are captivated by the Crystal Valley, you will not know when to stop your fragile journey. The possibilities are endless – just click on the website www.crystalvalley.cz – and you will have goals for several years. For example, the glass ladder in the tower of the Liberec Museum, or the UNESCO pearl in Poniklá, the Jablonec Museum of Glass and Costume Jewelry, the entire Železný Brod area, the Harrachov glassworks of the Novosad family… Enough, or I will start posting more photos again. Have a happy crystal journey!
Author: Rostislav Křivánek