Production process
Where Legendary Creations Are Born
Take a peek inside the legendary Borowski glass studio and learn about each step of the crafting process. From inspiration to the final piece, each step along the way is a delicate balance of patience, tradition, and unbound creativity. Take a look inside and see how our legendary pieces are created.
Designing
From Inspiration Directly to the Furnace
In most occasions, we don't sketch out our pieces beforehand. Instead, we take an idea and bring it directly to the furnace where the idea comes to life before our very eyes; although we will sketch out our ideas if you want to take a peek inside our creative minds.
Supporting sketches
Raw Materials
It All Starts with the Best Materials
Every work of art starts with the right materials. Just as a painter chooses the best canvas and paint, we only use the finest lead-free glass in our pieces. We source our raw materials from across Europe to provide you with the highest quality and the safest piece of art.
Red glass is the most-used material in the entire shop. We base a lot of our pieces from these simple grains of ruby-colored glass.
From these simple grains of specialty minerals, we make the glass used in all Borowski pieces. We take the materials from grains to liquid, all the way to the finished product.
Glass is stored in bricks for later use. Although they are entirely solid, with a little bit of heat, they will become the next best Borowski glass art piece.
We store the solid glass bricks in controlled environment to protect them in storage. Once we’re ready to use them, we will trim them down to manageable pieces.
Hot Process
Harnessing the Power of the Fire
The hot process is a mystery to many. Care and attention to the smallest details are crucial to ensure the piece has the correct shape, size, and texture. Crafting raw materials into a work of art in the fire takes years of experience and dedication to the craft.
In the furnace, the glass takes on a life of its own. This beautiful process requires expert skill and is the beginning of the next great Borowski art piece.
The creation process starts with a small blob of hot glass. We heat the glass with a torch and begin to shape it.
Heat is the driving force behind every creation. The artist stokes the flames raising the temperature, and will frequently move it in and out of the furnace to add colorful new pigments, molding them seamlessly.
While the fire helps make the shape, the risk of burning the pigment is always there. Handling the torch takes skill and precision.
Work begins on the body. The artist starts by rolling and molding the glass into shape. Heat is a crucial component of this process.
The artist begins pulling and shaping the fins. With precise tools, he can make the glass bend any way he wants.
With direct heat from a torch, the glass can stay warm as the artist begins to shape the body further. Twisting the arms out, the shape of the monkey starts to take form.
The artist continues to hand shape each piece. To create a cohesive work of art from glass, each part must be in harmony.
Annealing
Once the hot process of heating, stretching, and pulling the glass piece is finished, it’s time to move onto the next stage.
The object is now complete! The next stop is a 30-hour stay in the oven to strengthen the piece for a lifetime of play.
These pieces go into our temperature-controlled annealing machine until they are 100% stress-relived and safe. This slow and controlled process brings the temperature of the glass down and ensures that it is strong and completely safe for you!
Cold processes
Cut with Diamond Blades
Most pieces don't come out of the furnace 100% finished. Most pieces require careful and precise cuts using a powerful diamond blade before they can be assembled by the artists. This step is the most crucial and requires a high level of skill and experience.
After we've shaped and annealed the pieces, it's time for the cold process. This is where we cut, glue, assemble, and polish the piece.
Angles are everything, and if our cuts aren't perfect, assembly will be incorrect. We use precise tools to cut the pieces carefully.
Final Drilling
Drilling on smooth glass is extremely difficult, and a wrong move could result in cracks or chips which will ruin the piece. Our dedicated artists perform this necessary step with great care to ensure that final assembly goes smoothly and your piece fits and functions seamlessly.
Fine drilling is an extremely delicate process, and one wrong move could lead to destruction. Our artists are experienced and take great care to drill through these pieces of smooth glass.
We use specialized drilling equipment designed specifically for working on glass. With great care, the end result is clean and precise.
Polishing
Safety for touching a products
To ensure that each final piece is safe to the touch and soft and smooth, each piece endures a rigorous polish. We use specialized polishing equipment, but the artist’s attention to detail and careful touch are the most important tools used.
The artist examines a component of a larger piece carefully and sands it to ensure all of the edges are smooth. By going the extra mile, the parts will also combine seamlessly.
The face of this King piece is carefully sanded to make sure that contact surfaces are smooth. This will make the fitting process much smoother.
This finished and assembled dog piece is ready to truly shine! With our polishing equipment, the artist brings out the natural shine and glow of the piece.
Another component of a larger piece is carefully polished before assembly. Our equipment is tough on dull surfaces but brings out a gentle shine.
Assembling
Glass Assembly
After each individual component is shaped, polished and drilled, the assembly team assembles the glass parts. We utilize specialized UV glues that are extremely durable and can hold up to various weather conditions. Once the piece passes through this stage, it is almost ready to be shipped!
Each element of the glass piece is crucial If one eye doesn’t match the other, it will throw off the look of the entire piece. Our artists double check each piece before assembly.
After polishing each component, the piece begins to take shape. Our artist here is connecting a head with a body for our dog piece.
Gluing
Gluing the Components
Without our specialized glue, you could end up with a pile of parts, not a complete beautiful art glass piece. We take great care to use the correct type of glue to attach the parts. With the work done in our previous assembly and polishing steps, this process goes smoothly, and you can hardly tell that these were once separate parts.
The piece comes together in the assembly phase. Gluing each component takes skills, and our artists check each piece carefully.
We use a specialized UV glue that is harder than most other industrial adhesives. The artist puts the piece under a high-powered UV lamp to harden the glue quickly to keep it in place for years to come.
After gluing, we must carefully clean the piece by hand. This ensures all excess glue is removed and your piece is perfect.
The artist uses a fine tool to get rid of any excess glue. This process can’t be done using a machine, so the careful attention of our professional artists goes into every piece.
Sandblasting
Matte Sandblasting
Unlike other cheap glass studios, Borowski has used a specialized sandblasting machine to produce the premium matte finish found on luxury cars, magazines, and more. Although this takes more care and can cost us a little bit more in time and resources, the end result is more than worth it.
Our artist carefully uses the sandblasting machine to polish and hone each piece with millions of tiny grains of sand. This process takes expert care and holding the blast on a piece for too long can result in losing layers of color.
Up close, you can see how the sand is gently removing layers of the shine on the piece to make it as smooth as possible. Once you feel a Borowski piece, you'll quickly understand the excellent care and precision that goes into this process.
Ready to Go!
Ready for Global Shipment!
After the pieces are assembled and have gone through our strict multi-stage quality check, the finished Borowski pieces are ready to go to their new homes! We pack and ship them securely in Instapack boxes to over 30 countries worldwide!
Nothing leaves the studio without a quality check. We carefully examine every element with a strict standard for quality.
Glass is fragile. When shipping anywhere, whether overseas or across the street, we fully protect the piece, so it arrives in one piece.
Premium Pack
Our premium gift boxes are designed specifically for our Asian customers. These boxes keep the pieces extraordinarily safe and are also a great way to deliver the piece to your friends and family.
We pack each piece in a secure and robust champagne colored box on the inside. We also put this premium box in a outer gift box to keep the item safe during shipment.
We take great care to hand-pack each piece before it’s shipped out. Hand packing each piece ensures that it won’t move in the box during shipment.
We pack each piece with premium black foam that keeps the item safe and sound during transport. We finish each box with the German seal to show where the heritage and artisanal care originated.
Signed by the Artists
Each piece that comes out of the Borowski glass studio gets an engraved signature on the bottom. Our artist does this by hand, and each signature is unique.
Our limited edition, one-of-a-kind pieces from Stani and Pawel receive a more complex signature from the artist themselves. This serves as our seal of approval and guarantees that you have a one-of-a-kind piece.
Our Seal of Approval
Each piece that comes from the Borowski studio comes with a certificate of authentication. This certifies that it came from our studio and will help increase the value.
Stani is shown here signing the certificate for a piece he made himself. With one-of-a-kind and premium pieces, you’ll receive a signed certificate from a member of the Borowski family.
We Guarantee You’ll Love Your Piece
We include premium gift shopping bags to help you get the piece from a retailer or your home to the gift recipient. Enjoy the soft touch of the bag and your friend or family will be delighted with their luxury gift.
We want to make sure that you love your piece as much as we enjoyed creating it. We go above and beyond not only in the production process but after to ensure you cherish your new piece for years to come.
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