Watch the Glassmakers

Visitors are very welcome to come to our main premises in Ta' Qali and watch the glassmakers at work. Our main glassblowing workshop and our lampwork studio are both on show. Advanced bookings are not required.

You can also view our glass pieces while visiting, with many examples of all of our in-house techniques on show. These techniques include:

Glassblowing & Sculpting

This is our most traditional technique and the one for which we are best known. From raw materials, molten glass is created and mouth blown by skilled glassmakers using blowpipes. The glassblowers also use their hands and basic tools to shape the molten glass into a vase, bowl or any other item they want. This form of glassmaking is an ancient craft, believed to date back to approximately the last century B.C. Until then, working glass by means of glassblowing was unheard of.

As well as using established glassblowing methods, we have developed a number of in-house techniques over the years which have enabled us to diversify our range of colour patterns and products.

Lampwork

Although this technique also dates back to ancient times, it became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. A gas fuelled torch is now used, replacing the original oil lamp, to melt rods made of borosilicate glass. Once in a molten state, the skilled lamp-worker uses a variety of tools and manual expertise to shape the glass, creating various objects, many of which display intricate detailed work.

Glass Engraving

Glass engraving is a highly skilled range of techniques of decorative glasswork allowing for a wide variety of patterns, characters or pictures to be engraved into the surface of a piece of glass.

Although the above methods are employed individually, we also combine certain techniques for the production of particular items. Due to the fact that we create items of any size, shape and colour requested, the pieces shown on this website are intended to give a general idea of what our skilled artisans can create.

Fusion

Although the precise origins of this extremely time consuming yet rewarding technique are not known, archaeological evidence suggests that it has its origins with the Romans or Ancient Egyptians. The advent of glassblowing then reduced the use of glass fusion due to its greater efficiency and adaptability and, even though glasswork enjoyed a revival during the Renaissance, it wasn’t until the early part of the 20th century that this technique gained in popularity.

In the production process of glass fusion, cold glass pieces are hand-cut to create a final tableau forming a picture or desired pattern. This often calls for a great number of very small pieces of glass to make up the final rendering. The arrangement of cold glass components are then placed in a kiln, literally fusing all the pieces together to create one whole item.

Each and every Mdina Glass piece is handmade, enabling us to innovate and adapt our wide product range as well as create items customised to a particular design, pattern or colour scheme.