Beautiful colorful swirls of sea glass is what describes the art of Hebron Glass, a family-owned traditional Palestinian glass blowing business.
Blown glass is the hand-crafted, mouth-blown glass named in Arabic Zujaj Nafakh, mostly manufactured in Hebron. All glasswork embodies real old stories of Palestinians, unique shapes and patterns.
Glass blowing as an industry is said to have been brought to Palestine in the fifteenth century by the Venetians, who came to Palestine to buy cotton.
To get these beautiful shapes, glass is melted in a furnace running at 1400 degrees centigrade. A craftsman thrusts a thin, long, metal blowpipe (80-100 cm) into the boiling glass inside the furnace. With a twist of the pipe, he takes out semi-liquid glass called “Gather”. He puffs and rolls the red hot glass until it begins to expand and the form of the object appears. The shaping process continues with a metal instrument (kammasha), until the object is complete. The glass is put aside into a small chamber to cool down.
Hebron is well known for its blue and turquoise-colored glass. Copper and cobalt are added to the glass to make these colors.
Hebron Glass makes a variety of hanging plates, dishes, bowls, goblets, pitchers, and vases. All tabletop items are lead-free, so they are completely safe to use.
