Frequently Asked Questions

2. What coe is this glass?

3. How is the vintage glass priced?

4. Can you tell me more about the bead and button presses?

5. How do you prepare and package the glass?

I purchased the bulk of the vintage glass from a local glass blower who purchased the glass from someone who imported it from Germany. Most of this glass was originally used in a bead and button factory that closed down in the 50s.

There is additional glass from a chandelier factory. This glass is often oddly shaped - hexagons and often with a small hole through the middle.

Additional glass is Lauscha 96 compatible with the latest receipt being from 1989.

You will notice that most of the glass you receive is hand pulled.

Most of the glass is 90-96 compatible. When I spoke with the previous owner he said that the German glass of the time was often manufactured more for the color consistency than coe since they were not mixing colors. I have tested the colors I sell individually pretty well against Bullseye, Reichenbach, each other and Effetre and noted any issues in each description. I have some colors I won't sell individually because of incompatibility issues.

As a general rule- the 5% rule is effective as with and Reichanbach style glass. However, the warm transparents seem to be the only ones with consistent issues across the board with compatibility. You will only receive these in a grab bag or shorts type purchase and they are great on their own or mixed with only 96 coe- but with even a small amount of 104 they tend to crack.

Price for the vintage glass is based on price levels for the prep work and availability of the colors.

Prep work - the yellow glass is very thin and the dirtiest glass- so it falls into the highest price bracket as the biggest pain to deal with. That glass take almost a full day to prep 20 pounds.

Availability - Many colors are available only in one ten pound bundle or even less. The picture to the left is the entire crate of these colors - many of these will be completely listed and when they are gone, I have no more unless I can sort from a mixed crate.

Under these rules, the cobalt is the most abundant and the easiest to clean- so it is the lowest cost glass.

You will also see a crate of mixed glass - these crates generally end up pulled for shorts and grab bag lots. 

The presses for sale were owned by the bead and button factory. All are heavy- 4 to almost ten pounds. Some are rusty, some are on good condition. Some have interchangeable pressing parts, some are one piece.

I initially said these were a two person job- but Laurie of Ever After Artistry proved me wrong and wrangled one successfully herself with gorgeous results.

Button presses do not have a mandrel slot or holes- they are effectively solid shape presses.

I will list these as I clean and test them. The rusted ones you see will be cleaned, listed as is, or recycled depending on condition and the press shape.

-Either find a ten pound bundle in a crate and sort onto shelving, or dig through a mixed lot crate.

-Cut to 12-14 inch pieces. Generally, I use a wet saw- sometimes this is done by hand.

-Any pieces 10 inches or under are tossed in the dirty shorts pile.

-Bring to the kitchen sink and soak in hot water and ivory dish liquid for about 30 minutes.

-Scrub with sponge in the water.

-Rinse, scrub again if needed, use magic eraser for tough spots if needed, rinse again until glass is clean.

-Dry on towels.

-Print labels, cut labels.

-Weigh the glass into 1/4 bundles (unless packaged in larger bundles, most are 1/4). I weigh with a postal scale the measures down to the closet half ounce- so 4-4.49 show as 4. Most of the bundles are pretty on target- some are slightly over. I do not cut glass to bring a bundle to an exact weight- you may get just a bit more glass- but you won't get less and you won't get shorts unless that's what you bought.

-Roll with a  label in stretch film. I don't enjoy unwrapping glass from rubber bands or too much tape- so unless I hear otherwise from you- this is how I'm wrapping it.

-Re-shelve the glass and list on the site.