Making glass toys at home. How Christmas decorations are made

The Yolochka factory was the first in Russia to produce decorations for the New Year tree. Her toys were displayed both on the main Kremlin beauty and in the homes of Soviet citizens. Now the company has a million-dollar product turnover per year and supplies goods to Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Which, in turn, export toys to Germany, America, Israel and Australia.

Glass production in the hut. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

Klin glassblowing industry originated in 1848. Then Alexander Menshikov built the first glass factory for the production of flasks for kerosene lamps, pharmaceutical bottles, dishes and toys. Only 80 peasants from neighboring villages worked on it. After the death of the prince, the workers took all the glass from the huts and began to work on their own handicraft production. In homes, entire families worked to create glass jewelry. The beads they made were called “stone” because they had very thick walls and uneven edges and looked more like stones than jewelry.

Glass pharmaceutical vials. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

Glass blowing shop

In the 19th century, only men worked as glassblowers. Now the situation has changed radically. The most harmful and important work At the Yolochka folk and artistic crafts enterprise, the work is performed by women. They are the master glassblowers. Cheerful, calm, with the usual lungs and great professionalism. There are practically no marriages due to their fault, although they do everything by eye. They work in a dark room, where there are tables in several rows, on which glass darts lie (glass tubes, from which New Year's toys are then made - editor's note). Main workplace reserved for gas burners. Massive hoods hang over them. And the employees are sitting next to each other on chairs. Headphones save them from the noise that fills the workshop. They operate the glass while listening to their favorite music. They bring it over the flame of the burner, heat it well and pull it out. Then they either place it in a certain shape to get, for example, Aladdin, or simply blow the ball through a “tendril” - a hole. Then put it on the table to cool. All this is done in the dark so that the glass can be seen and the quality of the product can be monitored. In a day, each craftswoman can produce about 300 balls or 100 “tops”, 100-150 products in shape (cones, cartoon characters, bells).

Glassblower at work. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

“There are 25 craftsmen in our workshop. Women work from 20 to 70 years old. In general, of course, the profession is very difficult, because we deal with glass and fire. At first it’s scary, here you’re working with gas, and the burners are under high pressure, which can’t be compared with a home stove. Therefore, beginners are often scared. Many people can’t stand it and leave. In our production, only professionals with calm, free breathing and confident hands remain,” said glassblower Ekaterina Korkina.

Glassblowing workshop. Workplaces. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

Metallization shop

After blowing, the finished transparent toys, which are also called “golyo”, go to the metallization workshop. There they are made shiny using aluminum. For this purpose, the products are placed on special cassettes: a metal frame reminiscent of a hanging mug dryer. Then the worker wipes all the toys and takes them to a vacuum machine. It looks like a barrel with pumps on the sides, in which there is an evaporator and tungsten wire, and pieces of ordinary culinary foil are hung on it. When the products are in the machine, the worker starts it. After the start, all the air is pumped out, and an electric current runs through the wire, turning the pieces of foil into a shiny cloud. It settles on the toys and gives them a new look.

There is also a buzz in this workshop, and the working day is divided into 6 cycles, during which the workers manage to hang and wipe from 180 to 600 toys on cassettes.

“There are 5 machines in our workshop, they are serviced by 5 operators. And also all women. This job is not for men because they need specifics. And here you need patience to wipe each toy. Only representatives of the fairer sex have this quality,” shared Head of Quality Control Department of Metallization Shop Valentina Afanasyeva.

Toys in a vacuum machine. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

Coloring and painting

When the toy has undergone metallization, it is sent for painting. At this stage, the decoration is dipped into the paint by the tail, then taken out and allowed to dry. Then the artist gets down to business. Using acrylic, varnish paints and powder, he creates patterns on the product. Then the tip of the toy through which it was blown is cut off. And only after all these procedures are they sent for sale.

Hand painted toys. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

Hazardous production

It is not for nothing that the work of a glass blower is considered very difficult. Craftsmen have to deal with gas, so their work is considered dangerous. Workers retire at age 45.

“Our working day is 8 hours. All employees have full social package And allotted leave. average salary at the enterprise - 25 thousand, which is very good, considering that in Klin it is from 19 to 22 thousand. And highly qualified specialists who cope with the norm receive up to 60 thousand,” explained Executive Director of JSC "Yolochka" Vladimir Simanovich.

Fashion for Christmas tree decorations in Russia

In the 19th century, Christmas trees were decorated with glass beads that reached up to 4 meters in length. They consisted not only of beads, but also of small sticks - bugles.

Then cardboard toys appeared. To make them, they took a large sheet of cardboard, covered it with gold and silver foil, then made an impression of the desired shape and glued the halves of the product together. The results were bright birds, seahorses and other living creatures.

Cardboard toys. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

At the end of the 30s, heroes of children's fairy tales began to appear on Christmas trees: Ivan Tsarevich, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots.

During the great years Patriotic War toys were made from scrap materials. The heroes of the decorations were Father Frost with a machine gun, the Snow Maiden in a helmet, fighter planes, airships, guns and stars.

Military toys. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

After the war, they began to make assembly toys. These were three-dimensional figures that were assembled from glass beads and beads. Their production was mainly carried out by disabled military personnel. They made airplanes, bicycles, light bulbs and much more.

Assembly toys. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov In 1949, on the anniversary of Alexander Pushkin, a fashion came for toys that personified the heroes of his fairy tales. A squirrel that gnaws nuts, a Shamakhan queen, a goldfish.

In the 50s, when most of the country's population lived in communal apartments, they began to produce tiny toys for small Christmas trees.

During Khrushchev's reign, ears of corn and all kinds of fruits and vegetables appeared on the country's Christmas trees.

The first manned flight into space marked new stage in Christmas tree fashion. Festive trees were decorated with toys in the form of astronauts and rockets.

Space theme in toys. Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

In the 80s, toys with Olympic symbols began to be produced: the Olympic Bear and fire.

Toy "Olympic Bear". Photo: AiF/ Alexey Vissarionov

In the 90s, the fashion came for Christmas tree balls depicting the symbols of the year according to the eastern calendar. So in the coming 2017, the rooster will show off on many New Year's balls. But they are not the only ones that are popular among Russians. Now the demand for retro toys, which were produced back in the 40s-60s of the last century, has increased. Housewives want their Christmas trees to be the most beautiful, so they spare no imagination, no money, no effort on decorating them.

The Village visited the Nizhny Novgorod factory of glass Christmas tree decorations "Ariel" and learned how elegant New Year's figures are born.

Photos

Ilya Bolshakov

It’s hard to imagine, but from 1927 to 1935, neither New Year nor Christmas were celebrated in the Soviet Union - they were seen as an ideological threat. But then the tradition came to life and began to develop with renewed vigor, albeit with a flavor of propaganda. The Ariel factory, founded in 1996, is one of only two year-round production facilities in the country. She is also the legal successor of the glassblowing and art workshop of the Gorky artel "Children's Toy", opened in 1936. After the holiday was returned to the people, standards for making toys and methodological manuals for teachers, how to properly decorate a Christmas tree with children, because each era had its own symbolism, designed to strengthen the spirit of citizens, faith in leaders, and the list goes on. If you remember the retro figurines, it’s easy to guess during whose reign they hung, for example, corn and onions on Christmas trees. All forms were developed and approved centrally, and sent to production ready-made samples. Today, everything is dictated mainly by fashion, and factories themselves decide what and how they will do.

Idea development

Creativity at this stage can refer to both the shape of the toy and the pattern on it. Specially created creative Group artists develops several options for new decoration, inspired by fashion trends, traditional symbols of the year, and retro motifs. Next, the chief artist approves those samples that will go into production. If it is a ball with a new design, then the approved version becomes the standard from which the craftsmen will copy everything. If the figurine is new, then a ceramic mold is sent to glassblowers for production.

Working with glass

As a raw material, the factory purchases glass darts - hollow tubes one and a half meters high. All it takes to turn these darts into beautiful figures is a 650 degree gas torch and the skill of a glass blower. The flame quickly heats the tube, the glass becomes plastic, which allows you to separate a small piece from it for further work- “pull out the bullet.” You can make any toy out of it, but first you need to heat its main part again.

When the master understands that the glass has melted enough (and this can only be understood through experience and intuition, because touching it with your hands or measuring the temperature will not work), he removes the bullet from the heat and begins to blow air into it through one of the “whiskers” - long ends of the workpiece. The air from inside pushes the walls and, constantly turning the bullet in his hands, the glass blower blows out the ball, and then heats the mustache, twists and tears it off. All handmade balls are not perfectly smooth, but it is almost impossible to notice.

If you need to make a figurine from the blank, for example, a snowman, it is also heated, but before blowing it is placed in a ceramic mold. Air is then blown through the mustache in the same way, but the glass expands exactly as far as the walls of the mold allow.

Okolpachka

After blowing, the toys are sent to the paint shop, where they are given color: pink gloss, matte chocolate. For the remaining mustache, they are dipped into a barrel of varnish and placed on a stand until dry. Then this mustache is cut off and a cap is put on, the same one into which the thread is threaded to hang the toy on the Christmas tree. For some toys, these stages become final; they are packaged and sent to customers.

painting

This is the longest and most labor-intensive process, because the artist literally draws a picture on every piece. But this is precisely what makes the factory so remarkable and the toys so in demand. Over the years of work, it has developed its own recognizable school of painting, detailed and realistic. And orders come not only from other regions, but also from Europe and the USA. For comparison, there are only four glassblowers in the state, and sixty artists.

On the table, each of them has a stand where toys, acrylic paints, brushes and water, a palette, napkins and the sample itself are hung. Since painting occurs step by step, one master has several items in his work at the same time, and it is difficult to count how many times a day each of them is picked up and hung back. First, the underpainting is applied - the main color spots, then the details, from large to small. If you need to draw a house, then first draw the first wall on all the balls, followed by the second. This helps save paint and the craftsman’s time.

Since the main audience is children, four thematic workshops for independent painting were created for them: confectionery, sea, space and fantasy. Each child brings home from an excursion a toy decorated with his own drawing, although far from perfect, but no less valuable. Next to the workshops there is a museum with many works produced throughout the history of the glass Christmas tree decoration, and photo zones conventionally divided into eras and styles. Here you can see both a traditional retro Christmas tree with toys on clothespins, pioneers and corn, and very conceptual metal pyramid frames decorated with black glossy balls. But what is most surprising is that this working atmosphere with a year-round holiday does not discourage factory workers in the least from decorating Christmas trees at home. The only thing that has changed since they came here is that the approach to choosing jewelry has become more conscious and thoughtful.

In 1992 in Nizhny Novgorod The Ariel Christmas tree decoration factory opened. They make New Year's balls, candlesticks, medallions and even Easter eggs. The factory is a participant in many international exhibitions and competitions. They managed to almost immediately attract attention in the Western market, so now the Nizhny Novgorod factory is one of two enterprises in Russia that export their products to other countries, including Germany, France, England, America, Italy, Switzerland, and Denmark.

About how they do it Christmas decorations.

The process of making Christmas tree decorations begins with blowing. Medical glass is used for this:

From each such glass pipe, 2-3 blanks are obtained:

First, it is heated in the middle to separate into two parts:

A Christmas tree decoration is blown out in one exhalation. So when you see a huge ball, know that it was made using a different technique. Using two tendrils, the master gives the shape:

Depending on what kind of decoration you want to get, a mold is selected. IN in this case A glassblower makes a “house”:

One tendril is twisted into a small loop (mainly for the Western market), or left for further cutting, and the second is removed, leaving a unique mark on the bottom of the ball:

To make a decoration that looks like an owl, a special tool is used to press through the glass of the ball. In this way, her characteristic eyes are obtained:

In 6 hours, glassblowers blow out 250-300 balls. There is nowhere to learn this, so all glassblowers, as in the old days, pass on their knowledge directly to the next generation:

Currently there are only 4 glassblowers working at the factory. Workplace of one of them:

After blowing, the blanks go to the painting room. Here a layer of varnish is applied, but then the decoration will be a little transparent (for a candlestick, for example), or before that another layer of aluminum is applied. Aluminum completely removes transparency and adds more shine:

The second tendril is immediately cut off:

Painting work is followed by artistic work, the most difficult, in my opinion:

Orders from the factory vary: from presidential gifts to balloons with metro stations. Almost all drawings are performed in several stages (at least 3-4). By the end of the work, these balls will appear:

Brushes, feathers, sponges and sour cream jars are used for drawing.

There are approximately 4 times more master artists than glassblowers. Those who work longer in the factory do more difficult work, while the new ones do easier work. But art education is compulsory:

A visual demonstration of the stages. The result should be a bullfinch:

Final decorative touches:

Most of the time the decorations dry:

Toy from the latest collection:

This is what the workplace of a graduated master artist looks like:

There are also tours to the factory. This type of service is even used in great demand! Now all excursion times are scheduled until the end of January:

The end of this excursion is a master class on painting balls and figures:

Of course, you can take the result home to show off your work to your parents:

This is how Christmas tree decorations are made.

Agree, the most pleasant thing about preparing for the New Year is not the table or even the gifts.
The feeling of the holiday overtakes us exactly at the moment when we dress up main symbol New Year's Eve- Christmas tree.

We take out a green beauty from the closet or buy a live spruce, place it at the head of the room, decorate it with sparkling balls, wrap it in tinsel or light a multi-colored garland. From now on the countdown begins - there are literally a few days left until the New Year.

While everyone is just getting ready to start the New Year's bustle, there is time to buy gifts and decide where and with whom to spend this very night. And it’s too early to get the tree out. But we know how quickly time flies, right?

Travel to winter Nizhny It wouldn’t be truly winter if it weren’t for an excursion to a fairyland, which I’m going to tell you about now.

I was able to see with my own eyes how one of the main components is made New Year's holiday- a Christmas tree toy, and even feel a little like an artist.

I have already been to a similar production, only not for Christmas decorations, but for ceramics, and I can well imagine how the birth of such artistic works as vases, plates, jugs, cups, souvenir figurines, etc. occurs. For many years I studied at a school with an artistic focus (Gzhel) and even have a certificate (consider it a second profession after a journalist) as a painter. Although that’s what kind of artist I am. Once, I wrote a long article about the production of Gzhel ceramics for a magazine near Moscow.

But I have never seen how glass is made, much less such a fragile thing as a Christmas tree toy! Everyone has heard about Gus-Khrustalny, Christmas tree decorations are made in Khimki, Klin, Pavlovsky Posad. The Nizhny Novgorod Christmas tree toy factory "Ariel" is one of such productions.

1. The factory greets you with these romantic drawings on the concrete fence.

2. You can’t tell it’s a factory! The factory house is a museum; production begins where the “brick” is.

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4. We went inside and everyone took their breath away at once. Magic! Adults, like children, rushed to look at toys and take pictures in New Year's interiors.

5. Christmas tree on chicken legs

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Toy Museum. From the past to the present.

The Toy Museum is a real journey back to childhood. Soviet plastic Christmas trees, metallic retro toys, paper decorations and cotton wool snow.

10. The museum’s exposition consists of more than a thousand exhibits that were collected over 20 years. However, the fishery itself originated on Nizhny Novgorod soil in 1936. The Ariel factory, in a way, continues the traditions of the Gorky industrial cooperative artel "Children's Toy".

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13. Toys with clothespins, everyone had them! I still have a lot of old balls and figurines in my bins - on New Year We don’t hang them on the Christmas tree anymore, it’s a shame to break them. At home the cat is now just soulless plastic on a green beauty :(

14. Exactly the same houses! It’s true what they say: in the USSR, everything was the same for everyone.

15. While everyone was looking at the balls, I hurried to buy souvenirs. Toys here cost on average 200-300 rubles apiece, and there are some for a thousand. It’s expensive for some, but personally I didn’t mind spending money for such beauty.

16. A lot of rural motifs. Russian village, folk tales.

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18. Winter and the same summer landscapes. Very sincere.

19. There is also a collection of such folk crafts as Gzhel.

The Nizhny Novgorod Christmas tree decoration factory is the only one in Russia whose products are exported. To Europe, America, Canada and many other countries. What and in what technique they don’t draw! And European landscapes and Russian villages, airplanes (ordered from Sukhoi) and oil rigs (Lukoil), even Barack Obama was painted! They just haven’t portrayed Putin in a politically correct way yet, they say.

20. You can order any themed batch of toys at the factory. For the New Year, there are so many corporate and individual orders that glassblowers and artists work 12 hours a day!
Government orders are also coming. This is a patriotic collection of "city of Russia".

21. And this is an order from the Moscow metro. Do you recognize the stations?

22. Paveletskaya!

Glass blowers. This is where the toy takes shape.

23. The time has come to tell how such beauty is born. First, a long glass tube is heated over a gas burner and divided into pieces. Then these parts continue to be heated over the fire, after which the master “inflates” the ball from one end of the tube.

24. These are the “chupa-chups” you get. Ready-made lollipops

25. But first, the master carefully, under fire, will remove one of the sticks.

26. And here you can see the form in which the pimply balls are made.

27. Like this

Workshop. Here they paint the New Year.

A toy is not a toy unless it is painted by an artist. It's time to look into the workshop where future jewelry is painted with watercolors, acrylics and glitter.

28. The factory occupies the building of a former bus depot. Apparently this was once a classroom, do you see the posters on the walls?

Today it is a workshop where painters work. Only women, men do not have enough perseverance and patience.
The only representative of the stronger sex at Ariel is Arkady Tersinskikh, director of the factory.

29. Bloggers quickly filled the room, trying to grab a good shot. Poor artists!

30. Each girl draws her own story. Here is a Russian lady

31. And here is a matryoshka doll. I know firsthand how difficult it is to outline with a black outline ready product. If only your hand didn’t tremble!

32. Work environment. Brushes, paints, palettes, sponges and jars of water

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34. They paint with watercolors and acrylic paints; there are also special contour paints that create relief on the product.

35. Kefir also serves art even after death

36. Religious motives. Christmas night

37. Officers

38. In full dress and in sparkles!

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40. The gingerbread series at the factory has been in existence for several years. Really like! I bought two toys from this collection as gifts for my family.

41. Lambs get a fur coat

42. We remind you that next year is the year of the sheep/goat (meaning 2015). My year, by the way (:

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44. Vases and candlesticks are also painted here.

Chief by drawing

It was a craft, but who is the master? Chief artist! It is he who comes up with every story that will be depicted on the toy this year. Every order, every picture for “Ariel” is drawn by Natalya Repina.

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46. Creative chaos and fresh works.

47. In the artist’s office there are examples of collections from different years. There on background- "The Little Prince", in the foreground - Russian and foreign landscapes.
On the first ball is the Chkalov Stairs, Nizhny Novgorod.

48. Natalya admitted that her favorite subjects are landscapes of the Russian village.

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51. The king is inspired by children's fairy tales. This is new this season.

52. And this unusual flower collection stands out against the background of other toys. A completely different technique is applying several layers of paint.

Do you want to be an artist? Come on.

53. If you suddenly thought: “I could do this too, if I wanted to!” - this is easy to check. You can be an artist and paint a souvenir for yourself. Acrylic paints, brushes and go!

54. Some drew from pictures, some grumbled that they couldn’t draw, some produced real masterpieces. Our guide drew this.

Making a glass Christmas tree decoration is a delicate matter. Factory production of glass Christmas tree decorations in Russia began in 1848, when Prince Menshikov opened the Alexandrovo glass factory on his estate (now located in the city of Vysokovsk, Klin region). Initially, it was used to produce dishes, pharmaceutical bottles, and lamps. When the fashion of decorating the Christmas tree with toys came from Europe to Russia, the plant began producing glass beads.

5 interesting facts about Russian Christmas tree decorations

Traditional Russian Christmas tree decoration - long glass beads (garlands)

Many people mistakenly believe that the traditional Christmas tree decoration in Russia is a ball. But the history of glass Christmas tree decorations in Rus' begins with beads.

Peasants, having mastered the craft at the Menshikov factory, often made houses in a makeshift way buttons, earrings and beads. Such things were called “trifling.”

Previously, Christmas tree decorations were made at home on a kerosene burner.

A document was found in the city archives of Klin stating that in 1887, master Vekshin Yakov Ivanovich, while working at the glass factory of Prince Menshikov, learned the art of blowing beads. Then he left the factory and organized his own business.

Handicraft production was usually carried out in huts. To do this, each craftsman kept a burner mug with a diameter of 15 cm in his house. Tow was stuffed inside such a mug, making a wick out of it. Kerosene was poured down. Then they set fire to the tow. The fire was fanned by large bellows.

Glass tubes for home production craftsmen had to buy from factories. The glass from which artisans blew jewelry was made from quartz sand. The melting point of such a tube was about 1710°C. Using a homemade kerosene burner it was impossible to achieve high temperature. Therefore, the craftsmen were unable to produce elegant toys and beads.

The first beads looked like stones

Christmas tree garlands, which are made at modern enterprise, weigh almost nothing. The glass is so thin that it can crack if you squeeze the Christmas tree beads in your fist.

In the old days, beads turned out to be heavy, with thick walls and uneven edges, which was due to the refractoriness of glass at home. The garlands looked more like stones. And they rattled like pebbles thrown to the ground.

Therefore, the craft of making beads was called pebble. It was almost impossible to break or scratch such products.

There is no educational institution in Russia where they teach to become master glassblowers

Most of the craftsmen who work at the plant are hereditary glassblowers. They received experience and skills from their fathers and mothers. This tradition began in the 19th century and continues to this day.

Anyone wishing to learn to become a glassblower must undergo training at the factory. The internship lasts six months, after which new master starts making toys.

The largest toy, which is blown by the master at the Yolochka factory, reaches a diameter of 11.5 cm, the smallest - 3 cm

Toys are produced in such a size that they look good on Christmas trees in a typical apartment. Balls that are too large are inconvenient to hang on a Christmas tree, so the factory does not produce them.

How a Christmas tree toy is made today

Today, the plant produces on average up to a million toys a year, which are distributed throughout Russia and neighboring countries. “Yolochka” belongs to the folk craft enterprises, since many technologies of traditional handicraft of the 19th century are still preserved here.

The process of making a modern Christmas tree decoration can be divided into 5 main stages:

blowing

Toys are blown from long glass tubes. The master holds the tube by the “antennae” and heats it up, constantly rotating it over the fire of a gas burner. This is necessary so that the glass heats up evenly. The temperature on the flames reaches 1000°C. After the material becomes plastic (this is determined by eye), the master begins to blow into the tube. Depending on the strength of breathing, you get balls or other free-blowing toys (mushrooms, nesting dolls, snowmen, tops).

Shaped toys (huts, foxes, bunnies and others) are more difficult to make. The master also heats up the tube, and then, after waiting for the right moment, puts plastic glass in a metal mold, closes it tightly and blows into the free end of the tube. The glass is evenly distributed over the metal and takes the desired shape. This must be done very quickly, as the glass cools almost instantly.

The production is in complete darkness, the craftsmen work in headphones, as there is constant noise from the gas burners. All manipulations with glass are performed only with the help of fire and human breath.

The most difficult to manufacture are assembly toys (samovar, teapot). In them you need to solder one glass piece to another using fire.

Metallization

At the next stage of production, the toys are given a mirror shine. This process is called metallization. The blanks are placed on a metal frame, and foil is hung on top of it. It's all then sent into a huge barrel-like vacuum unit. Air is pumped out of the installation, after which current is passed through a thin tungsten wire. From this, the foil begins to melt, falls on a special evaporator and quickly turns into aluminum fog. In just 20 seconds, the fog settles on the cold glass and evenly covers it with a film of aluminum. More than 3 thousand toys are metalized per day on one installation.

Mirrors are made in a similar way.

Coloring

The next stage is coloring. The toy is dipped in paint or paint is sprayed through a special device.

Painting and packaging

After painting, the toy falls into the caring hands of the artist. In one day, a person paints an average of 60-80 toys. Acrylic, enamel and other paints are used for work. Artists apply traditional ornaments and patterns. The decorations are then sent to the packaging department.

We thank the chief technologist of the enterprise, Valentina Vasilievna Trynkina, for her assistance in preparing the material, executive director Vladimir Simanovich, tour guides and general director exhibition complex“Klin Compound” Lyudmila Simanovich.

Photos courtesy of the Children's Products Industry communication center.