Noble Glacier: Crystal Teacup

$59.00 USD

~~$200.00 USD~~ $59.00 USD

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A stylish tea/liquor set that mimics solid ice

Story

Used by nobles of ancient times, our solid crystal noble cup is for our advanced tea or liquor drinkers.

Introducing our crystal Noble Cup, perfect for advanced tea or liquor drinkers. Our Noble Cup is a handmade crystal cup created with the 2000-year-old Dewaxing Technique for the ultimate drinking experience.

Why Crystal Noble is perfect for tea/liquor connoisseurs

The high refractive index of the crystal shows off the unique color of your choice of tea or liquor
Glass crystal will not impart any taste to the tea/liquor. It's the perfect neutral medium
It will transfer heat, giving you feedback about your temperature accuracy
The delicate design showcases your aesthetic

At Sol-Bird Designs, we seek to achieve the perfect balance of aesthetics and practicality by bringing nature into your daily life - simply and elegantly.

Our cup was inspired by this crystal flower artwork exhibited in the Museum of Art & Design in New York in 2007. It was made of Chinese crystal, a type of high-index glass in ancient times. It was praised as the first of the Chinese Five famous wares (the others are gold/silver, jade, pottery, bronze).

The complicated making technique results in a low success rate and the inability to mass-produce. The success rate is only about 60% even for experienced craftsmen.

At the same time, it has a value of high artistic appreciation, so its price is a little high, and such cup sets were only used by nobles in ancient times. The earliest recorded crystal cup made with the Ancient Dewaxing Technique was used by Liusheng, a nobleman in the Western Han Dynasty of China more than two thousand years ago.

The Ancient Dewaxing Technique has a lineage stretching back thousands of years, first making its appearance in the 11th century BC. It achieves a pure, natural, unique, solid, brilliant, and beautiful texture under high temperatures. Each cup is different and unique because the texture was formed naturally. The whole production represents the incarnation of a thousand years of practice.

The ice texture delivers a solid, clean, and bright vessel for your tea/liquor.

The bottom is polished completely flat. It looks like ice, and it feels cool to the touch.

A completely ergonomic design. No matter how you hold it, it will provide a comfortable, unique sensation.

Specifications

Cup: 6.5cm * 4.5cm, 60ml

How it is made

Each crystal cup creation goes through dozens of complicated processes, which take about ten days. The whole process is called the "Ancient Dewaxing Technique".

First, a design is sculpted into a solid wax prototype. The prototype is coated with silicone to make a silicone mold and fix its shape with plaster. After it cools down, our artisan moves the plaster and takes out the silicone mold. Then, he or she will take out the wax prototype from the silicone mold. (The original wax prototype is destroyed when removed from the silicone mold. )

Molten wax is poured into the silicone mold and the shape is fixed with plaster a second time. After the wax cools down naturally, it's taken out from the fixed silicone plaster mold and then trimmed to get a wax prototype of a cup.

Afterwards, the refractory gypsum is prepared and put the new wax cup prototype in the plaster slurry. After the plaster is cooled and fixed, it is put into the dewaxing machine to heat and dewax with steam to obtain a plaster mold.

Craftsmanship in action

Next, the safe and lead-free raw crystal is put into the plaster mold. Afterwards, it is “devitrified” to relieve stress at a high temperature of 1300 degrees in the furnace. Temperature control is very critical. When placing the crystal raw materials, the size ratio and distribution of the lumps will affect the direction of the melted raw materials, the direction of bubbles, and the transparency of the finished cups. The melted crystal flows in a semiliquid state naturally and each finished cup is unique.

During the firing process, it is necessary to accurately cool down and set an extremely slow temperature drop curve to ensure that the inside and outside of the crystal cup are heated evenly to avoid cracking. This takes THREE days for it to cool down completely!

The crystal cup made with the Ancient Dewaxing Technique will keep its luster, translucence, and beauty forever. It has no pores, does not absorb the taste of scented tea/liquor, and maintains the original taste of any tea/liquor.