From Stemware to Statues

He is completely focused on the bowl at his work station. JIm Buckley isn’t phased when I stop to ask him a few questions..like how long he’s been working for Waterford Crystal.

JIm Buckley at the Waterford Crystal Factory.

“Since 8 this morning he says,” without even looking up. “Actually, nearly 50 years, he adds with a laugh.” And he continues marking the bowl which will shortly be sent to the cutters.

“Do you get bored?” I ask.

“Heck, no,” he says. “Never. You work on so many different things you haven’t got time to get bored. The design team will be down in a bit for a special project, and in the meantime I have a trophy to finish which is shaped like a football helmet.”

It all starts with master blowers working with molten crystal, taken from a furnace at 2,552 degrees Fahrenheit. It becomes anything from stemware to statues. And every piece glimmers with a thousand stars and casts a hundred rainbows in the light.

You can hear Jim’s story in his own words in Episode 26 of Erin’s Isle.