One of the highlights of visiting Waterford was our tour of the House of Waterford, the home of Waterford Chrystal. We took a one-hour tour of their factory which was very interesting. George Penrose and his nephew William started their glass factory in Waterford in 1783. The company was closed in 1851 but later reopened after World War II. It's had its ups and downs since then but today, it seems to be doing well.

The factory is a real factory with lots of space, machinery, and people performing many delicate tasks. I took a lot of photos but I'll just include this one post of the factory and workers, followed by a glassworks post.

In the first photo, wood molds are made for some creations, such as an American football helmut which you can see in the upper right.

Many creations do still require glass blowing and we saw several people doing this. They looked very skilled and competent.

A lot of space was hardly occupied so I'm not sure what types of work are done there but it's big spaces.

Many people were doing what appeared to be highly intricate work.

Our tour guide told us that Waterford has a five-year apprenticeship program. You can see one of their apprentices in the next photo.

The last photo is some work on a Blackwater tumbler. We purchased two of these.