Glass Earrings

We have a workshop it is also directly opposite the Roman Baths. From early ancient times men were the ones who wore earrings, they were made of stones or glass. They were popular amongst the higher classes and both stone and glass earrings were a symbol of prosperity.

Earrings for women became popular with the ancient Romans and Greeks, but there was not only a change in the gender who wore them but also the class. In Ancient Rome it was the slaves who wore glass earrings whilst in ancient Greece earrings for women were a symbol of prostitution.

In the 13th century the Catholic church banned the piercing of ears. They believed that it was wrong to change the perfectly designed body which god had given them, so at that time earrings were worn by thieves and even became a symbol of pirates. 

Some of the lower classes continued to wear them, they would use them as symbols to protect the family line and earrings were predominately for men. 

In villages it was tradition to pierce the right ear of the only boy in a family,then if another boy was not born they would pierce both ears,this boy was not allowed to go to war to preserve the line of his family. The left ears of boys were pierced By Russion Kossacks if the mother had no husband or widows.

Today woman’s earrings are worn for fashion and style, and in our main shop’s studio we make glass earrings using two types of materials, molten glass and Dichroic glass.

With the molten glass we make drop earrings. These beautiful drop glass earrings are made by gathering a small amount of liquid glass onto a blowing iron and letting it drop and cool. We then cut the molten glass off and add them to our sterling silver findings. We make drop glass earrings in all colours we also make the matching pendants.

Our dichroic range are made by cutting sheets of dichroic glass, layering them into our kiln and fusing them a 700 degrees Celsius. They have to annel which means to cool down very slowly. Dichroic glass was produced as early as Roman times, and later on developed by Nasa to reflect heat and light in space missions.

We have one of the best selections of glass earrings for women in the UK. All of our earrings are hand made and we have a team of artists who work both in our glassblowing studio in Walcot Street, Bath and in the Abbey Courtyard shop. 

You can see our artists during weekdays making our beautiful glass earrings on the workbench in our main shop.

We work on a commission basis and often make bridal jewellery, the bride usually brings in a sample of her bridesmaid dress and we match the colours to make matching glass earrings and pendants.