Art Meets Design 

  Art History   Creation Process    Stories and Symbolisms   Care Instructions 
 
 

Creation Process


Welcome to “The Making of an Archelan Piece”.
We hope you’ll enjoy reading about the many stages involved to bring you an Archelanart piece
and truly appreciate the wonderful and cooperative talents of our designers, artists, glass sculptors and master inside-painters.

Stage One: Designing New Shapes
Inspired by the beauty of the world around us, our unique shape designs reflect personal styles that are influenced by architecture, fashion and nature. Our ideas begin with simple hand sketches, then modeled on CAD to meet precise scale and exact dimension requirements. We strive to create each shape to take on a life of its own, one that evokes personality and character and complements the beautiful stories we wish to share.

Stage Two: Directing the Story and Artwork
Once a shape is designed, the designer would then work in tandem with our Chief Artist, Mary Chen to develop the art direction. Themes such as nature, love, family, friends and hope are evident in all of our creations. These themes are told through a wonderful blend of storytelling and artistic symbolism.

Stage Three: Painting an Original
Once Mary’s sketches are completed, she then proceeds to paint an original watercolor painting on rice paper. A typical painting my take upwards of two weeks to a month to complete. Once completed, a digital scan of the original painting is sent to our master inside-painters who then study and prepare for the actual inside-painting process.
  

Stage Four: Sculpting the Glass
Archelan uses only the highest grade optical crystal glass in our sculptures. It is the clarity and brilliance of optical glass that makes it such an attractive and inspiring material for Archelan’s Crystal Glass Inside-Painting Collection. Only artisans display extreme discipline and years of training are engaged in the glass sculpting process. Each piece is completely hand sculpted and hand crafted.
 
Step One: The raw glass is cut using a large circular diamond saw with further refinement done on glass grinding plates.
 
Step Two: Once a basic shape is formed, it is given to a specialist to drill out the contours of the inside shape.
 
Step Three: In order for paint to adhere to the inside surface of the glass, a satin textured surface must be created. Our abrasion process uses traditional methods of mixing iron beads and water into the drilled opening and shaken by machine for up to 6 hours.
 
Step Four: The final step in several meticulous rounds of fine polishing to bring the glass surface to a flawless, brilliant shine.

Stage Five: Inside-Painting
Archelan’s team of inside-painters all have many years of experience and training and are considered “masters” in their field. After studying the original painting in detail, the artist will then recreate the artwork by painting on the interior surface of the glass using a long slender pliable paintbrush that is tipped with just a few strands of wolf hair.
To witness first-hand the dexterity, patience and hand-eye skills involved in such an endeavor is truly breathtaking. With each delicate and meticulous stroke, the color, mood and story of our original painting are slowly revealed in stunningly detailed perfection. The end result is a masterpiece of unsurpassed beauty.
  

Stage Six: Assuring Finest Craftsmanship
Along every step of the production and painting processes, a Quality Assurance Supervisor is assigned to carefully review the details of the glass and painting to ensure flawlessness. Our uncompromising strive for perfection means that you will receive the finest quality work of art worthy of any collection.

Stage Seven: Packaging a Beautiful Piece of Art
A beautiful piece of art deserves a beautiful package. Our handsome and distinguished brushed silver gift box is custom fitted to each shape. Such careful packaging ensures the highest protection and assures a wonderful presentation for any occasion.
Insert image of our gift box

Included in each box is a card that shares the making of an Archelan piece, care instructions and storytelling and symbolism that are associated with the piece.

To certify genuine authenticity, each Archelan piece is hand signed and release dated.		  
 
 
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