This past March, I was lucky to spend a week in Waterford learning wheel engraving from master engraver, Greg Sullivan of Arena Crystal.
If you’re like me, you might recognize the name ‘Waterford’ from the crystal-ware that your older cousins or siblings received for wedding gifts. But you might not realize that there were master artisans behind the engraved and sculpted crystal pieces!
One of those masters happens to be Greg Sullivan of Arena Crystal. Greg began an apprenticeship in Copper Wheel Engraving in Waterford Crystal in 1985 and he worked there for 24 years to become a Master Engraver. He currently runs his own business designing, cutting, sculpting and engraving bespoke crystal pieces by hand.
Greg has a passion for the time-honored, traditional ways of crystal making and also passing that knowledge down to students that are eager to learn. When he announced that he was offering his wheel engraving course after a two year break due to Covid, I was delighted to join the class and learn from him!
Waterford City Tours
We spent the first day touring around Waterford and visited several creative places to inspire us for the week ahead. First up was a tour of Waterford Crystal, where we were gifted a little extra time with the engravers than the standard tour affords.
Across the road from Waterford Crystal we then met with Sean Egan, a crystal engraver who shared his work with us. We then visited Kite Design Studios, home of both Irish Handmade Glass Company and Gene O’Shea, a silversmith who kindly gave us a tour. We then visited the Irish Silver Museum with Laura Sullivan (and found out that creativity runs strong in the Sullivan family!) and ended our day of tours in the Irish Museum of Time. If you find yourself in Waterford, a visit to these places should definitely be on your list!
Wheel Engraving in a Unique Locale
The class was held in a unique space: St Patrick’s Gateway Centre – a historic landmark/community center/multi-national worship space, so don’t be surprised by some of the background crosses in the photos.
I am practically a newbie when it comes to working on the lathe, while the other students in the course were much more advanced. Greg balanced out the learning needs of all of us and helped guide each of us through the techniques we were most interested in.
I am personally drawn to cutting more than figure engraving, so I was set up on a Merker with some larger diamond wheels, cheap wine glass and tasked with learning some basic cuts. I plowed through several cheap wine glasses learning techniques and had a great time spending time immersed on the lathe.
One of the wine glasses turned out to my liking, so I was able to toast the end of a successful day with a glass of red. If anyone wants a new set of wine glasses with an organic line to them — let me know, I’ve this technique down now!
I progressed to more complicated items to practice on over the week and was quite delighted with how a few of these turned out, including carving and cutting into a reclaimed IKEA candle holder and a new whiskey glass I made as a birthday present for Jon.
New Challenges & New Opportunities
Greg brought me a unique challenge towards the end of the week – to create small jewelry pieces from reclaimed Waterford Crystal pieces. I was happy out transforming these cast offs to something new, as I love working small and am always up for a new challenge.
Next Steps
The next step in the process is to send these beauties off to be acid polished! There are only a few places in Ireland that still offer acid polishing services, so I am planning on making a few more pieces before investing in that next step.
Stay tuned to what comes next for these reclaimed beauties!