Iris glass

I really love Iris Glass, particularly the very pale variants. Iris glass has stripes, usually in pink, white, blue, and green. Rods or filaments of different colours are put into clear glass and created to resemble natural Iris quartz aka rainbow quartz.

Iris glass (often called rainbow glass) was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Czech region.

 

Nowadays we like sparkly genuine stones, but in those days a lot of jewellery was made with paste (glass) stones, often backed with foil for extra glow, pinchbeck, marquisite, and rhinestones (named after the Rhine river). It was more affordable, and the stones looked gorgeous in candlelight. Older diamond cuts were faceted to look good in candlelight, which means that they look less sparkly by today’s electric light.

Author: Janet Carr

Fashion, beauty and animal loving language consultant from South Africa living in Stockholm, Sweden.

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