Jewellery-making

Its beginnings in Bohemia date back to the 18th century. The production of glass composite stones and the jewellery made from them was then dominated by the Venetians, but the Turnov glass cutters wanted to achieve the same results. The Fišer brothers spent many years in Venice as glass cutting apprentices. After returning home in 1711, they made numerous experiments and successfully melted the first clear, diamond-imitating, lead composition. And so it happened that the Turnov composition soon began to compete with Venetian products.

The museum in the North Bohemian town of Turnov hides a beautiful jewellery box, but also a stone house. Just across the street, it is possible to visit a lively jewellery workshop and the beautiful Granát shop invites you for a visit, located on the Český Ráj Square. At the end of the 19th century, the city of Jablonec nad Nisou already dominated the world production and trade in jewellery - a city that grew rapidly and its architecture took on a new face. Today, there are more than fifty manufacturers of glass and jewellery in and around the city, and fortunately, it is possible to visit them all in one place, at Palace Plus. They have over five thousand types of costume jewellery, utility glass, glass hand-decorated Christmas ornaments or designer jewellery by the brands Preciosa and Granát.

Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec

This museum in Jablonec nad Nisou under the Jizera Mountains is the only one of its kind in the Czech Republic and at the same time is the largest collection of costume jewellery in the world. The main building of the museum is a cultural monument and was built in 1904 in the Art Nouveau style for the export company Zimmer & Schmidt. In that same year, the first exposition of the museum, then still with a decorative arts focus, was opened. Today, the collection numbers 12 million pieces and offers the best in its permanent exhibitions or temporary exhibitions. In the permanent exhibition "The Endless Story of Jewellery", you can admire not only jewellery but also buttons, coins, medals, designer jewellery or historical jewellery, clasps, and clothing accessories from the unique Waldes collection. The exhibition "The Magic Garden - Bohemian Glass of Seven Centuries" records the story of the journey of glass from anonymous goblets to original works of art. Cut glass crystal on the outside, a mysterious room of Christmas decorations on the inside – an ample description of the annexed Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou, which had thus made more space for its extensive collections.

City Museum in Železný Brod  

This museum in Železný Brod, a town not far from Turnov, was established in the second half of the 19th century. It focuses mainly on documenting history and the present with an emphasis on the local specialty- glass production. The exhibition presents the history of glass production in Železný Brod from the middle of the 19th century to the present. Demonstrations of domestic processing of glass raw material are exhibited - production of pressed and wound beads, polishing and stringing of beads. Another part of the exhibition presents the activities of the Železný Brod School of Glass. It was the teachers and graduates of the glassmaking school who were behind the specific artistic expression of Železný Brod's art glass. The exhibits also include the famous Železný Brod glass figurines by Jaroslav Brychta, which have become one of the symbols of Železný Brod. The gallery’s art features by world-famous glass artists Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libenský represent the current artistic glass work and the unique technology of glass fused sculpture, which was born in Železný Brod.

School of Glass in Železný Brod

The High School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking in Železný Brod commemorates the 100th anniversary of its founding. This first, purely Czech glassmaking school operating in our country, and at the same time being the largest glassmaking school in Europe, offers a wide range of studies in one place. It was the first vocational glassmaking school in the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic in the 1920, preparing students for independent work in art glassmaking and while giving them a basic business education for independent entrepreneurship. The school offers two artistic and two technical disciplines with a total of nine professional specialisations, all under one roof. The school has its own glassworks and covers almost all hot and cold techniques of artistic glass processing. With the city of Železný Brod, the school annually co-organises the traditional Glass Town expo and the Summer Glass Workshop symposium with international participation of glass artists.

Perlex Bijoux Jablonec  

This company, founded in 1995, draws on rich experience in the field and deals in the unique bead craft. Reliability and quality of the company gradually helped it to become a supplier of beads not only to export houses and export companies in Jablonec nad Nisou, but also brought direct foreign customers. This smaller scale company is also interested in preserving the traditional resounding name of Czech jewellery. It does not use new industrial technologies where it is not necessary, because it believes that the traditional method of wetting, which has been employed in production here since the beginning of the 20th century, is still a guarantee of quality and precision, unlike mass production in Asian countries. Beads from Perlex are made only of Czech glass and domestic materials with an emphasis on environmental protection. In 2013, the company received the Regional Product of the Jizera Mountains Award. Perlex offers visitors the opportunity to see the entire process of wetting wax glass beads and other ways of refining them. You can colour your own bead here or make jewellery in the company shop, where they have an inexhaustible number of colours, shapes, and sizes of wax beads.

Preciosa Ornela, Desná and Zásada

Preciosa Ornela based in the Jizera Mountains is one of the world's most important manufacturers of a wide range of Czech glass products. From glass rods and sticks, technical and utility glass to all types of glass pearls and beads. Preciosa Ornela's glass factories for the production of glass and beads are located in two places in the Jizera Mountains. In the town of Desná, a valley surrounded by hills and forests, is where the production of technical glass and glass semi-finished products was concentrated. In the small village of Zásada, dyeing, finalisation of bead production and subsequent packaging and export take place.

Few things that surround and accompany us every day have such a rich and fascinating history as glass beads. The history of Czech pearls dates to the 16th century, when the first glass kiln was fired up in the town of Mšeno in northern Bohemia. The production of the unique phenomenon of pearls gradually passed from Venice, Italy, to northern Bohemia, where it was perfected and brought to world fame, a unique breadth of assortment and quality. Preciosa Ornela beads are sold in more than 80 countries on five continents. They are used not only for the production of jewellery, but also for the production of ethnic products, traditional souvenirs, embroidery and clothing applications or decorative products. Preciosa Ornela produces around 4,000 tons a year. Czech beads are proud to bear the mark of the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand, with which Preciosa Ornela guarantees top quality and the widest range of colours, shapes and sizes.

Glassunicum Smržovka

Glassunicum, which today operates in Smržovka in the Jizera Mountains, was founded in 1990 and began with the production of glass flowers and coiled figurines. In 1998, it was already one of the largest exporters of glass flowers to Italy. It currently offers more than 3,000 types of products from more than 50 suppliers. The offer includes, for example, glass beads of various colours and sizes, glass figurines and flowers, drinking and utility glass, glass and strass jewellery, Christmas decorations from regional manufacturers and Czech

Misamo Jablonec nad Nisou

Misamo was established in 2018 and during this year, launched a new brand of designer jewellery and original glass jewellery made of hand-wound beads. Exclusively handmade production allows for a wide range of colours, shapes, decorations and thus meet the most demanding requirements of clients and fashion designers. The designer jewellery by Misamo is part of the fashion shows MADE IN JABLONEC. In 2019, they also began cooperation with a national beauty pageant with the longest tradition - Miss Czech Republic. On a visit to Misamo, visitors can look forward to glass magic-making - a unique experience where they get to make their own hand-wound beads at a glass burner and an insight into the production of fragile beauty that is glass.

G&B Beads, museum of bead-making v Jablonci

G&B Beads was founded in 1991, when it followed up on the family tradition dating back to 1937. For the last 20 years, it has been one of the largest producers of glass beads in the region. Gradually, it began to specialise mainly in the development of new shapes and colour combinations in the range of flame-polished and pressed beads. It regularly launches many novelties on the market, which have been taken over into their production scheme by a number of companies engaged in the production of these beads. They not only produce glass beads here, but also collaborate with the world's leading designers on glass jewellery collections. They have already won a number of awards and will be happy to show you around the production area, the museum of bead production and the gallery of glass and jewellery. You can visit the company's shop, where you will see thousands of shapes, colours, alterations, and sizes of beads. In the modern space of the creative workshops, you can then make an artwork from a glass mosaic or your own glass jewellery. The museum's attractions include, for example, all-wood machines for cutting glass rods and cutting and polishing of glass stones from the 19th century or a collection of wound glass beads and flower glass brooches.