Wednesday, December 10, 2008






this weekend, i pulled out my favorite and most treasured christmas ornaments. about ten years ago, i was lucky enough to pick up this box of shiny brite ornaments at a garage sale for 15 cents. just one of those rare finds when you know you love them, but don't really know much about them. here is what i found out

By 1940 Corning was making about 300,000 ornaments a day, compared with the perhaps 600 for a skilled German glassblower, and sending them to other companies for decoration.The largest customer was Max Eckhardt who by now had established an All-American company known as Shiny Brite. Initially Shiny Brite Ornaments were lacquered by machine on the outside and then decorated by hand.
the following year the ornaments were silvered on the inside so they would remain “shiny bright” for longer periods, but WWII intervened and material shortages caused the company to decorate the clear glass balls with simple thin stripes in pastel colors which didn’t require as much metallic oxide pigment. Corning, moreover, was able to alter its machines to produce a greater variety of shapes and sizes of glass ball without using scarce war material.


i love christmas ornaments. they are tangible memories in a box.
what are your favorite ornaments?

5 comments:

Live More Now said...

Those. are. SO. cool. Nice find!

Tracy said...

What a treasure! I think I've admired these on your tree before. So did these beauties help you come to terms with Christmas? :o) I have to say my favorite ornaments right now are ones the kidlets made from some kind of cinnamon dough in school. They're only pretty in a mama's eyes (they're the droopiest little misshapen stockings you'll ever see), but they smell sweet and the kids are so proud of them.

Cait said...

That is so interesting to know. Very cool. I love the pictures, too.

Thanks for the comment. Well, I think the first month or so..first 3 months of pregnancy is sometimes like walking a tight rope...wondering if everything will be ok. And oh so overwhelming.

Heidi said...

Lovely. What a great find!

We get a new ornament each Christmas to keep adding to our collection. Just something that catches my eye or something done by a local artist - something that's a little different from the rest. I do have some from Wal-Mart too. They can't all be special.

Anonymous said...

My favorite is one in memory only - it was a little yellow lemonade scoop with a cottonball, small pinecone and a small angel figure. I made it in preschool and was always so proud of it, even as I got older. It was simple and sweet, even though it was very tacky and screamed made-by-a-kid. My folks didn't like it too much and one year it disappeared. Anyway, I think I'll adopt my child's dove made from a coffee filter.