Glass Paperweights Make Beautiful Home Ornaments

Glass paperweights are true works of art. They make beautiful home ornaments but can also prove very useful to hold down piles of notes or paper in danger of blowing away in the wind and they are great fun to collect. I have actually being collecting them for years, as I travel a lot and there are beautiful different kinds and art forms to be found in every country. These very original and elegant examples of glass art can also make unique, very thoughtful gifts for any occasion.

I have picked out some of my favorite top rated handcrafted designs for you to choose from.

I have recently started buying these online, and I either already have these or have added them to my wish list!

You can buy this beautiful Murano Miilefiori glass paperweight and browse through many others, on Amazon

My love for these handcrafted crystal objects must have started when I was a child. My father used to have an antique green dome shaped crystal paperweight with a dried edelweis flower encased in it on his writing desk, and I remember playing with it and admiring its elegant and delicate craftsmanship. He left it to me when he died and this is actually the one that started out my collection.

In the summer, some of my less valuable pieces migrate to the patio where the family practically lives during the hot season, in order to hold down grocery lists, to-do lists, paper bags and napkins and numerous other volatile items that I would otherwise have to fish out of the flower beds. In winter, they go back inside, where they take their place in my growing home collection.

Lampwork designs are made by hand, by embedding a small object like a flower, butterfly, shell or similar in a small blob of melted glass, then adding more layers around it, to shape the crystal dome. These are usually round or dome shaped and the objects displayed inside the globe cover a very wide spectrum indeed, from dried flowers and butterflies or other insects, to seashells, colored sand and minerals.

Glass paperweights first appeared in Europe, between 1845 and 1860..because of the need to hold down piles of paper and bills created as a result of industrialization and economic progress!! Nowadays, we may not write on paper so much, as most of us use computers, but these beautiful art objects are still very useful and highly ornamental. They are also quite sought out collectibles and may be worth great sums of money

Millefiori means a thousand flowers in Italian and this is exactly the effect inspired by these beautiful art pieces. They are made with many different canes of colored glass which are cut into discs and arranged so as to create the effect of clusters of multicolored flowers. The canes are then covered with many more layers of molten glass to shape the dome. Millefiori paperweights are usually round but contemporary ones also come in other shapes such as hearts or square ones. The heart shaped ones with their beautiful multicolored flower motif make wonderful Mother's Day gifts.

Handmade glass paperweights are really fun to collect and not just for professional collectors. Actually, if you are looking for something to start a collection with, they are a great idea. If you are on the look-out for them, you will find them almost anywhere, from thrift shops and antiqueries to open air markets and tourist shops, as well as online. There is a huge choice and you may collect them in many different ways. For example, there are theme collectors, who only collect paperweights with flowers, or only insects, or are only interested in a specific period or design, eg millefiori.

Based on the edelweiss paperweight left to me by my father, I started collecting flower designs wherever I could find them. But I soon got carried away with so many beautiful designs and started buying all the ones I really liked. I keep them all grouped together on a window sill in my living room, and as my collection grows, it is really becoming a focal point in my home.

Do you like collecting things? What are your favorite collectibles?

This is my favorite paperweight. It has a permanent place on my coffee table at home and its beautiful multicolored millefiori design reminds me of Spring, even on the darkest Winter day.

If you are planning to start a collection, ebay is a very good place to start. As I have already mentioned, these collector's items can be quite expensive, but you may find very good deals on ebay