Classical liuli had always had an aura of mythical power throughout ancient China. It became a legendary symbol of craftsmanship and culture unique to ancient China’s imperial courts. Many beautiful legends about the origin of liuli were passed down through thousands of years; they give liuli a sense of rich heritage, emotional context and character unmatched by any other material.
We specifically differentiate classical Chinese liuli from other modern glass artworks, such as the French pate-de-verre and similar styles produced today in many glass studios. Historically, classical liuli production was first discovered in ancient China’s Kingdom of Yue, circa 462 B.C. The complex techniques were gradually refined in many centuries thereafter. The resulted process can produce both delicate designs with fine details and grand artworks that project scale and strength. First, the ancient process for producing a mold is very complex, and each mold can only be used once. Then, expensive naturally colored glass material is turned into a paste under fire, and it has to stay inside the mold for up to 9 long days to gradually cool down. During this process, it is very difficult to control the movement of the liquid paste; therefore identical replica of one piece of liuli from another is nearly impossible. Afterwards, each piece must go through the post-processing phase to polish and so on, similar to jewelry making. When all is done, each piece may take nearly 20 days of meticulous craftsmanship to come to fruition. Because of the difficulties and delicate nature of these techniques, the success rate for classic style liuli sometimes is less than 70%. All these factors lead to the fact that no two pieces of liuli are identical. No wonder, in ancient times, liuli belonged exclusively to China’s royalties.
Our liuli products use silver for accessories. Both liuli and silver are symbols of luxury and power in ancient times. But for us, we think they possess the ideal characters that compliment each other so well. The end result is a piece of art that is refined, elegant, luxurious and yet surprisingly modest.