Nikki has tried it

Automatically saved design

The ball inflates with a steady flow of air.(Bild: Johanna Birbaumer)

In Rattenberg, Tyrol, mouth-blown Christmas tree baubles are created alongside other works of glass art. "Krone" editor Nicole Greiderer tried her hand at making her own Christmas tree decorations. 

Nikolai and Vassile are not exactly dressed for Christmas with their shorts and T-shirts. But if you want to make Christmas tree baubles out of glass, you have to work with heat. The hot air shimmers towards me from the glass furnace in the workshop at Kisslinger Kristall-Glas in Rattenberg. "The working temperature is around 1200 degrees Celsius," says boss Hannes Kisslinger, pointing to the inside of the furnace. Inside is molten glass, made primarily from quartz sand.