WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING CRYSTAL
Most people should be able to spot acrylic right away: If you are looking at a “crystal” chandelier at Home Depot and it costs $50, those crystals are almost certainly plastic. Acrylic is really light and has a dull finish, poor clarity, and unsharp faceting. Glass is a step-up from clear acrylic, obviously, but has none of crystal’s refractive qualities. It’s just, well, glass. Because this is a cheap solution, glass “crystals” are generally poorly made, with little sharpness to the faceting, poor polish, and you will often see bubbles inside. If you are reading this, you care enough about quality to avoid both of these options like the plague.
MAKE SURE IT’S CRYSTAL, NOT ACRYLIC OR GLASS
Crystal is a type of glass, and is made, essentially, in the same way — by heating the ingredients to a molten form. The molten mixture is then poured into molds which give the chandelier crystal its shape. A great deal of care has gone into figuring out the faceting of each crystal, as a thoughtful design will yield greater refraction of light.
Left to itself, leaded crystal will cool like a cake: the outer part cools quickly, and the inner core takes longer to dissipate heat. That differential in temperature means that the inner parts of the crystal cool off later than the outer parts, and that can leave very fine striations in the crystal. You probably wouldn’t notice them on first glance — you might even mistake them for fingerprints. But those tiny striations can distort the light passing through the crystal. Once you notice them, they will be hard to ignore. Cheaper crystal is made without any control of the cooling process, and can therefore show these subtle distortions.
The other thing to watch out for is bubbles. Cheaper crystal can often have a tiny bubble or two trapped inside. Once you see a bubble, you can’t un-see it. Crystal is very seldom branded, and often there’s no information on the provenance of the crystal on the chandelier you are about to buy. And if you are buying a particular chandelier, you will probably buy it because you like its design, and will have to take the crystals as they come, whatever quality they may be. Still, good quality crystal is worth knowing about, and here are some of the types of crystal currently available in marketplace:
Post time: Nov-21-2022