Silver Bells, Silver Bells
It's Christmas Time in the City
And it's time to think about the loved ones in your life. Try a gift of jewelry this holiday. Start a tradition that can span generations.
HOLIDAY HOURS:
Monday, December 23rd, 9:00 to 5:30
Tuesday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, 9:00 to 3:00 Wednesday Christmas Day Closed
Interesting Information About Our Art Glass...
And it's local beginning...
Trein's has been located in Dixon for over 100 years. Dixon is a small midwestern town and we commonly know most everyone in town, so to speak. One of our customers was a wonderful lady by the name of June Shafer. Her son, the late Dennis Shafer, took his mom on a trip to Europe becoming very interested is Art Glass from the Czech Republic. He told his mom, "This is beautiful!! I think I could import this and sell it in the mid-west." He began importing it and actually designing pieces selling it across the U.S. People fell in love with it. The business was great but Dennis was ready to retire.
Trein's was very interested in carrying the Czech Art Glass, and the Art Glass made a big beautiful splash in the side cases of Trein's. The bright colors of the glass and the quality was a perfect fit for Trein's. We soon bought Dennis out and made a trip to the Czech Republic to supplement the variety. Dennis put us in touch with his sources and gave us other suggestions. He was a help to us and a wonderful friend.
On one of our trips to the Czech Republic, we connected with a small factory located in a tiny town of Nenačovice, just west of Prague. In the rolling hills of the beautiful countryside, we were introduced to a small glass company, progressive in their thinking and willing to work with us.
Nenačovice, Czech Republic
The concept of the factory is the small scale production of art glass.
The factory produces a continuous process 7 days a week. The furnace is heated by propane-butane gas. It has three different chambers and there are ceramic containers inside each chamber where three types of raw glass are melted (pure glass, green glass, and blue glass). During the day, the raw glass is melted at a constant temperature of 1200 C and during the night the furnace keeps a temperature of 1350 C in order to prepare the melting for the following day. We melt only raw material like glass granule and sintered glass because of ecology. Solid glass is never used as a raw material. The molten glass is a first-rate lithium-barium crystal. Other colors are obtained by mingling pure crystal with different colored powders and frits especially made for this purpose. To obtain the final shape of each object, the process should undergo either blowing or giving shape by hand or with the use of a mold.