Hi Ivo,
It's very difficult to find anything in English about Scancrystal or, it's proper name, Scankristall. But here's a link to the Järvakandi Glassmuseum..
http://klaasikogu.virtuaalmuuseum.ee/index_htmlIf you scroll down to the very last line, that was the type of block they were using then.
Number three from the bottom ( õvn ) is one of the things we imported, ditto " klaasmuna" a couple of lines up.
Scan crystal or Scankristall has, I think, an interesting history. Or perhaps it's because I was involved, albeit in a very minor way. These are my personal recollections; if I have misremembered anything, I apologise.
Up to the time of the USSR collapse, the glass factory in Tallinn was a major supplier of glassware to the city of Moscow. The factory itself was enormous, it spread over a number of football pitches and raw materials were freighted by train into it's centre. I do not know what it was called then. Once the USSR was divided up, the factory no longer produced anything and the employees of course had no jobs.
The company I worked for had contacts with a Swede who had invested some money in what was left of the factory .. a handful of glassblowers who had made small items after work ( friggers, right?)and some delapidated ovens. He bought new ovens and formed, together with the ex-manager, the company “Scankristall”.
Now the hard slog to overcome socialist traditions began. Up until then, the raw materials just arrived and were used. The word "customer" was completely unknown, as was the concept of marketing.
Also, what to produce and in what quantities? The word "profit" was another unknown. Now, the costs of everything had to be worked out.. raw mass, colours, wages, lighting etc. How to package things so they wouldn't break, the cost of the packaging. Quality control, another new term.
In June 1995 we visited the factory and met the blowers and the management. I remember that the blowers were very surprised but pleased that their friggers (eggs) were of interest to us.There was a lot of head-scratching on both sides but it was very exciting and very challenging for all involved.
To start with we imported the eggs but quickly had to tell the blowers to change the colours.. they were using sickly pinks and greens which didn't work for western customers. It took a while but they eventually found the right balance.
We could actually see which person had made which egg, not because they were signed but because each man had his own way of doing things.. there was one who constantly produced eggs with brownish glass and another who always had an extra bubble in the exactly the same place, every time.
We could see the growing selfconfidence with each delivery; the quality improved as did the compexity of the items. We really looked forward to opening every box!
We discussed with them the possibility of making souvenir "blocks" but, as I said earlier in the thread, they weren't good enough quality.
The company then produced pretty apple paperweights and then small birds, all of which sold very well.
Our involvement with the company ended when a new buyer was employed. She wouldn’t accept anything non-Scandinavian >:(
Gosh, this is a bit of an aside, isn't it?
The Reijmyre
is pretty horrible
