“We watched Bastian blow our daughter's bauble in four breaths. She is nine and now wants to be a glassblower.”
The Haverkamp family · Kassel
Bahnhofstraße 14 · Lauscha
The lamp has burned here since 1951
Henrike and Bastian Wohlfahrt blow, silver and paint every piece in the house Henrike's grandfather built at the top of the glassblowers' valley.
75winters at the lamp
Three generations on the same street
A house that smells of hot glass and lacquer
Henrike's grandfather Oskar set up his gas lamp in the front room in 1951, blowing baubles for the shops in Sonneberg. Her mother added the painting table. Bastian came up the valley in 2009 to learn lampwork for one winter and never went back down.
Today the two of them make around nine thousand pieces a year — fewer than one shop window's worth in a city store — and still sign the card in every box.
Henrike WohlfahrtPainting, scenes, letters
Bastian WohlfahrtThe lamp, silvering, domes
A December day at the bench
From first flame to the post van
06:00Lamp lit, glass tubes warmed
08:30Blowing: about 60 spheres before lunch
13:00Silvering, then lacquer baths
15:30Henrike paints by the window light
17:45Boxes packed for the 18:00 van
In the letterbox
Post from people who visited
“Our shop has stocked their Tannenwald baubles for six winters. They are the first thing customers ask for in November.”
Ingrid Solberg · gift shop in Lillehammer
“Henrike painted my late father's name on a gold bauble while we drank tea in the kitchen. It hangs in the middle every year.”
Kwame Asante-Lehmann · Leipzig
Come up the valley
Bahnhofstraße 14
98724 Lauscha, Thuringia
Tue – Fri10:00 – 17:00
Saturday10:00 – 14:00
Advent Sundays11:00 – 16:00
Lamp demonstrations at 11:00 and 15:00, €6 a person, children free. Blow your own bauble for €28 — book ahead.