Hakone Crafthouse - Glass Bead Art

Thanks for checking in on part 3 of my series about Hakone Gora Park. If you haven’t checked it out yet, check out my post about Hakone Gora Park overall and also my post about Glass Blowing.

Today, we are going to talk about another craft workshop to experience at Hakone Gora Park… Glass bead-making at Hakone Crafthouse! This was especially exciting because you can incorporate your glass bead into tons of items at the end of this process… a necklace, key chain, bracelet, charm, hair accessory, etc. Hakone Crafthouse is a craft workshop experience inside of Hakone Gora Park that offers activities such as glass blowing, pottery, glass etching, and of course today’s topic, glass bead making.

First, you’ll select your glass color and what type of pattern you’d like to make on the glass bead. The first time I visited, I made a turquoise glass bead with gold accents. The second time, I chose pink with polka dots and gold. They have tons of color and pattern options. Then, you sit down with your instructor one-on-one. They put safety gear on you and set you up in front of a blow torch and some supplies and walk you through the entire process.

First, you begin by heating a metal rod that you will wrap molten glass around to create your bead shape. Then, you begin to heat long colorful sticks of glass over the flame. As the glass begins to melt, you’ll slowly allow it to drip onto the metal rod, as you rotate the rod. This will start to create a ball shape around the end of the metal rod. You’ll keep adding layers and layers of the hot liquid glass over the flame, making sure to shape the bead with gravity as you go.

Then, you’ll roll the molten bead through gold leaf and heat it in the flame again. If you’re adding polka dots, you’ll lay out tiny little glass pieces of different colors and roll them onto the bead you’re creating. At the end, you’ll heat it all up nicely in the flame and rotate it evenly, so that you have a nice round bead. Then, it needs to cool. While it cooled, we took a break, grabbed a snack, and explored the park a bit.

Finally, it was time to turn our bead into an accessory! As the staff preps your bead, you’ll pick your accent beads or charms to add to your accessory. For my necklace, I picked some lovely gold and turquoise accent beads to complement the hand-crafted bead. For the key chain, I stuck with the pink and gold theme and picked cute golden charms and pink beads to match the lovely gold key chain.

Then, you get to assemble the bead and your accents all onto the accessory. In the end, I had a lovely, handmade souvenir that I was really proud of. It’s definitely a conversation starter, and you can honestly say you crafted it yourself in Japan!

This is such a fulfilling experience. Both men and women were doing this activity, especially since they had other unisex items like key chains that even the men could enjoy crafting.

If you enjoyed this post, please check out my other posts about the activities at Hakone Gora Park, including glass blowing. This entire park was a whole day experience that I will never forget. If you’re going to Hakone, this park is a must-see attraction.

Hakone Crafthouse - Glass Blowing

This is part two in my series about Hakone Gora Park. Check out my post about the park overall. I’ll also be releasing one more post about the park.

This time, let’s talk about glass blowing! One of the best parts of Hakone Gora Park is the Hakone Crafthouse. I can (and did) spend the whole day here. Crafthouse offers several different types of craft options including glass blowing, glass bead/jewelry making, pottery, glass etching, and glass engraving. For today’s post, we’ll focus on the glass blowing.

First, you sign in at the front desk and choose what type of item you’d like to craft. They have different shapes and sizes of cups, mugs, vases, etc that you can choose from. Then, you pick your glass accent colors and what type of design you’d like to make. I chose turquoise and light green accent colors. I also selected an option for glow in the dark speckles.

Then, you’ll enter the crafting area. One wall of the crafting area is all open patio doors, so it really lets in the mountain vibes. You’ll sit down at a workbench as the worker preps the ball of molten glass on a long metal pole. He’ll also lay out the pieces for the accent color option you selected. You start by shaping the glass blob, and beginning to blow the blob up with a little bit of air. The staff then roll your glass through the accent color pieces and heat it again for you.

Then, you’ll alternate back and forth between shaping the piece, heating the piece, and adding more glass. The staff helps you and instructs you how to create the perfect shape the entire time (English is also available). You’ll use many different tools, such as a wet wooden paddle, newspaper, and small wood piece. Eventually, you start to see the piece take shape. At the end, they’ll make sure to even out any mistakes so that your piece looks nice.

I absolutely loved the whole process. It was peaceful but also creative, working with hot glass in the cool mountain scenery. It was also exciting to try something new. In the end, when your piece is all finished, they’ll even mail your craft back to your home, halfway around the world. When I returned home from Japan, my creation actually beat me home and was waiting for me in the locked mailbox. And I love how the cup turned out!

I definitely recommend doing this activity. It is a great way to spend the day. If you like this post, stay tuned for my last post in this Hakone Gora Park series, coming soon. We’ll be talking about bead/jewelry making with lampwork.