I visited the glass workshop of the world-famous architect and designer Bořek Šípek in Nový Bor in the North Bohemia, where his colleagues are making trophies for the World Championship´s winners. A grayling starts as a hollow sphere of glass with a temperature of about 800°C. Then in the form it gets a relief reminiscent of scales and then the earth´s gravity forms its elongated shape by constant rotation. Then comes the workshop´s leader and with the help of his colleague he adds eyes and fins and shapes the fish. The procedure for each fin is the same. Firstly, a drop of glass is attached and with special pliers it is prolonged and gets the ray-shape of a fish fin. Secondly, it is cut and finally prolonged into the proper shape. The dorsal fin is more complicated and finally with a special blend it is coloured to a typical purple shade and it´s done. And the grayling can rest for 24 hours in the oven and slowly cool down. And in the end it is placed on a stand.
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