Two glassblowers work in tandem at Jerpoint: one gathers a blob of molten glass on the end of a metal rod, the other shapes it while it is still glowing. The furnace runs at roughly 1,170°C, and you can stand a few metres away and watch the whole process for nothing. The studio has been doing this at Stoneyford, a short drive west of Thomastown, since 1979, when Keith and Kathleen Leadbetter set it up. Keith had trained at the Orrefors glass school in Sweden; Kathleen worked out the palette of blues, greens and ambers that Jerpoint glass is still known for. Their son Rory now runs the furnace.
The catch is timing, so read the next paragraph before you plan a trip.
Watching the glass being blown
The glassblowing happens on weekdays only – Monday to Thursday from 10am to about 4pm, and Friday mornings until 1pm. Turn up on a Saturday or Sunday and the shop will be open but the furnace cold, with nobody working the glass. It is worth confirming the schedule by phone before you travel, as demonstrations also stop on bank holidays.
When the team is working, it is genuinely absorbing. Each piece – a wineglass, say, or a jug – is mouth-blown and hand-finished, gathered, blown, rolled and reheated several times before it is set aside to cool slowly. There is no ticket and no fixed tour time; you watch from a viewing area over the workshop floor and stay as long as you like. Children tend to be transfixed by the heat and the speed of it.
The shop and the gallery
The shop sits in the adjoining stone building and carries the full Jerpoint range in the house colours, plus one-off pieces. If you are after a bargain, ask about the seconds – glass with a small flaw, sold at reduced prices, and often hard to fault by eye. Alongside the glass they stock work by other Irish makers, and upstairs the Glass Attic Gallery shows craft and paintings by other artists.
One piece of Jerpoint trivia worth knowing before you go: the goblets used by Harry, Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were blown here. Ask and someone will usually point out the design.
Getting there
Jerpoint Glass is at Stoneyford, about 6km west of Thomastown and directly across from the Mount Juliet estate. It is roughly 13km south of Kilkenny city, off the N10 Waterford road, and signposted locally. There is a car park on site, and the studio sits on the Made in Kilkenny craft trail if you want to string a few workshops together.
Do not confuse it with Jerpoint Abbey, the ruined Cistercian monastery a few kilometres east near the river – the two share a name but nothing else. In practice they make a neat pair for a morning: the furnace first while the glassblowers are at work, then the carved cloister of the abbey afterwards.
A final tip
Come on a weekday morning if you possibly can. Arrive around 10.30am and the team will be well into the day’s work, the shop will be quiet, and you will have the viewing area more or less to yourself before the coach trips and craft-trail traffic build up later in the day.