OK, that title’s a bit more melodramatic than necessary.

This is about the glass blowers at Hebron Glass Factory, where we often stop on our way in our out of town when doing site visits, tours, etc. in the region. We drop off our boxes of empty Taybeh, Cremisan, and assorted Scotch bottles, and usually give in to the temptation to browse the shop and pick up a few works of art for a few shekels. Besides being the easiest way we know how to recycle glass (the few curbside bins in Jerusalem only take plastic bottles), the prices and selection beat any tourist shop in the Old City.

Hebron Glass is also a Ten Thousand Villages supplier, so when we visited with one of TTV’s buyer reps a few weeks back, we stayed longer than usual and I got to see a bit more behind the scenes. I could spend hours there just staring into that furnace and watching these guys crank out masterpiece after masterpiece. Come to think of it—I’ve never seen them make a mistake, despite the fact that their medium is molten freaking glass, alternately fluid and fragile. Here are a few more favorite shots from that visit. I especially enjoyed the beams of heavenly light falling on Imad as he stretched a swan out of molten hot magma.

So while the name “Hebron” still brings to mind images of soldiers, settlers, and checkpoints, there are still places of beauty in the midst of all of that brokenness.