Recently we had some family visit, which gave us a chance to play tourist and go to the glass factory. My cousin and his wife were in search of Mexican glasses and we knew just the place to take them. Fabrica de Vidrio Soplado Mexicano in Playa del Carmen. Now normally we would not support a trip to another town to go shopping, but this is a truly unique experience that we do not have here in Puerto Morelos.
Our new lamp. A beautiful piece of art.
Two years ago this Vidrio Soplado Mexicano was a small, dusty warehouse of glass just off the highway going into Playa del Carmen. Since then they have moved to a new location on the non-touristy west side of the main highway. Now they have a large showroom filled with glass, anything you can possibly think of, from swizzle sticks to chandeliers and everything in between. The artists at Vidrio Soplado Mexicano have created some beautiful works of art.
Now in their new location you can watch the glass blowers at work over their red hot furnace. They are heating and blowing glass into unique shapes right in front of you. The glass blowers begin with a small blob of dense glass which they heat in the kiln on the end of a pole. They remove the blog of red hot glass from the flames and blow into the pole, which forces the glass to blow up like a balloon. From there the creation of art begins.
Not only did we find a great selection of unique items at Fabrica de Vidrio Soplado, we also found reasonable prices. Most items in the store were marked, but it was nice to see that a discount on those prices appeared when you went to purchase your new treasures.
And of course we didn’t leave the glass factory empty handed. We walked away with a beautiful new lamp that is truly a piece of art, along with a few gifts for family. As for my cousin’s wife, she almost emptied the store, much to her husband’s shagrin. They were happy to report that all of their new treasures made it back to Canada safe and sound. All and all a successful mission and worth the trip to Playa del Carmen.