If you’ve spent any time looking at newer luxury homes, or even some more involved kitchen or bathroom renovations, there’s no doubt you’ve seen some glass bathroom sinks, often referred to as vessel sinks. Their popularity has grown for good reason. On the one hand glass sinks can truly be unique pieces of art to proudly own and display with their own special lighting. On the other hand, the influx of mass-produced, lower-cost varieties of these unique pieces of art make them very accessible to the masses. As such, you can hardly go to a fancy restaurant, hotel, or conference hall without coming across one of these glass vessel sinks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… the wide range of styles and varieties means that you are unlikely to come across in the exact same look twice running. Very nice.
If you’re just starting your research into glass sinks you might not have any idea what kind of price to expect. Well, you can expect a pretty wide price range. You could probably find one for as little as about $100, or you could easily pay $5000 or more (as mentioned above, as a piece of art created by skilled craftsmen, there really is no top-end to the potential price). Of course, like anything else, you get what you pay for. That doesn’t mean that the lower end glass sinks are bad. It’s simply that they are mass-produced (often in Asia), certainly not unique one from the other, and the quality and durability of the glass may not be quite as good as some others.
On the other hand, the higher end glass sinks often come from craftsmen and artisans in Europe and the United States (some of them are even signed by the artist who makes it). Due to the fact that they are handmade, each sink is completely unique and takes much longer to manufacture. This translates to a much higher price.
Let’s take a quick look at how these glass sinks are made. There are a few basic ways in which classes worked with; cold glass, warm glass, and hot glass.
Cold glass involves working with it at room temperature basically with carving, etching, stained glass mosaics.
Warm glass is the process used by most mass-producing glass sink manufacturers as well as some of the craftsman/artisans. In this process the glasses worked with temperatures that range between 1100 and 1700°F. The glasses warmed enough to be pliable and is then “slumped” into a mold or form. You can imagine this occurring in a production line fashion. However, warm glass slumping can also be used quite creatively.
The glass is heated enough, two pieces can be worked together, then cooled, to produce a single uniform piece of glass. Glass makers will often do this using glass of various colors, mixing them into unique, beautiful patterns before eventually using the slump method to form their glass sink.
Finally, there is the “hot glass”. As you may have witnessed at some point watching a glass blower make ornaments or jewelry, the same technique on a larger scale can be used in the formation of vessel sinks. The term hot glass is by no means a misnomer… this technique uses temperatures of 2200°F or more. The liquidity and malleability of glass at this temperature allows for a tremendous amount of variation… as long as you have a tremendous amount of skill. When a glass sink his created using this technique is followed by a slow cooling process in an annealing oven.
Many people when they begin to look at glass sinks are concerned about their durability. The truth is glass sinks can be every bit as durable as a traditional porcelain sink. While it’s certainly true that a heavy, hard object dropped into a glass sink could crack or break it, chances are that a porcelain sink wouldn’t fare any better. And porcelain sinks have been serving us solidly and reliably for a long time. You may want to avoid extreme temperature changes of greater than 70° to a glass sink to ensure you don’t have any problems with it. However, that kind of thermal shock would probably only occur if you are poor boiling water (greater than 212°F) into it. Truthfully, why would you ever need to do that in a bathroom sink?
Finally, cleaning a glass bathroom sink is a piece of cake. It’s no different than any other piece of glass. You can use any kind of standard glass cleaner that does not contain any ammonia to clean it, and if water spots eventually show up, you can use a solution of water and vinegar to easily take care of that.
So as you can clearly see, a glass bathroom sink need not be limited to only the luxury homes, fancy restaurants and posh resorts Anybody looking to add a little class, style and uniqueness to their bathroom vanity can surely find a glass bathroom sink that will suit their needs at a price that they can be comfortable with.