"The glass company Rautis from Poniklá in the Krkonoše foothills succeeded in its inscription on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of mankind with its production of Christmas decorations from glass blown beads."

We are a family company Rautis, a.s. from Poniklá, and we produce traditional Christmas decorations from glass beads. Apart from Christmas ornaments, we also produce decoration for festive tables and corporate events, room decoration and flower curtains.

At the beginning of the 20th century, they started to produce blown glass beads in the Jablonec region and The Giant Mountains. The biggest boom was in the 20s and 30s of the last century, but the production managed to survive until today.

The journey of glass bead decorations is quite long. First, we must blow it from a glass tube, then we silver it, paint and draw on it and cut it. All of these steps are done manually. Then our bead is ready to be strung on a wire. The variety of designs is great. In the beginning, they produced mainly imitations of everyday objects, means of transport and animals. Then they added typical Christmas motives – stars, angels or treetops.
Currently, we are the only producer of this kind of decoration in the world. We have managed to save old designs and bead moulds, maintain manual production and keep the production in a place it had started – in Poniklá in the Giant Mountains. 

The company is now opened to the public, and visitors can see the whole process of production. The excursions take place every day, even on weekends.

Poniklá is the only place in the world where they managed to preserve traditional bead craft. The first workshops for blown beads were founded here at the end of the 19th century, and many families started to make their living producing beads. The method of blowing beads and the production of ornaments hasn´t changed much since the beginning. In our company, you can see the whole process – blowing from glass tubes, silvering, painting and cutting, followed by the assembly of ornaments. Everything is done by hand, and during our excursion, you will notice that every bead passes at least six hands before becoming part of an ornament.

The excursion takes about 40 minutes, and after that, you will get a chance to visit our creative workshop and make your own ornament. 
Our excursions are in the Czech language, for foreign visitors we prepared some additional materials in English, German and Polish language. 
We recommend you to book your term in advance (online reservation system), so you do not have to wait – our capacities are full especially during the summer holiday and pre-Christmas time.
Excursions for larger groups of people must be booked in advance via phone or email info@rautis.cz.