The last glass eye maker

From The Times online

"IN A SMALL room overlooking a quiet North London street, Jost Haas sits in a white coat at a cluttered table, delicately blowing into a glass tube until a ball bubbles out from the end. Using skills unchanged for 170 years, he is making an artificial eye such as those that stare unseeing from a wooden tray at his elbow.

It is 35 years since Haas left Germany and brought his wife, Ulla, to this house in Mill Hill, where they raised a daughter. At that time Britain needed two or three glass-eye makers, who, because of the traditional skills used there, usually came from Germany. Now 66-year-old Haas is the only one. When he decides to retire, continuation of the craft here will almost certainly depend on whether a successor can be found from his native country."


The Glass Eye Maker from Tomas Leach on Vimeo.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article864693.ece