In Damascus Heat, a Glassmaker Keeps Centuries-Old Craft Alive

A glassmaker working just outside the Old City of Damascus shaped cup after glass cup in front of a blistering furnace as summer temperatures reached 100 degrees — seemingly impervious to the heat.

The scene comes from NPR's "Far-Flung Postcards" series, whose correspondent described the artisan's workshop on the edge of the historic Old City. There, the glassmaker produced cups, oil jars and decorative lamps in a range of jewel colors, applying techniques and styles that, in the correspondent's account, have not changed for decades.

"Time seemed to matter less than the process of melting and stretching the hot, melted glass," the correspondent wrote.

The report frames the glassmaker's patient labor as a counterpoint to the accelerating rhythms of contemporary news. Journalists, the correspondent noted, scramble daily to track breaking developments from multiple corners of the world. Watching the artisan at the furnace offered a different tempo.

"Watching his craft reminded me to slow down and enjoy the moment, too," the correspondent wrote.

The workshop itself, however, told a harder economic story. Despite its location at the threshold of one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, the shop was largely empty. The correspondent attributed the emptiness to Syria's economic conditions: the country's nearly 14-year civil war has ended, but the economy continues to struggle, and inflation has pushed up the cost of living over the past year.

"Even a glass can be a luxury for some," the correspondent observed.

The dispatch captures a moment of transition for Syria's artisanal sector. The war's end has not translated into consumer demand for handcrafted glassware, and Damascus's traditional craftspeople now face a market in which their products — however durable their techniques — remain out of reach for many potential buyers.

For the glassmaker, the work continues regardless. In 100-degree heat, he shaped vessel after vessel by hand, practicing a craft whose methods have held steady while the country around them has been remade. Whether that continuity can survive Syria's economic recovery, and whether visitors and customers return to the edge of the Old City, will determine the future of a workshop whose furnaces are still burning.