Ever browsed through crystal awards online or in a store and felt a twinge of confusion? Why does one piece cost significantly more than another, even if they look almost identical? The truth is, not all crystal awards are created equal. Behind that radiant gleam, there’s a world of difference in quality, craftsmanship, and authenticity. It’s not just about the shine or price tag; it’s about understanding what truly makes a crystal award valuable and lasting.
To help clear up the fog, I’ve distilled the process down to 5 essential points you must consider when selecting your crystal awards supplier. Things I have learned over the past two decades. visiting factories in America, Italy and China. Seen various process in the manufacturing and quality check process first hand and experimented with various grades of crystal. Through these experiences, we’ve refined our process and quality control to consistently deliver top-notch crystal awards and trophies.”
So, before you dive into the maze of varying prices and glittering options, go over the following recommendations. This may just help you to pick an award that not only dazzles the eye but also stands the test of time and the right crystal award supplier to deliver it.
1. Surface Polish of the Crystal Awards
What makes a crystal really shine is the amount of time spent for polishing the piece and number of steps that polishing entails. If you take a shortcut and reduce the number of steps, you can get more pieces ready in less time and money, but the quality is not as good. The better the treatment, the more the crystal will shine for the longest time. Poor quality and cheap crystals are not so well polished. They may look okay to begin with, but will quickly lose their shine.
One way to assess whether the crystal has been polished to perfection is to tilt the crystal and hold it up to any light, such as a tubelight or a bulb. Should the light source appear wavy when seen through the Crystal, then the piece has not been adequately treated and the polishing is poor. This simple naked-eye check will help you assess the quality of the supplier you are dealing with.
2. Yellow Tinge in Crystal Awards
Nothing looks worse than a Crystal Award that starts to yellow. It looks terrible! Check for any colour tinge in the crystal, check the supplier’s shelves to see how their sample crystal awards that have been sitting on the shelf for some months are faring.
3. Handling and Sticking for Crystal awards with less contact area
While making a crystal award, several layers of polishing and preparation are required before we can either stick anything to the crystal or stick two pieces of crystals together, in order to fulfil the design requirements. If the Crystal has not been adequately prepared and polished, then we run the risk of the glue coagulating, turning bulky and yellowed and worse, having bubbles. This becomes easily visible through the clear glass and totally wrecks the look of the award.
What’s worse, Crystal Awards that are not glued well together, or those that have less contact area for glue, can come apart in transit or worst of all, on stage during the presentation ceremony. These awards are notorious for simply falling apart and breaking because the base crystal was not handled properly.
4. Quality of engraving on Crystal Trophies
You should definitely inquire from your supplier what process they use for engraving or carving designs on their Crystal Awards. A lot of manufacturers in India and around the world prefer laser engravings on Crystal Awards because it’s a time saver, they can finish one award in 5-10 minutes tops with laser engraving. But at Pinnacle we have seen that the result of laser engraving is not good at all.. The text is not visible and with laser any kind of creative engraving is also not possible. For more information on this, check out our article, We are Obsessed with Engravings On Crystal and Glass and why that should matter to you? Our process of engraving and designing on crystal is much more detailed. We take anything from 2 to 5 hours per award, depending on the design and the text that has to be engraved. But this hard work pays off because our engraving looks outstanding! Our designs and letters don’t become dull and greyish and our Crystal Awards stand the test of time.
5. Enquire about the quality control protocols of the Supplier
For instance at Pinnacle, each Crystal Award is individually checked for any scratches, dullness and chipping along with a detailed check for clarity and engraving of text, before it is shipped out. We reject pieces where even the smallest fonts have not been engraved correctly, such if the inner spaces of e’s, o’s and a’s have not been engraved. This may seem like an overkill but I assure you that it is not. If our Crystal Award has survived our many layers of engraving, checking, polishing and packaging, then it will live for years and decades in the office or home of our award recipient, of this we are sure.
Pinnacle’s Crystals are sourced from premium quality global suppliers and our Crystal Awards are then engraved and personalised in-house entirely. That is how we are able to maintain our high standards year after year. A blank crystal award is important but how we personalise or customise the award to connect with your brand, your event is what matters the most. This is what makes people connect to our Crystal awards way better than just a regular crystal award engraved with the normal award text with almost no custom artwork.
Just one more reason why our customers have remained with us for years, some since decades. We never compromise on quality or design, while still taking care of each customer’s budget.
I understand that this article may not make you a great judge of how to distinguish between different types of crystals and what you should pay for them, but I hope that it communicates the reason you must buy Crystal Awards only from trusted professionals, because they ensure quality and durability. If you are considering Crystal Awards then give us a call and we will make the process effortless for you as we have done it for hundreds of our customers over the past two decades.
