Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to start a glasswork.	
											
  So this man acquired a bit of land in the deep forests of Småland	
  where the age-old tradition of ironmaking had made people skilled	
  in furnaces and in high-temperature processes. Fuel was abundant,	
  and since more than a century glassmaking had been a upcoming trade	
  in the area.								
											
  The man was ambitious and aimed for the export market - America!!	
									
  The piece of land that he had acquired from the "Horse Gulch" farm	
  was named "The starving sheep meadow".  

  So there was a marketing problem, because he thought the Americans 
  would not buy the glass from "Starving Sheep Glassworks".  The man 
  looked around - as well as he could given all the trees - and he saw 
  hills, valleys and forests. As he saw this it struck his mind that 
  "Mountain-valley" could be a good marketing name.	
											
  Mountain is "Berg" in Swedish and valley is "dal". He called this	
  new glasswork Bergdala. This happened in 1889 and Bergdala has 
  become a legend as the glasswork that refuses to die.  It has been	
  burnt to ashes several times - and revived. It has been bankrupt -	
  and revived. It has been threatened but lives - one of few small,	
  independent, hand-craft based, traditional glassworks.

  The man with the vision was Alfred Sjöö.

  Today Bergdala Glasswork is jointly owned by Bergdala Design
  - (glass products for illumination) - and Strömbergshyttan,
  an art glass studio. So you will find a diverse assortment of 
  local design artefacts in the glass shop. But be assured that
  anything you see is an original Bergdala design.