Crystal is a product, which is produced by various materials including silica sand, pot ash and litharge, which is basically melted down in a furnace and then manipulated or blown into different shapes. Really, the reason that crystal is expensive is the amount of time and also personal crafting and experience needed to produce an individual piece that includes via the correct melting of the raw materials and depending on the type of product, it could be hand blown and these would be skilled craftsmen with several years minimum of experience, and also wooden tools that are used to shape the crystal as its blown. And there is a long cooling time required, which is called annealing, which actually lets the crystal cool properly to give it some strength, and then, after that depending on the product again there is several stages of decorating that might be used such as diamond wheel cutting or etching, painting in some cases, but this... all these things really go up to make crystal an expensive product.
