Japanese artisan creates first ever playable glass violin and it's transparently perfect

Japanese glass manufacturer HARIO has created the first playable glass violin ever - and it's so beautiful.

HARIO was founded in 1921, and they've been perfecting their manufacturing skills for more than 60 years.

In a bid to get younger generations interested in their glass-blowing techniques, they decided to create a violin made entirely from glass.

Crafting a violin in glass brought a unique challenge because of its complex shape; and in order to make it playable, the glass had to be evenly distributed.

The weight comes in at about 1,300 g (approx. 3 lb) - about 600 g (approx. 1.32 lb) heavier than a standard violin.

According to Sankei Shimbun, the timbre of the glass instrument is a cross between kokyū (a Japanese traditional string instrument) and a violin, and becomes more resonant as it reaches higher registers.

Want to try the instrument yourself? It'll set you back quite a bit with a luxury price tag of 5.5 million yen (approx. £28,000; $36,000).