Everything About Venice and Murano Glass » Murano Glass History

Murano Glass Beads on View in Murano Museum

GlassOfVenice — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:07:15 +0000

Murano Glass beads are a significant part of Murano Glass history. Besides their function as a base component of Murano Glass jewelry, they were in wide use as currency (then known as trade beads) between the 16th and 20th century when Venetian merchants set voyage to the Middle East and Africa to acquire goods, services and slaves. These days Murano Glass beads produced by the talented Venetian masters represent a wide range of traditional Venetian glass-making techniques and are used to create unique Murano Glass earrings, pendants, necklaces,bracelets, cufflinks, and more. The public usually sees these finished products and does not get the behind-the-scenes look at the wide variety of exquisite Murano Glass beads which Murano artists draw upon for their creations. The Venetian beads are individually hancrafted over a flame or in the special furnace and decorated using traditional Murano glass-making techniques.

The new exhibition at Murano Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro) called “ERCOLE MORETTI. A century of Venetian pearl” seeks to familiarize the public with these beautiful pieces of Venetian Glass Art by displaying a great collection of Rosetta, Mosaic, Millefiori, and Murrina Murano Glass beads and other glass objects created over a period of a century by one of the most renown workshops of Murano, Ercole Moretti and F.lli, which this year celebrates its 100 year anniversary.

The exhibition runs at Murano’s Museo del Vetro from October 9th 2011 to January 6th 2012.

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Watch Our New Murano Glass and Venice Video

GlassOfVenice — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:00:02 +0000

We travel to Venice often and every time we visit this magical city we are amazed by its beauty, harmony, and the feeling of decadence that lives in its atmosphere. Our trips are always busy, filled with the visits of Glassworks, meetings with the glass artists and designers, tireless search for new products and fashion trends, and occasional stops to admire all the beauty around us. It is during these stops that we have often thought about a way to bring our clients not just the beautiful glass products created on Murano, but also the feeling of Venice’s fleeting beauty and the whole experience that is Murano Glass.

To achieve this we took our photographers and videographers along on one of our trips, who shot amazing footage of everything we experience when we visit Venice and Murano. We then spent weeks selecting the best moments and merging them together to make a film about Murano Glass like no other. Our unique film lets our clients and Murano Glass fans to experience Murano Glass in its entirety – from the surreal air of Venice, where this art was born, to the burning furnaces of the Glass Masters where it’s being created now, just like centuries ago.
We hope you enjoy this film and come to appreciate Murano Glass in a new way!

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Murano Glass Exhibitions in Venice

GlassOfVenice — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:35:56 +0000

Venice never ceases to amaze tourists not only with its unique beauty but also with the richness of its cultural heritage and the many museums and exhibitions that offer insights into Venetian history and art. Murano glass art has recently been in the spotlight, and two current exhibitions in Venice celebrate the contribution of two very prominent Murano glass creators – the Venini glassworks and Lino Tagliapietra – to the 20th century renaissance of this ancient Venetian art form.

The first exhibition dedicated to 90 years of Venini family glassworks is called NOVANTESIMO VENINI, 1921 – 2011, and is open until July 10, 2011 at the Murano Glass Museum. It highlights in chronological order the achievements of the famous Venetian glass masters from Venini Glass Company in the time span from 1921 through 2011 and features about 100 works characteristics of various artistic periods in the life of the company.

In another very exciting development, the first ever exhibition of the masterpieces created by world-famous Murano glass master Lino Tagliapetra is set up in Venice and will stay open until May 22, 2011 to the delight of all Venetian glass and Tagliapietra fans. The exhibition is housed in beautiful Grand Canal Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, the home of Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti and features a selection of the best art glass pieces created by the master in the last decade. Lino Tagliapietra, who was born in Murano, Italy in 1934, is one of the most prominent Venetian glass masters currently working, and his creations can be seen in galleries, museums, public spaces and private collections around the world.

If you are in Venice this Spring and Summer, we highly recommend that you visit one or both of these exhibitions for a rare in-depth look at the modern interpretation of the ancient art form that is so unique and characteristic of Venice.

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The Adventure of Murano Glass. A millennium of Venetian Glass Art.

GlassOfVenice — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:26:15 +0000

From its utilitarian beginnings in Roman Empire in the first century B.C. through the masterpieces in the heyday of Renaissance all the way to the unique artistic bloom of today, Murano glass has a rich and turbulent history that is not widely known or appreciated outside of Venice. Seeing or holding a piece of Murano glass jewelry, a beautiful goblet, or an elaborate vase, many people don’t realize what it took for this unique art form to survive and last into the modern times.

In the dark barbarian ages that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, glass-making deteriorated and glass was no longer in common use, though it was still produced by the artisans in Byzantium, Syria and Egypt. Eventually people living around the Venetian Lagoon managed to re-discover the secrets of glass-making somewhere around the 10th century A.D. as mentioned in a historical document dating back to 982 AD which refers to a monk named Domenico, who was a fiolario or bottle blower. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade allowed Venetians to understand the glass-making methods of the local artisans, who kept alive the techniques and knowledge of the Roman masters. Over the following centuries Venetian glass artisans continued to build upon these foundations, coming up with new glass-blowing techniques, so that by 1255 the craft became important enough for the glassmakers’ guild to emerge in Venice. In 1292 all the glass craftsmen were moved to Murano by the order of Venetian government, where glass-making further flourished and many complex techniques were developed. thus, glass-making turned into an art form as evidenced by the multitude of beautiful ornate glass items from goblets to mirrors to chandeliers produced during Renaissance. Starting in the 18th century Murano glass art experienced slow decline and eventual collapse when Venetian Republic fell in 1797. Virtually no glass-making activity took place in the next 30 years and many secrets of the craft were again lost in that time. Slow recovery started in the 1830’s but the glass makers did not enjoy the same fame as their predecessors, and appreciation of this ancient art did not return until the 20th century, when Murano glass masters started to mix the ancient techniques and contemporary art concepts resulting in beautiful works of glass art.

The history of Venetian glass making with its many ups and downs, and its latest revival due to the persistence and talent of the local masters is illustrated in the new exhibition in Venice’s famous Museo Correr. Organised chronologically in four sections, the exhibition contains over three hundred objects from the collection of the Murano Glass Museum, many of which have never been on display before. The exhibition runs from December 11th 2010 through April 25th 2011. We highly recommend visiting this exhibition if you are in Venice in this time period, so that you can appreciate not just the beauty of Venice but also the magic of glass that was born from this beauty, and the fight for survival of this ancient craft that has been going on for a thousand years.

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Finally, a perfect way to learn about Murano glass and experience its magic!

GlassOfVenice — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:53:02 +0000

Numerous times on various travel websites, forums, and blogs, including ours, travelers to Venice ask the question of whether and how to see a demo of Murano glass making without wasting precious time in Venice and experiencing an annoying sales pitch. GlassOfVenice is happy to report that finally there is a way for most people to learn more about this fascinating art and experience it first-hand in the studio of a famous Murano maestro at very reasonable cost and without being pushed into buying anything. This definitely makes it worthwhile to make a trip to Murano and see the world of artistic glass making with your own eyes.

The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and Murano Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro) together with Abate Zanetti Murano Glass School present GLASS IN ACTION, a comprehensive overview of the ages of Murano glass history. This one-of-a-kind begins with a guided tour of Murano Glass Museum, which has on display a unique and extensive collection of glassware from ancient Rome through Murano glass of the Renaissance period to modernity. After that it’s on to the Murano Glass School, for a glass working demonstration with an accomplished Murano glass maestro, and the viewing of a documentary film.

Use this unique opportunity to learn more about Murano glass at its birthplace and get enchanted by the birth of glass from the magic of fire and the skill of an artist. The cost of the entire program is just 15 euro per person, and it runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. English tours start at 2:30pm at the Murano Glass Museum (Fondamenta Giustinian 8, 30121 Murano, Italy).

Learn more about this program at the Murano Glass Museum’s website.

Learn more about Murano glass and its history at GlassOfVenice – About Murano Glass

Glass Jewelry: replacement for the ‘real stuff’ or a value in itself?

GlassOfVenice — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:51:09 +0000

Time changes everything, including our perceptions of what is valuable. Modern jewelry made of glass is considered ‘costume’ jewelry, or a replacement of the ‘real thing’ – made of precious stones. But that was not always the case. When Egyptians buried their adored king Tutankhamun in 1323 BC, they buried him with two famous necklaces: “necklace of the sun”, created from glass beads mixed with those made from gold and carnelian, and the ‘vulture collar’, made of solid gold inlaid with pieces of multicolored glass.

History of glass jewelry is the history of glass making itself, since the early glass was used almost exclusively as body ornament. Although scientists cannot agree if the oldest glass beads were made in Egypt or Mesopotamia, the oldest beads discovered by archeologists were found in Egypt and date to 12,000BC. They were simple and fairly crude beads made of clay with glass glaze.

Ancient Egyptians valued glass and glass jewelry enough to decorate their pharaohs with it. There is no doubt that pharaohs could afford ‘the real thing’, but there is a dispute if Egyptians used glass jewelry because they valued it so highly, or because they wanted to cheat grave robbers. Considering how difficult glass making was at that time and how rare was the knowledge of glass making, it is not difficult to believe that the glass jewelry was considered to be in the same league as that made from precious stones.

Another reason to believe the value ancient Egyptians afforded to glass jewelry is the quality of the workmanship and artistry invested in making pieces that survived to this day. The necklaces in Tutankhamen’s tomb were made of solid gold and glass was placed instead of precious stones not because of their lack, but because of intrinsic value they afforded to glass in its own right.
Since both Egyptians and Phoenicians used glass beads for trade, they were soon found all over the world, and with them the knowledge of their manufacture. Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Bohemian, Chinese and Indian glass makers started producing high quality glass beads and other objects. But, it was not until 14th century that murano glass bead-making reached its zenith in Murano, Italy. Murano glass artisans perfected the lampworking technique – glass rod heated with an oil lamp with a glass chimney. Molten glass was formed by blowing or shaping it with different tools and hand movements. Murano glass makers came up with a number of different bead making techniques that are today used all over the world. One of the most famous – millefiori, or thousand flowers – is today almost the synonym with murano glass bead making.

It is interesting that glass beads play important role in many cultures all over the world – from Africa to Borneo in Malaysia, but the glass beads for the tribal jewelry always had to be imported. Many Dayak ladies in Borneo are decorated with bead necklaces that have been in their family for generations, but the ladies would be very surprised to find out that the beads for them came very probably from Murano. And they are not the only ones: artisans all over the world importing famous murano glass beads and create unique glass jewelry according to their own artistic preferences and ideals. The world is becoming a very small place indeed.

Glass Jewelry – the World of Murano Glass Beads

GlassOfVenice — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:45:24 +0000

Glass jewelry has been around for thousands of years, to enhance necks, fingers, ears and clothes of ladies and gentlemen, rich and poor, all over the world. They are adorning ladies of Masai in Africa, of Dayak in Borneo or of Hopi in the New World. Like drops of light, colorful beads are woven, strung, melted or imbedded, to form thousands of shapes and forms, often kept in the same family or tribe for hundreds of years.

Modest beginning

It all starts with a bag of sand. It is truly fascinating how human ingenuity could transform what is basically ordinary silica sand, with some additional ingredients and a lot of fire, into such a magical medium as glass. It is even more fascinating to see the result of that same ingenuity, imagination and vision, which transformed glass into a number of different forms, using techniques invented through history. And to make the story even more fascinating, most of the glass jewelry making techniques were invented on a small island of Murano, near Venice in Italy. Once invented, the techniques remained more or less the same through centuries.

There are several major types of beads that are used all over the world to make glass jewelry.

Seed bead or conterie

Seed beads are made from hollow thin glass tubes that are cut very fine and then re-fired to smooth the edges and add color. They are used to make intricate glass jewelry and festive clothes, especially wedding gowns. Seed beads have been used for centuries all over the world, and in many different parts of the world they became a part of native culture and art expression. Contemporary artists and artisans are also using seed beads to create jewelry which is limited in shape and form only by the artists’ imagination. In the past, making bead jewelry in Murano was the job of women, while all other aspects of murano glass making were almost exclusively the domain of men.

Rosetta or Chevron beads

Rosetta beads were invented in Murano in 14th century. They are made similarly to seed beads, from hollow glass canes. The canes were formed from six layers of glass of distinctive colors: white, blue, white, brick red, white and blue again. Once cut, the canes were made into beads with patterns of 5 concentric circles with twelve points.

Millefiori beads

Millefiori beads are made by melting together canes of different colors, which were cut once cold, to produce intricate patterns, which resemble lace. They are one of the most famous products of murano glass and are used in many spectacular ways to make extremely beautiful glass jewelry and works of art.

Blown Beads

Invention of lampwork technique, which allowed glass makers to heat glass with an oil lamp and shape it with different tools while hot, offered bead makers a whole new field of creativity. They found out that they could melt already produced canes and then blow the glass, creating very intricate shapes, which were then cut into beads. This method is called Filigrana, and is now copied all over the world. Some contemporary artists are using this ancient murano glass technique to produce spectacular, but not always wearable, glass jewelry. It is not easy to hang around the neck a necklace made of fragile large sky blue blown beads, like those made by well known glass artist Giorgio Vigna, shown recently at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Each blown bead has to be made by hand and each is a piece of art in itself, even before artists add their own imagination to their placement. Some contemporary glass artists blow their own beads, but many import them from Murano.

Lampwork or Perle a Lume Beads

Lampwork is also used to make wound beads, made by melting glass over a mandrel (a core). Originally, the Murano beads were wound over a ferrous mandrel called “fango”. Since this word means mud in Italian, it is said that the mud was taken from the Venice lagoon, adding to the mystery of these beautiful beads.

Since the Moretti Murano family started using copper mandrel in 1920s, this method became standard in making wound beads, and it also allowed for some interesting forms. The mandrel was cut off just below the bead and the bead was dunked in nitric acid. The acid dissolved the copper inside the bead and etched the interior surface in interesting patterns. Today, most murano glass bead makers use stainless steel or silver, for more delicate beads.

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Murano Glass School – From Murano to the World

GlassOfVenice — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:19:32 +0000

Humans have been making glass objects for thousands of years. Whether it was Egyptians or Phoenicians who were the first to create beautiful glass objects from simple silica sand, it was not until Murano glass artists united on the small island near Venice that the glass-making reached the peak of its creativity. Murano glass artists came up with a whole range of techniques of manipulating glass into breathtakingly beautiful objects that for more than thousand years are the synonym with magnificent glass. But, it is not only techniques that became famous exports from Murano. It was also a unique way of looking at the glass and incorporating artistic expression with possibilities that glass as a medium offers.

Through centuries, Murano glass artists have been adapting to the change in styles and customers’ demands, to produce, and even dictate, the glass art style. But, Murano is not exporting only its famous glass art objects and techniques used even today all over the world. They are also exporting the knowledge, through a number of famous murano glass art schools. One of the most famous is Abate Zanetti Glass School in Murano, an offshoot of the murano glass design school created in the 1860’s.

Abate Zanetti Glass School was created to serve young people of Murano island who wish to continue in their fathers’ and grandfathers’ footsteps. But, the school created so much interest that now it offers also short-term courses, for all skill levels, as short as a weekend and as long as few weeks. The classes are taught by the best glass-makers of Murano such as maestro Pino Signoretto. Each course is booked a long time in advance, by glass artists and glass enthusiasts from all over the world.

The School continues in the footsteps of one of the historic glass art institutions in Murano, the Drawing School for Murano glassworkers, established in 1862 by the Abbott Vincenzo Zanetti.

The building which houses the school is part of Murano glass history as well. Originally built in the 1930’s, it has been restored to preserve the original character of the traditional Venetian palace. Regardless of its traditional looks, it is built as a school, with big rooms for classes and exhibitions, a hall for lectures, beautiful garden and well-equipped library.

The mission of the Abate Zanetti Glass School is to remain the guardian of old Murano glass traditions and is quickly gaining reputation as a central point of Glass art in Murano. In the school, famous glass-making families share their knowledge and trade secrets with new generations of artists, from Murano and elsewhere. Their goal is also to pass on the love, the passion and the unique artistic style and high standards in glass making.

The courses in the school are covering all the most famous Murano techniques in forming glass, like glassblowing and solid working. The students learning glassblowing technique are creating different objects: Venetian goblets, plates and vases, decorated using various techniques such as filigree, reticella filigree, murrina, and incalmo.

Fusing, a popular contemporary glass technique, is also taught in the school. Fusing, or slumping, allows the glass sheet to be formed, at high temperatures, into different artistic forms. Students who learn fusing can work on stained glass, sculptures and glass jewelry.

Lampworking is another ancient technique which reached its peak in Murano that is now taught students from different countries. Glass rods of different thickness are softened by heat from the ‘lamp’ heated by methane gas and oxygen. Once pliable, rods are shaped with different tools, making small decorative objects and beads of all sizes and shapes.

The Abate Zanetti Glass School also offers small group or private lessons if requested. The School teachers and maestros are also available to work with individual artists and designers on their projects.

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The Story of Millefiori – Thousand Years of Glass Flowers

GlassOfVenice — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:02:56 +0000

For connoisseurs of glass art, murano glass invokes images of almost thousand years of tradition, inventiveness and forms that followed styles and demands of particular times. But for majority of people, Murano glass is the synonym for beautiful objects decorated with tiny colorful glass flowers – millefiori. Italian for ‘thousand flowers’.

The term “millefiori” was used to describe mosaic beads first time by the London glass maker Apsley Pellatt, in his book “Curiosities of Glass Making”. Today, the term millefiori is used not only to describe colorful glass flowers, but a glass making technique that survived centuries of changes of fashions and styles and is now popular on all continents. New technologies enable glass makers now to produce these beautiful glass objects for a fraction of the price and make it possible even for people with small budgets to own a unique Murano glass art piece. But, what every owner of Murano millefiori glass piece should know is that their precious Murano millefiori pendants or vases have long and interesting history.

The path which this wonderful technique took until it came to Murano glass makers, who refined it and made it famous all over the world, is long and curious. It is believed that Egyptians first came to the idea to fuse different colored glass between the third and the first century B.C. After them, Phoenicians and Romans also came to the same idea. It would be interesting to know if they influenced each other, or the same idea came to different artists in different countries independently.

The oldest intricate and very well preserved Roman Millefiori beads were found by archeologists, who believe that they were made between 50BCE and 300CE.

Romans brought the technique to Europe and some glass rods were found on 8th century archaeological sites in Ireland. Some millefiori-decorated jewelry was found in Sutton Hoo, the early 7th century Anglo-Saxon cemetery.

Nobody knows how and why it happened, but after 8th century the knowledge of making millefiori glass was lost and not seen again until 15th century, when Murano glass makers rediscovered it, or maybe reinvented it, and made it famous all over the world.

It is difficult to imagine that such complex and intricate designs like millefiori decorations and beads start as simple, thin glass rods called “murrine”. The rods of different colors are fused together in high heat, stretched to the desired thickness while hot, and then cut into fine segments. Depending on the color of rods, each cut segment shows differently colored flower. The flowers look so real and vivid, like they were created by nature, just for our pleasure. Once cooled, each ‘flower’ is fused into a hot glass object like a vase, paperweight, lamp, or is set in gold or silver and made into a piece of jewelry.

Although thousands of millefiori objects are made in Murano today, they are still made by Murano glass makers by hand, and each piece is unique. The technique is now used by glass makers all over the world, but it is easy to recognize intricate and vividly colorful art typical for Murano.

At GlassOfVenice.com, We feel that the handmade colorful and precious murano glass objects allow us to go back in time and capture the fragile beauty of Venice, and we are happy to share this opportunity with our customers worldwide.
Please see our wide selection of millefiori and other murano glass objects at at www.GlassOfVenice.com
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Glass of the Venetian Lagoon exhibition in Altino, Italy

GlassOfVenice — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:24:43 +0000

A new exhibition opened up at the Archaeological Museum in Altino, Italy this May is dedicated to the long and rich history of glass making in the region. Named “Altino. Glass of the Venetian Lagoon”, the exhibition showcases over 400 glass objects dating to as early as the II century B.C. (time when the area was a part of ancient Rome) and created using the techniques that have been later re-discovered by Murano glass masters. Thus, this exhibition provides a perfect way to better understand the origins of Murano glass making and allows us to trace the continuity between the ancient glass of Altino and Murano glass.

The pieces on display include not only various ancient household items such as bottles, jugs, glasses, cups, saucers, but also glass jewelry created using some very complicated glass making techniques perfected in Roman era such as blowing glass and shaping it in a mould, filigrana (ribbon-like effect), and millefiori.

The exhibition will run till November 30th, 2010 and is located in Archaeological National Museum, Altino (in Veneto region not far from Treviso). It is open every day from 8:30am till 7:30pm