A tribute to Venetian extravagance and decadence, one of the most interesting introductions for the 2012 Carnival will be the Wine Fountain set up in St. Mark’s Square. Set up in front of the Doge’s Palace, this unusual fountain will cast out fine wines produced in Venice which will be offered to the public. Carnival will be opened on February 4th with the official toast made by this Fountain, and, after the opening toast, in a truly Venetian enchanting scene, everyone will be dancing waltz in the Piazzetta San Marco.

Another important part of the Carnival festivities is “The Angel Flight”, a traditional flight of a secret guest of the city of Venice, from the top of the bell tower of St. Mark’s down to the centre of the square. An internationally acclaimed star, whose name has not yet been revealed, will wear a gorgeous Carnival costume and the magical flight will pay homage to the events of the centuries past.

The Venetian Carnival will end on Tuesday, February 21st 2012, with the Rowing of Silence: a picturesque procession of ornate historical boats along the Grand Canal from Rialto to St. Mark’s Square with no artificial lighting. All the gorgeous palaces overlooking the largest Venetian Canal will be lit entirely by candles, and motor boat traffic will be prohibited, recreating the atmosphere of Venice in the middle ages and allowing us to see the magical and unreal Venice just the way it appeared to the travelers centuries ago.

Whether you manage to travel to Italy for the Carnival or choose to stay at home, we hope you don’t forget another important festival of Love that we celebrate here in the U.S. – The Valentine’s Day. And what better way to show your love than with a piece of authentic Murano Glass created right in the Capital of Romance, the timeless and beautiful city of Venice!

To help you celebrate and announce your love we announce Special Valentine’s Day Sale from GlassOfVenice.

We invite you to take advantage of our limited time Valentine’s Day Special and get 15% OFF everything on our website when you use coupon VALSALE15 during Checkout until February 15th, 2012. Plus, as always, get free shipping in the U.S. on all orders over $100 and discounted shipping on all other orders.

To get your own piece of artistic Murano Glass, please see our wide selection of authentic Murano Glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

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This year Venice set up its largest skating rink ever on Piazza San Polo surrounded by a traditional Christmas market. At the market you can buy Murano Glass, Venetian masks, and other local artisanal products, as well as try great local food and wine. When you get tired of skating and feel like getting a culture fix, you can visit a very interesting exhibition in Murano Glass Museum on the island of Murano, entitled “1861-2011: UN’ISOLA, UN’ARTE, UN MUSEO” (translated as “One Island, One Art, One Museum”). This retrospective exhibition dedicated to the long history of Murano glass-making offers insight into Murano Glass tradition and showcases almost two hundred of the most significant items in the Museum’s collection made in the last 150 years.

If you are in Venice over the Holidays, you will get a chance to enjoy some colorful centuries-old Christmas traditions honored here and in the rest of Italy. One of them is Messa di Mezzanotte, Christmas Mass that starts around midnight. After the Christmas dinner, families head out and walk brightly decorated streets to a candle-lit church, where choirs sing Christmas songs and create true Christmas spirit. Evoking spiritual traditions of the centuries past, festive and beautiful Messa di Mezzanotte is an event not to be missed.

After Christmas, all eyes turn to the New Years with its own share of colorful celebrations and interesting traditions. Make sure to eat lentils on December 31st to attract money and riches in the new year. Lentils symbolize coins, and, according to the Italian tradition, the more you eat, the more money you’ll get. On New Year’s eve, most Italians serve their lentils with either cotechino (pork sausage) or zampone (pig’s trotter stuffed with the same filling as cotechino). After this feast, head to Piazza San Marco, where New Year celebrations take place. The festivities focused on beauty and romance and entitled “The Love Celebration” will continue through the night and culminate with the spectacular fireworks over the Venetian Lagoon.

Whether you manage to travel to Italy this Holiday season or just enjoy reading about Venice and Italy, we hope you get a cue from Italians and remember to take a break to enjoy good food, festive atmosphere, art, and the company of friends.

Happy Holidays from all of us at GlassOfVenice and best wishes for happy and prosperous New Year!

Holiday Sale Reminder

Remember to take advantage of our limited time Holiday Special and get 15% OFF everything on our website when you use coupon DECSALE15 during Checkout until January 1st, 2012. Plus, as always, get free shipping in the U.S. on all orders over $100 and discounted shipping on all other orders.

To get your own piece of artistic Murano Glass, please see our wide selection of authentic Murano Glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

Become our Fan on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter @GlassOfVenice to stay up to date on our promotions and updates.

Please see our wide selection of authentic murano glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

Follow us on Twitter @GlassOfVenice to stay up to date on our promotions and updates.

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!

To get your own piece of artistic Murano Glass, please see our wide selection of authentic Murano Glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

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Glasstress runs from June 4 to November 27, 2011 and is held at Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti and the Berengo Centre of Contemporary Art and Glass in Venice, Italy.

After Venice Biennale Glasstress will present travelling Murano Glass exhibitions around the world, including one in New York City.

To get your own piece of artistic Murano Glass, please see our wide selection of authentic Murano Glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

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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.

To learn more about Murano glass history and techniques, please visit GlassOfVenice.com

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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.

To learn more about Murano glass history and techniques, please visit GlassOfVenice.com

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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

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.

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.

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 authentic murano glass at www.GlassOfVenice.com

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