An Insight into Murano Glass Lamp working Technique

Lamp working can be considered, related to the process which occurs in the furnace, the other major branch of Murano glass making techniques. It is an operation mostly solitary, during which the craftsman or artist is face to face with the vitreous material to which is ideally and practically connected via the flame of the torch - also called “Cannello”.

It is a method of ancient origin, evolved from century to century, decade by decade, supported by technological inventions developed gradually over time. The name itself reveals the beginning: the heat necessary to melt the glass was obtained from the flame of a candle lamp fed from the air conveyed by a bellows activated by foot. Through the years, this simple instrumentation has been replaced by a metallic tube connected to a propane or methane gas cylinder, nowadays mostly reinforced by oxygen emissions for increasing the temperature of the burning beam that is directed onto the glass.

Murano and Borosilicate glass: the only limit is the creativity of the artist

The two main strands of the lamp working technique are structured on two different types of glass: borosilicate glass, harder and more durable material that requires more heat to be worked, and the Murano glass, composed of sodium and calcium, more ductile, with a longer tradition and far more widespread in the island factories.

Both the processes based on the two types of glass involve the construction of objects through the development of filled and blown bodies. Regarding the creation of filled bodies, the range of items that can be extracted from the vitreous mass is huge, and has as main limitation the artist's creativity: from classic pearls that could become pendants or necklaces to sculptures of plants and animals, from cats to horses; from elephants to beetles; fish and ducks, in a fancy swirl that can only enchant the viewer's eye and stimulate his/her own curiosity.

The starting point of lamp working is the sphere in almost all cases. To obtain the sphere, the artisan or the artist heats the glass rod (a semi-finished product that is sold in three different shades: transparent, pastel and opaline, for an almost unlimited range of color variations) under the flame, turning the wrist forward and backward in order to round up the rod’s end and transform it in a glowing sphere.

At that point, depending on what the product has to be created, lamp workers can use various tools and specific movements for shaping the material until it takes on the desired appearance. One can rub the sphere on the “Bronzin" (the flat metal plate placed above the torch) withcalm, rotator gestures, in order to impart to the melt a more cylindrical form (operation called "Marmorizar") or press it on the same surface but in a different way, with a greater inclination towards the edge, exerting the force necessary to bring out a tip ("Pontizar" in jargon).

In order to facilitate the grip on the glowing sphere,a second rod is used in many cases, generally of lesser thickness, called "Ponteo": once in contact with the sphere, the lamp worker maintains its temperature slightly lower than the molten glass’s one, so to be able to use the "Ponteo" like an operational wand without mixing it with the hot mass in the definition phase.

A real magic is handed down from generation to generation, reinvented every day when the individual craftsman or artist sits behind the stem and leaves free rein to his imagination. Lamp working is a unique charm that takes on its full significance in the workshops scattered through the streets and the “fondamente” of the Island of the Glass.

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Murano Glass Sculptures within the Furnace and Tools Used to Make Them

The furnace’s two favourite techniques are, undoubtedly, the blowing glass and the massiccio, or massello, or full glass.These are the three synonym expressions that seek to define the marvellous sculpture process of the glass matter. Unlike the blowing one, capable of conferring lightness by the fusion of voids and filled spaces to the artwork, the massello technique is structured like the dynamic elaboration of one quantity of matter, or like a progressive addiction of vitreous graft around a primary central nucleus. The horizon of sculpture possibilities is limitless: from classic horses of roughly 20 cm to life-size animals; from miniatures of human figures to colossuses in the most disparate positions; from massive abstract artworks to elegant furniture capable of enriching any room with the spell of a form of art which cannot be found elsewhere.

The Master’s main tools…after his own hands

In Murano furnaces, the Master’s creative genius and ability are already revealed from centuries, constituting time to time a pantheon of names, faces, and moreover hands: heritage in constant expansion of the glass island, generation to generation. Fundamental support to the creation of an artwork by the massello technique is the arsenal of tools which the artist uses within his daily, fascinating work. Take a look at these tools underneath.

The Scagno is a particular seat on which the master frequently sits to facilitate his work. It is fitted with two large armrests cladded of metal sheets, on which the artist can put the rod in constant rotation, facilitating the manipulation of the bolo (the first quantity of incandescent glass extracted from the crogiolo) and the possible, viscous successive addictions.

The Canna – a metal tube completely drilled, often simply called ferro – is roughly 1.5m long and with a diameter of 2/4cm. It is the main tool in both the blowing techniques and the massello ones. In the latter, such rod is used to pick on one extremity of the vitreous mass, to work it later with other tools. The rod is constantly kept in rotation for avoiding imperfections given by gravity.

The Puntello is a rod used by an assistant of the master ordered to put other agglomerates in contact with the present one on the rod of the Master, in order to create crafts of various dimensions and forms. The puntello can get to the Master’s hands in some particular phases of glassmaking.

The Borselle are metal pliers of main importance in the massello technique. They are used to stretch the viscous glass and there are many types of them, in accordance with the specific tasks that they have to carry out: da siègar – that is, to saw – for dividing two quantities of matter; da pissegar, to string the glass lengthening it in some points; a sculeoto or a scuregoto, ending with two protuberances similar to spoons; a gelosia, with the extremities bearded with a particular frame which is impressed on the glass; a spin de pesse with a frame similar to a fishbone; lissie if it has a plain structure, not intended to the pressure decoration, but only to the stretching action.

The Tagliente is similar to a robust scissor with straight or rounded blades, according to the desired cut which has to be done in the first stages of the glass processing.

The Tajòl is a kind of knife with a square tip used to engage with the vitreous mass aiming at shaping it.

The Magiosso is a tool which seems a small pot with a hollow hemispherical shape and a handle, completely in wood. It is used to round the hot molten glass, in combination with the constant rotation of the rod.

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Chalcedony Glass of Murano: An Ancient Glass, Forgotten and Then Rediscovered

Murano glass artwork is a particular and defined universe which has never ceased to evolve, redefine, explore and reinvent itself since the 1291 with the issuance of the Decree ratified by Serenissima to move the furnaces to the island.

The cases in which, over this path of more than seven centuries, particular compounds were forgotten and then rediscovered are not lacking in the chronicle of this fabulous artwork. In this long period, indeed, there were times when the search for ancient techniques like chalcedony glass making was really central to the Murano Masters’ horizon of interests.

The second half of the nineteenth century is emblematic. Considering that until about 1850 the aesthetic experiment was still dominated by Renaissance and Baroque taste, in the following decades it was possible to undertake an in-depth analysis of archaeological finds collected in various museums, including Etruscan, Pompeian, Roman, Phoenician and Assyrian objects.

The Rediscovery of Chalcedony Glass

In this somehow philological spirit of glass studies there is also the rediscovery of chalcedony glass, whose composition had been encoded in the lagoon towards the middle of the fifteenth century, but then, after about a couple of centuries, felt into oblivion.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, this resource of Muranian glass work arose from her ashes thanks to the Master Lorenzo Radi, a curious and great innovator in the field of artistic production. This true reconquest of the creativity allowed the island to regain one of the most precious gems of its own collection.

The 3 Distinctive Features of Chalcedony Glass

The Name: The reference to gemstones or value stones is not entirely confined to metaphor.In this case, in fact, the chalcedony glass takes its name from a variant of quartz, the one in which it appears as a compact mass of microcrystalline silica, already used in antiquity as a decorative element for the creation of cams and carvings.

The Variety: But, the chromatic range of chalcedony glass does not stop at a single type of stone. In the vast and unpredictable color varieties that this vitreous typology embraces, it is possible to recognise all the nuances of agate, onyx, malachite, lapis lazuli and jasper.

The Composition: Particularly difficult to realize, chalcedony glass has the peculiarity of joining the canonical glass sphere with silver salts and other coloring oxides.This extraordinary chemical process, coupled with the talent of the Masters of Murano, allows the creation of wonderful works in which an opaque background is streaked with enchanting warm and dark shades, a real turbine of lights and shadows capable of ravishing even the eyes of the most experienced observer.

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