Take your home decor to a new level with our handmade Venetian and Murano Glass drawer pulls. Each knob or pull is made in the furnaces of Murano. Available in a variety of colors and styles.
Venetian Glass Art is a direct importer of the finest Venetian Glass and Murano Glass working directly with the furnaces in Murano. We carry the finest in Venetian Glass Jewelry, Venetian Chandeliers, Venetian Glass Lamps, Venetian Glass Mirrors, Venetian Wine Glasses, Venetian Glass Wine Stoppers, Murano Glass, Venetian Vases, Murano Glass Vases, Murano Glass Chandeliers, Millefiori Pendants, Murano Glass Jewelry, made with Murano Beads and Venetian Beads. We specialize in Corporate Gifts, customized for your Promotion or Incentive. We have been working with the furnaces in Venice continuously since 1993 and an online store since 1998. We ship worldwide. Join our free email list to receive promotional information, incentives and news from Venice and Murano.
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Murano Glass Terms and Techniques Avventurina (or aventurina - the Venetian spelling) a type
of glass first produced around 1542 which achieved the suspension
of small cristals of copper. The small particles appear like gold
in the light and are used in both blown Venetian glass and particularly
in Venetian beads.
D'Oro decorated with goldfoil. Furnaces use 24kt gold foil
sheet applied to the glass and then fired in by reheating in the
furnace. Also references to Ca'd'oro refer the the palace on the
Grande Canal which originally was decorated in gold leaf. Used often
in Ventian wine glasses and many Venetian beads go by this name
but almost always found in Venetian Glass Chandeliers.
Gloryhole - A barrel shaped furnace heated on all sides by gas
jets used for reheating pieces during the blowing process. Many
furnaces in Murano use the heat from just above the pots of glass
in the furnace.
Fenicio - the technique of applying ribbons of color which
are then with an instrument pulled perpendicularly through the ribbons
creates waves in the ribbons, today used not only in Murano glass, Venetian beads, but also can be seen in pastries!
Fermacarte - glass paperweights, the techniques developed
in 1854 by Pietro Bigaglia of Murano where he encased the slices
of canes (millefiori) in transparent glass. Today the tradition
lives on as Murano glass paperweights are collected around the world
and still made on the island of Murano.
Filigrana is a technique very complicated that begins with
canes of colored glass prepared on a tray in exact intervals. The
glass blower blows a bubble which he elongates to fit the length
of the canes and carefully rolls the bubble over the canes. Reheating
the canes to melt into the bubble the glassblower twists the bubble
while blowing to give a swirl in the colored lines which results
in a diamond like shape between the intersections when viewed from
the side. An elegant simple design deceptive in its difficulty.
Popular in Murano glass lighting and Murano Glass lamps as well
as Venetian wine glasses or Murano Glass perfume bottles.
Fusion a process of melting glass to a temperature to just
the heat where the pieces fuse together but do not run to produce
flat pieces. The glass is arranged while cold, often from sheets
of glass or millefiori (small slices of canes) and set into kilns.
It requires a period to reach the fusion point and a slow cool down
to prevent the junctions of the glasses from cracking. Fusion is
used in our flat Venetian Glass pendants, or in our Murano glass
picture frames or in certain Murano glass paperweights.
Goto a glass or cup made by each Murano glass maestro for
drinking in the furnace, not too tall, stable for sitting on the
bench and personalized to be recognizable - and often a bit of a
contest and very whimscal.
Lume or lampwork is the tecnhique of working the glass in
front of a torch (lumè). Working with the glass canes, lampworkers
create miniature animals, figurines, Murano glass candy (caramelle)
and best known of course, Murano glass beads.
Maestro - the senior member of a Murano glass blowing team,
becoming a Maestro (or literally teacher) requires years of experience
and the ability to direct without words the apprentices (serventi)
who aid the Maestro in creating the glass masterpieces. There are
4 tipes of Maestro. Maestro of spechi (mirrors), Maestro of supiadi
(blown items such as Venetian vases, Venetian drinking glasses,
etc), Maestro of cana (making of the canes used so many ways, and
Maestro of smalti e rubini (mosiac - like the Salviati firm)
. Millefiori - means thousand flowers in Italian and refers
to the slices of Murrina used in producing the mosaic like Venetian
vases, pendants and Venetian beads.
Murrìna is the individual slice of a cane whose cross
section reveals multiple layers of colors and shapes. These are
made in the furnaces of Murano by layering colors of glass, using
forms to create the shape, adding layers of color until a large
ball is formed. Attaching a pontelo to the other side the two glass
blowers walk away from each other and as they do so, the shapes
miniaturize preserving their original form. The canes are chopped
into small pieces and used in the decorations of a sundry of Murano
glass objects, vases, bowls, pendants.
Pontèlo - punti in English is the rod used by the
Murano glass blowers to transfer the blown piece from the blow pipe
or for sculptured pieces, the rod used to gather the glass and work
the item.
Sabbiata - a matte finish to the Venetian glass which
is done by sandblasting (sabbia is sand in italian) or by acid etch
of the glass. Often used in decorations by masking with tapes the
part to remain glossy and used also in Murano glass beadmaking.
Sommerso - the technique where successive layers of color
or gold foil and clear glass are applied over a base color. This
technique is also used often in Venetian and Murano beadmakers and
they often use aventurina as a decoration.
Zanfirico - similar to filigrana, but the color inside the
canes is twisted appearing like a twisted ribbon of color, the canes
are laid down following the filigrana method for applying to the
bubble and blowing. Typical uses are in the Venetian glass lighting,
wine glasses, vases, and perfume bottles.