In the early 1400’s, on Murano, a reddish precious glass with gold speckles was created called “Goldstone” or “Avventurina” in Venetian. This century also saw the development of Lattimo commonly called Milk Glass today because it resembles a rich milky coloration.
Soon after, Calcedonia was born bringing vibrant metallic colours in fascinating striations to decorative glass pieces.
Filigrana was developed in Murano in the 1500’s by working rods of glass onto the surface of the works to give a striped appearance. The Murano artisan named Francesco Zeno is credited with its invention.
The Millefiori (thousand flowers in Italian) method of arranging colourful slices of canes stretched and drawn from moulded shapes (murrine) and arranged in mosaic designs was brought to Murano from North East African and has mesmerized the world to this day.
Even the 20th century was active in reviving the craft of glass making to restore the glory of Murano. New techniques were brought to life such as Sommerso (meaning submerged) requires the dipping of one coloured glass into a different coloured glass creating a glass-within-a-glass scenario.
More complicated canes such as Millefiori or Murrine have an additional process. Immediately after the first gather is removed from the furnace, the molten blob is pressed into a “dip mould” that gives it its shape (often resembling a multifaceted star with many ridges). The moulded blob is then returned to another furnace to gather another layer of different coloured molten glass. This double gathered blob is dipped into a slightly larger dip mould. This process continues for as many times as the design requires and then the drawing process continues as normal.
The world famous Effetre Murano SRL, and sole glass producer on the island of Murano, was previously known as Moretti due to its founding by Vincenzo Moretti in the late 1800’s. They produce the finest glass canes (rods) in the world. Their methods and mixtures are highly protected secrets like in the days of the Republic of Venezia.
VENESSORI has developed relationships with Murano’s finest designers and artisans. Our designers create masterpieces of glass art by applying know-how passed on through generations and perfectly integrate Murano beads and pendants with contemporary accessories Made in Italy.
VENESSORI works directly with Artisans in the development phase to produce a final collection of beads worthy of the term “Glass Art” – each bead having unique characteristics while conforming to the vision of the designer and the talent of each artisan.
VENESSORI Collections may employ the use of the finest quality supporting beads on necklaces, bracelets and accessories in order to enhance the Murano Beads and pendants much like lesser flowers are used so highlight beautiful long-stem red roses in a bouquet.
