Can any one help me....whenener i go selling stuff, you always get people saying...is it Murano glass? or my friend has a lovely Murano glass this or that. The thing that gets me is all the 'Murano glass' beads/pendants u can buy well cheap and i dont know what to say back to them....its like i cant say my stuff is any good cos its not Murano...what do u others say to these people...??
Thanks
Confused...Tracy xx
i thought maurno was glass made in that part of italy (venice?) ...and its the one people know ...think its a bit like no one else can call their bubbly stuff champagne cus it aint from there ???....but some will anyway !!
just tell them it is made using same skills ,glass and techniques but as not from venice cannot be called maurno ...... :P
Yes, good one...they seem to think the quality of the glass etc is far superior to what u have if it isnt from Murano. I will have to call mine Bury St Edmunds glass or something cos thats where the bead was born ;)
Do we any of us use Murano without realising it tho, can we buy murano for bead making or is it out of bounds?
xx
Well, a lot of 104COE glass is made in Italy (at least, I think that's where Effetre and Moretti still are... ), so you could maybe say that the glass is Murano but the piece is even better because it is handcrafted in the UK :)
You'll still be more honest than most of those ebay "Murano" listings, and probably a number of shops ???
Hi Murano is an Island nea Venice and that is where the ral Murano is made .
Wickepedia
Murano glass has been a famous product of the Venetian island of Murano for centuries. Located off the shore of Venice, Italy, Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th century. By the 10th century it had become a well-known city of trade. Today Murano remains a destination for tourists and art and jewellery lovers alike.
[edit] History of Murano Glassmaking
It is believed that glassmaking in Murano originated from the 9th century Rome, with significant Asian and Muslim influences, as Venice was a major trading port. Murano's reputation as a centre for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire and destruction to the city's mostly wood buildings, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291. Murano glass is still interwoven with Venetian glass.
Murano's glassmakers were soon the island's most prominent citizens. By the 14th century, glassmakers were allowed to wear swords, enjoyed immunity from prosecution by the Venetian state and found their daughters married into Venice's most affluent families. However glassmakers were not allowed to leave the Republic. Many craftsmen took this risk and set up glass furnaces in surrounding cities and as far afield as England and the Netherlands.
By the end of the 16th century, three thousand of Murano island's seven thousand inhabitants were involved in some way in the glassmaking industry.
Murano's glassmakers held a monopoly on quality glassmaking for centuries, developing or refining many technologies including crystalline glass, enamelled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicoloured glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. Today, the artisans of Murano are still employing these century-old techniques, crafting everything from contemporary art glass and glass jewellery to Murano glass chandeliers and wine stoppers.
Today, Murano is home to a vast number of factories and a few individual artist studios making all manner of glass objects from mass marketed stemware to original sculpture. The Museo Vetrario or Glass Museum in the Palazzo Giustinian, which holds displays on the history of glassmaking as well as glass samples ranging from Egyptian times through the present day.
Murano Glass was produced in great quantities in the 1950s and 1960s for export and for tourists.[1]
[edit] The Art of Glassmaking
The process of making Murano glass is rather complex. Most Murano glass art is made using the lampworking technique. The glass is made from silica which becomes liquid at high temperatures. As the glass passes from a liquid to a solid state, there is an interval when the glass is soft before it hardens completely. This is when the glass-master can shape the material.
[edit] Murano glass today
Some of the Murano's historical glass factories remain today as well known brands, amongst them Venini, Barovier & Toso, Pauly, and Seguso. The oldest glass factory is Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano, founded in 1866.
Orange Murano Beads
Murano Millefiori Pendant[edit] Materials
The other raw materials, called flux or melting agents, soften at lower temperatures. The more sodium oxide present in the glass, the slower it solidifies. This is important for hand-working because it allows the glassmaker more time to shape the material. The various raw materials that an artisan might add to a glass mixture are sodium (to make the glass surface opaque), nitrate and arsenic (to eliminate bubbles) and colouring or opacifying substances.
[edit] Colours, techniques and materials
Colours, techniques and materials vary depending upon the look a glassmaker is trying to achieve. Aquamarine is created through the use of copper and cobalt compounds whereas ruby red uses a gold solution as a colouring agent. Murrine technique begins with the layering of colored liquid glass, which is then stretched into long rods called canes (seecaneworking). When cold, these canes then sliced in cross-section, which has the layered pattern. The better-known term "millefiori" is a style of murrine that is defined by each layer of molten color being shaped by a mold into a star, then cooled and layered again. When sliced, this type of murrine has many points (thus mille (thousand). Filigree a type of caneworking, incalmo, enamel painted, engraving, gold engraving, lattimo, ribbed glass and submersion are just a few of the other techniques a glassmaker can employ.
[edit] Sommerso
Sommerso (lit. "submerged" in Italian), or "sunken glasses", is a form of artistic Murano glass that has layers of contrasting colors (typically 2), which are formed by dipping the object in molten glass; the outermost layer, or casing, is often clear. Sommerso was first formed in Murano during the late thirties, made popular by Seguso d'Arte in the fifties. This process is a popular technique for vases, and is sometimes used to form sculptures.
[edit] Tools
It is essential that Murano artisans use tools in the making of their glass. Some of these tools include borselle (tongs or pliers used to hand-form the red-hot glass), canna da soffio (blowing pipe), pontello (an iron rod to which the craftsman attaches the object after blowing in order to add final touches), scagno (the glass-master's workbench) and tagianti (large glass-cutting clippers
Thanks...if i can put that in a nutshell that i can remember i will be laughing. I knew aboutthe island of Murano and that.....I just wanted to know the difference in the quality of the glass that we use....maybe i will ask the public what they know about Murano and what it is about it that makes is so special to them??
I just feel a bit at a loss for words when they are clearly wearing pendant that u can buy on the net for a quid and they are a bit hoyty toyty about it..ya know....any way ..thanks...xxx
I believe that Effetre (Moretti) and Vetrofond are made in Murano, so you can point that out to your customers. Murano glass has the 'name' that people have heard of.
What I tell my customers is that I use Murano glass and also some of the new (posh) designer glass from Double Helix, Northstar, CiM and some of the expensive German glass like Lauscha, Reichenbach etc as well!
Hi!
If you use Moretti glass, you DO use Murano-Glass. Most lampworkers there still use Moretti (or effetre, as the company is called now) glass. The glass is still made on the island. So you can say: Yes, I use Murano glass, but the bead was made by me.
Vetrofond is not made on Murano, but near Venice. The people who founded Vetrofond once worked for Moretti, so it could maybe also be called Muranoglass.
Aha...thanks all...that is what i wanted...So i do use it but i make it here...fantastic..will 'nutshellise' those replies and then i can have a half arsed idea of what i'm talking about.....you lot are just soooooo gorgeous..
Tracy xxxxxxxxx
Quote from: chocolateteapot on October 09, 2009, 01:36:10 PM
Thanks...if i can put that in a nutshell that i can remember i will be laughing. I knew aboutthe island of Murano and that.....I just wanted to know the difference in the quality of the glass that we use....maybe i will ask the public what they know about Murano and what it is about it that makes is so special to them??
I just feel a bit at a loss for words when they are clearly wearing pendant that u can buy on the net for a quid and they are a bit hoyty toyty about it..ya know....any way ..thanks...xxx
Lol sorry completely misunderstood and i dident mean to copy whole lot, i dont make beads so i dont know all the different glass makes but i do have to try and explain lampwork to people as most of my work includes it and i had a very similar question to yours on another forum about the qualitys of links, pandora etc against a unique hand made in the UK sterling silver bracelet even though at times my work is cheaper than these. Murano is heavily copied by the Chinese as is lampwork but i know which i would prefer to wear.
QuoteVetrofond is not made on Murano, but near Venice
Aha! You learn something new every day!
I had to laugh when I first saw this thread as it reminded me of my Aunt who has expensive tastes...she wanted Murano glass too...I haven't had the heart to tell her that Effetre is one of the least expensive to buy!
Brilliant.....people really have no idea do they...especially when they say wwwhhhhaaatttt when they see the price...i say well it did take me all day to make it...and its sterling silver..and now i can say its Murano glass and the gas and electric..cos of stall ..no wages for me...and the packaging..insurance..cost of website ..tools glass etc...
So what the cos is actually...I'M GIVING IT AWAY.....but we all know how all that feels...lucky we love it so much. :D
Well am armed and ready for my jewellery party tonight with what i have to say about the glass.....just never armed for when the hostess's phone bleeping all night with the texts fo people who cant make it.....o well.. ;)
Tracy xxxxx
Looking on the Effetre website they say that most of their glass is now made in Retsuna!
:-\
from their website
QuoteThe family still has a factory on the island of Murano but the headquarters today resides in Resana,Italy where Effetre produces glass and glass components from a facility that encompasses almost one million square feet of production and warehouse space. Operating on a twenty four hour, seven days a week basis, Effetre produces blown, pressed and centrifugal glass components for their own needs and for thousands of companies around the world.
http://www.effetre.com/sitousa/storia/3.html (http://www.effetre.com/sitousa/storia/3.html)
I would say that you use the same techniques as they do in Murano, but whereas they produce many beads of the same simple designs for a fairly big market, so that they will see other people wearing similar jewellery to theirs, you produce beads individually as a glass bead designer and artist, which means although you may reproduce some of your designs more than once, they are still in very small numbers. Also, that you use the same sorts of glass to produce them as the murano producers, but also some more expensive specialist glass from America etc. which they don't tend to use in murano glass.. HTH!
Resana is where they make lamps and parts for lamps. On Murano they make the glass for glassblowing, lampworking and fusing. I was there on thursday in the warehouse and asked, if they had a warehouse on the mainland where I could collect the glass, and they said no, on the mainland in Resana they only have the parts for lamps.
ok.....so what's Soda Lime Glass then? I bought a wonderful book called 1000 Glass beads and almost all of them are made from either Boro (and I know what Boro is) and Soda Lime Glass?
Janey x
Soda Lime Glass is a chemical name for our glasses - Moretti, Lauscha, Reichenbach etc. are all Soda Lime Glasses.
From the Wikipedia:
Soda-lime glass, also called soda-lime-silica glass, is the most prevalent type of glass, used for windowpanes, and glass containers (bottles and jars) for beverages, food, and some commodity items. Glass bakeware is often made of tempered soda-lime glass.[1]
Soda-lime glass is prepared by melting the raw materials, such as sodium carbonate (soda), limestone, dolomite, silicon dioxide (silica), aluminium oxide (alumina), and small quantities of fining agents (e.g., sodium sulfate, sodium chloride) in a glass furnace at temperatures locally up to 1675°C.[2] The temperature is only limited by the quality of the furnace superstructure material and by the glass composition. Green and brown bottles are obtained from raw materials containing iron oxide. Relatively inexpensive minerals such as trona, sand, and feldspar are used instead of pure chemicals. The mix of raw materials is termed batch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_lime_glass
Useless fact - it's the soda (sodium) that makes the flame flare orange, like the old sodium street lights are orange.
QuoteResana is where they make lamps and parts for lamps. On Murano they make the glass for glassblowing, lampworking and fusing. I was there on thursday in the warehouse and asked, if they had a warehouse on the mainland where I could collect the glass, and they said no, on the mainland in Resana they only have the parts for lamps.
Ahhhhhh!!! That make sense now!
So...the glass is from Murano then...or have i missed a bit..very interesting this thread...
tracy xxx
I think the reason Murano is mentioned so much at fairs is it's a name people recognise and is banded about so much from ebay to flog it, so I reckon people think if they mention the name they are instantly glass experts and so have a greater connection to you!
I usually respond telling them that I use glass made on Murano and that I trained briefly there (I took a course in 2005 and helped out in a studio there too) but that my designs are a unique combination of many influences that result in a one of a kind piece made here in Scotland, which co-incidentally celebrates 400 years of it's glass industry next year. So ends the pitch!
As with most crafts, most of the work of selling is in actually educating people as to the ins and outs of our practices, but it should never be a justification of price. At the end of the day an item is worth whatever someone will pay for it, but I believe that it's worth waiting for that someone to value the maker too.
Great..thanks...i know what your saying..
Tracy xxx