Avventurina
It is made with innumerable particles of gold within its mass which are minute copper crystals cutted with an acient and secret process. Metal flecks are embedded in clear glass to reflect light. Copper togheter with other metal oxides is added to create a shining metallized look.
Baloton
A rhombus patterned decor in relief obtained by blowing the glass into a specific mould. The shape is then freehand made by the glass master.
Bulicante
It consists of overlaying several layers of air bubbles inside the glass. This mass is then pulled with the blowpipe to create tiny depressions imprinted in a regular pattern on its surface. The process is than repeated many times to reveal several layers of bubbles and it's use with very thick glass pieces. This technique was developed by Flavio Poli and Archimede Seguso in the late '30s.
Cased Glass
This is a type of glass with two thin superimposed layers. The inside layer may be opaque white to let the outer layer remain opaque.
Calcedonio
Glass featuring polychromatic veins running through the dark-colored glass. This look is obtained by mixing various metal compounds and chemical agents in a certain fashion, to imitate the natural stone of chalcedony. This technique was developed in Venice in the late fifteenth century and it was rediscovered in the late nineteenth century by Lorenzo Radi.
Fenicio
This is obtained by wrapping a coloured vitreous thread in a spiral around the body of the blown piece, then near the glory-hole, it is combed with a hooked tool.
Filigrana
This technique is used to create pieces with an opaque white or colored glass core, using glass rods fused together, then blown and shaped by the artist.
Gold/Silver Leaf
In the first phases of hot-work, the glass-master rolls the flaming glass on the end of the blowpipe over thin leaves of gold or silver. As the glass is blown, the leaves reduce to fine pieces into gold or silver dust. This technique is generally used together with enamel painting.
Half filigree
The glassworker stretches a glass rod, differently coloured inside and outside. These rods are cut into same length and are laid parallel to each other on a metal surface covered with clay and are then inserted repeatedly into the furnace. The glassmaker then picks up the material with a blowpipe and shapes the object.
Iceglass "Giasso"
This is glass with a “craquele’” appearance, obtained by dipping the flaming glass into a bucket of water, heating it again and covering it by immersion with another vitreous layer.
Incalmo
This is a technique consisting in joining two blown cylinders. If the two equal cylinders are of different colours or decorated differently, a single blown piece is obtained with two zones of different colours or decorations. The process may be repeated more than once.
Iridescence
It is an effect where the light reflected from the surface of the glass decomposes into the colours of the rainbow. It is obtained by exposing the work in progress, on the end of the blow-pipe to the vapours produced by burning quick-melting salts of tin, titanium or other metals.
Lattimo
Opaque white glass produced for the first time in Murano in the fifteenth century, imitating the look of fine china. It was originally used for manufacturing objects decorated with multicolored enamels.
Millefiori
The basis of this technique is the use of glass canes (rods) which contain a single flower design visible only on the surface of cross sections of the cane. The object is then formed using the cross-sections of multiple such rods, which are melted together to cover the surface of the glass object. This technique was first used in Egypt between the third and the first century B.C.
Pulegoso
A type of glass characterized by countless irregular air bubbles (pulighe) within the vitreous wall which deliberately obscure its transparency. It is obtained by pouring substances such as petrol into the pot which produce a boiling over of the glass in fusion.
Reticello
The “reticello” is characterized by a fine netting of threads. The glassworker prepares clear rods with white or coloured threads inside wrapped in a spiral. On a slab he positions equal segments of this rod, parallel and adjacent. He then uses his blowpipe to shape them in a cylindrical form.
Rigadin
A decorative motif characterized by subtle ribs in relief, obtained by blowing the glass into a bronze mould. The mould determines the decorative motif but not the shape which is made freehand.
Sommerso
This technique requires a blown work in thick glass to be immersed in a pot containing transparent glass of a different color and of equal thickness overlaying thick transparent glass to obtain particular chromatic effects.
Mace – Spots
The “macette”, literally little spots, cover the surface in an irregular manner, when the blown piece on the end of the blow-pipe is rolled over the marver on which are strewn small shards of coloured glass (“granzioni”) which adhere to the surface. The shards may be left in relief or absorbed into the walls, by rolling, or dilated by blowing.
Tesserae
A blow piece “a tessere” is obtained by using tesserae in various shapes cut from the surfaces of blown pieces in various colours. The slab fused in the heat is gathered with a blowpipe and shaped into a vessel.