Glossary
Avventurina: the most valuable of all types of Murano glass, that dates from the early 17th century. Its name derives from the term ‘venture’, referring to the fact that it was invented by chance and to highlight the difficulties that even skilled craftsmen experienced when they attempted to handle it. The legend tells that a glass blower, who was intent on melting together the various components of glass, had to abandon the melting on account of a mishap, causing the operation to fail and therefore had to wait a whole week for the paioli (pans) and furnace to cool down and to his amazement, when he broke open the pots, he found a marvellous material. The earliest recipe on how to make avventurina dates from 1644, but the secret of how to blow it only became known in 1860. Avventurina is a type of glass that encompasses tiny copper crystals (which precipitates during the cooling of the molten matter) that disperse evenly within the material to give it a metallic shine. To ensure that the production of avventurina yields positive results, once melting is complete, the right amounts of reducing raw materials such as iron, metal and carbon silicon are added gradually until the copper forms a precipitate. During the cooling cycle, which lasts several hours, the copper slowly and almost completely separates from the basic glass. The quality of the glass depends on the degree of uniformity with which the copper crystals are distributed and their size, which in some cases can be as large as one millimetre. Avventurina is extracted from the furnace in blocks when cool and remelting can compromise its characteristic appearance. It is cut cold like a hard stone and machined hot following special procedures. The preparation of avventurina is a slow and delicate operation that over the centuries has always been a secret guarded by a small number of able technicians.
Balotton: a metal mould with pyramidal tips and a square base that creates a raised criss-cross pattern on the glass. The “balloton” or “baloton” mould was frequently used in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Goto de Fornase: a timeless classic of Venetian production. The expression in Venetian dialect “goto de fornase” means “furnace tumbler”, and is used to define the typical furnace tumbler that was originally created as a workshop tumbler and was made using the types of glass available. They are now considered authentic works of art, original creations that allow the master glassblower to express his talent in a very free way. To make the vase, the glassblower wraps the red hot glass over a thin silver leaf to which many small pieces of colour glass are added and stick perfectly to its surface.
Phoenician technique: used to obtain a spiral shaped filament of glass around the body of the blown piece Lamp technique: this glass-making technique is used above all to fashion small pieces. It consists in working the full vitreous pipe, fashioning and heating it over the flame of a gas-powered nozzle obtain small objects, decorated beads and figurines. The expression “lamp” derives from the use of an oil lamp flame in the past.
Morise: typical undulated Muranese decoration obtained by applying a cord of glass in its plastic state that is fashioned using borselle (or forceps of different sizes used to perform special operations) Mouth blowing: this technique consists in giving shape to a red hot mass of glass, using a pipe to blow into the glass. Twisted stripe technique: After blowing, the glass is twirled slightly to obtain a twisted effect. Gold leaf technique: the glassblower wraps the red-hot glass over thin pieces of leaf that stick perfectly to its surface.
de Fornase vase: a timeless classic of Venetian production. The expression in Venetian dialect “de fornase” means “of the furnace”. These vases are original creations that allow the master glassblower to express his talent in a very free way. To make the vase, the glassblower wraps the red-hot glass over a thin silver leaf to which many small pieces of colour glass are added and stick perfectly to its surface.
Veronese vase: the so-called Veronese vase is named after Paolo Veronese, who in his famous masterpiece the Annunciation painted a round, light, transparent vase with slender neck that was taken up by the master glassmakers in the late eighteen hundreds and became a symbol of the art of glassmaking.
