The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-07-30
VENETIAN GLASS.
An ANCIENT INDUSTRY REVIVED m
THE ISLAND OF MuRANo.

the Ola venetian GleeoWorkers Make
Beautiful Articles Of Use and Ornament.
Among the lagoons, nearly due north
f Venice, in the island Of Murano
there lives race Of men who seem to
have q great future. They are the de-
scendants of the old Venetian glass
workers, and of late years they have
been reviving the ancient art, which
made Murano famous in the past, Of
glassblowing.
The old Venetian glass was what is
commonly called blown, but the name
gives very small idea Of the manufac-
ture. Glass has certain characteristics
which give it it's true beauty and value
for art purposes, and though you may
neglect these and force it to make forms
utterly foreign to its nature you are
producing not works Of art, but mon
strosities Whatever glass may be, it
is in its natural state not crystalline. 30
that nature is outraged when we grind
IL into sharp angular forms that belong
rather to other materials. The old Vene-
tian glass was light, bright, vitreous in
appearance and stained with the richest
possible colors, and all these qualities
are retained in the newly revived man.
ufacture at Murano
There is one more strong point in IA
vor of glass blown and worked over
than molded-namely, that every indi-
vidual piece is an original art, and as
it is almost impossible that any two
should be exactly alike, unless their
form is very simple indeed, the buyer
chooses according to his fancy and is
sure that no one else possesses piece
exactly the same size and shape In the
manufacture of the ordinary cut glass
minium tred lead) is frequently add
ed to increase it's brightness, but this
destroys at once the characteristic light
ness, and, causing it to cool more rapid
ly, quite prevents the possibility of
working it in the proper ductile and
malleable condition.
The Murano material is worked as
the ancient Venetian glass made on the
same island used to be, and all the old
methods have been discovered, or at
least the same effects have been pro-
duced. The aamma, perhaps more
strange than beautiful, the millefiore,
the sihelze, including perfect limitations
of agates; chalcedons, lapis lazuli, etc.,
for mosaic, the aqua marina, rich ruby
colors, the brilliant avventurino, all are
here, and many other kinds of work,
some of which are limitations of the old
glass and some new Inventions.
The tools used are hollow reed Of
iron, few instruments like shears, of
different sizes. and stamp with a
strawberry shaped die. The end Of the
rod is dipped into molten glass Of, say,
ruby color, and portion accumulated
on its end. If too much or too little is
taken, the wineglass will not be of the
right size, and if the metal, as it is call
ed, is not Of the right temperature. the
color will be too dark or too light The
lump is rolled on table into symmetry
and heated again. A few turns Of the
rod and a breath or two through it, and
q hollow ball appears at the end. One
extra puff Of the breath and the bowl
would be too large and too thin. A boy
brings up small portion of white glass,
which he has picked out of another res.
ervoir and blown hollow. This must be
GO hot as almost to drop off the rod, and
must be ready at the exact moment He
touches the bowl with it, and the two
adhere like sealing wax. A pull asun
der and one dextrous twist form the
delicate stem Of the wineplass upor
which three little Jumps Of glass ART
then stuck and stamped as Strawberries
and the whole is again introduced intt
the furnace, where it would instantly
!. droop out of shape but for the deft ma
humiliation which it undergoes.
Bv the time it is heated the boy il
ready with another globe of glass, per
hans Of a different color. which h,
. causes to adhere to the bottom of tn,
Q stem The man spins it around betwee,
his shears mining part of it almost off
and thus gaining the right quantity O
: metal for the foot no less and no more
0 One tan I'm an iron ledge breaks the su
nerf1uous niece. and leaves a small hol
At the noint of the fracture. Once NOR
J A..;..,a ..on;., 80 -, ~
: near shaned ends come ont the points q
. Tho closed shears are introduced \
| o