The Venetian glass industry

Two weeks prior, I started to write a bit about Venice and all the sights that one could see and experience when in Venice, however, there was something in Venice, I believe deserves its own article and that is the Venetian glass industry.

What makes the Venetian glass industry so special, you may ask? Well, I don’t know the industry secret but if you do see Venetian glass in real life then you could tell that the glass masterpieces and the glass-making technique is unique.

After some research, it turns out that this concentration of glass makers on one island specifically away from the city centre was completely intentional and was to protect their glass-making secrets from curious capitalists wanting to replicate the Venetian glass.

A little bit of backstory here, the Venetian glass industry is mainly located on the island Murano. On the island nowadays there are still family-owned companies spanning back decades creating and selling masterpieces.

On the third day of my trip to Venice, I signed up for a glass bead-making class since I was always interested in glass making. In addition, I found out a skill every chemist should learn is how to make our own glass beakers when we break them on a regular basis. (Just kidding)

Anyways, I wanted to watch an artist create glass beads and try to make glass beads myself therefore I asked the hotel reception and they arranged everything so I could make glass beads and learn more about the famous Murano glass.

On that day, the artist picked me up from my hotel and she took me to her workshop/store. On the way, she explained the Murano glass industry a bit. At first, she gave me a rundown of the history of the Murano glass industry.

Back in the olden days of Murano glass making, most workshops only created the essential glass necessities such as glass cups but nowadays the industry adapted to creating a range of different glass masterpieces.

Turns out the reason for the change is that now factories could make glass necessities such as those cups and glasses. Therefore, they needed to make something stand out. The artworks they create just do the trick perfectly while keeping the art of glass making alive.

In my opinion, that is just a beautiful story. In Italy, I noticed that the locals valued their traditions, and some traditions are just beautiful. Keeping such traditions alive also connects future generations to their roots which is also beautiful.

A fun fact I have learnt was that most stores are located close to the canal since most of the raw materials are transported down the canals as most of everything is transported in Venice. There is not much road to walk on in Murano.

Turns out the canals also serve another purpose. In the olden days, if a fire would break out, which it often did, the close proximity to the water allowed the fire to be extinguished quickly without leaving much damage to the buildings in the surrounding area.

However, that being said, the fires could really devastate the workshop and the people working in them since the houses back then were built using quite flammable materials which meant houses could burn down quick.

Glass-making needing fire did not make the fire situation any better. Besides the house's flammability, the workshops on Murano were located so that the smoke each glass-making chimney would release could be carried away by the wind.

Most of the time, I am not interested in the history of anything since I am not that kind of person but if history is important to understand certain decisions made back in the day, I would gladly sit through hours of history lessons.

The store, the artist owned was quaint and small, but it was filled with beautiful glass jewellery and glass centrepieces. It was like a buyable museum exhibition. Her store didn´t look touristy at all which I most certainly appreciated.

Everything in her store looked so delicate but at the same time very sturdy. She explained that some pieces are sturdier than they look which I found comforting since I am clumsy and accidentally breaking glass has somehow become my speciality over the years. Luckily nothing happened.

In the back of the store was her workshop where she would create her jewellery pieces. The workshop was filled with glass rods in every colour. Any colour you could think of was probably in that room.

It looks somewhat like a messy artwork. The colours just in the small back room brighten up a bland-looking room. There were glass rods of any size, diameter, translucence and colour shade. Somehow I was just overwhelmed by everything in a good way.

In her store, before we began, she also showed me a book. In that book was a photo of the hotel I was staying in before it got turned into a hotel. Turns out the hotel I was staying in, used to be a glass bead factory, which would explain a lot.

It explained the interior of the hotel with its high ceilings and wooden supporting beams. The aesthetics of the hotel became just a little bit more unique with that little piece of information. Besides I just like to see how things have changed over the years.

Then we finally began with the glass bead making and I cannot lie but I was excited to finally do something with my very own hands on vacation and not only look at masterpieces from afar and just read their importance. What can I say, I am more of a hands-on learner.

At first, the artist demonstrated how a bead is formed. First, she turned on the Bunsen burner for glass making. Then she took a glass rod and started to melt it in the fire. While she was doing that, she explained the basics of glass making.

For instance, safety equipment. There was special eyewear which made the colours of the world look more different than they used to. I am sure it is also to protect the eyes from the bright light coming from the torch and the glass.

There was also an over-jacket, which was not part of the safety equipment but it was part of the clothes-saving equipment. During the heating, it could be that the glass would break off due to sudden heating and the jacket just protects it from damaging your clothes.

Then she went on to explain the method of glass making. While keeping the glass rod in constant rotation, she explained that she had to constantly turn the rod since soft glass has a honey-like consistency and could drip down. By turning it constantly, it couldn´t begin to drip.

After melting the glass, she showed me how to turn the liquid glass into a bead. First, she had to heat a metal rod with a separator. Taking the glass and metal out of the fire after heating it, she let the glass drip onto the metal rod and rotated it to create a bead.

The bead was put into the fire again to perfect the for since out of the fire it was a little misshapen. Since the bead looked bland without any decoration, she then took another glass rod and began melting it in the fire as well.

When both were mouldable enough, she took them out of the fire again and dotted the created glass bead. The bead now has dots sticking out on the surface of the bead but since I thought it looked like a microscopic virus, she melted the bead again so the dots and the bead could become one.

After she was done, she put the finished bead into a wood, earth and something else mixture explaining that the glass cannot cool down too fast otherwise it would crack. The mixture helps it cool down at just the right temperature decrease.

Of course, the glass industry had specially made ovens for the cool down. The cool-down process of bigger pieces can also take up to days which makes the big glass centrepieces even more special than they already were.

Finally, it was my turn to make a bead and I was starting to get worried. It was fire I would be dealing with and liquid glass would not be the coldest thing I could hold. The glass melting fire seemed worse than my science fire in a lab.

However, after doubting myself a bit, I put on the safety goggles and picked out my favourite-coloured glass rods. Honestly, the world looked different with those goggles on, the colours I saw were not the true colour but I saw nothing in comparison to the melting of glass.

Hesitantly confident, I sat down in front of the fire and held the translucent turquoise glass rod into the fire. The glass rod glowed through the goggles in a bright orange colour which I was not expecting since I am confident that I have a blue rod in my hand.

Turns out different glasses have different melting points, so it took some time to melt the glass rod. Glass is a bad heat conductor so my fingers didn´t get burned. When it was time for the thin metal rod my brain took a break. It was too much for me to turn both the glass and metal rod.

Luckily for me, the artist helped me with turning so I wouldn’t get burned and glass didn’t drip onto the table. Then I needed to put the glass onto the metal rod. Frankly, that was the easiest part, just letting the glass drip onto the metal rod and forming a bead.

Then came the decoration. I chose to make a spiral with an aquamarine colour. The whole process started all over again. Melting the glass rod and the bead on the metal rod. Taking both out of the fire and drawing that spiral. Then putting it back into the fire to separate the bead from the glass rod.

After all that, I put the bead into a cooling mixture and we just waited for it to cool down. During that time, she explained why she started the store and what glass making means to her. It was fascinating to find out why certain people have certain passions.

It also made me reconsider my perfectionistic tendency. She explained that when every bead she makes is identical to one another, then she will be no different from a factory making glass beads. Mistakes are what make each bead unique and beautiful in its own way.

Ten minutes have passed and the beads cooled down. The artist filled a container with water and dipped the beads into it. Turns out the separator on the metal rod could dissolve in water and therefore the water was necessary.

After forty minutes, I finally got to hold the finished product in my hands. It was beautiful and so much more precious than any bead I could get in the store because I made it myself. I liked how the sun could shine through. The artist also made me appreciate the imperfect parts of the bead.

Then she helped me find a perfect string to string up the bead to make a necklace. After all that has been said and done, she sent me on my way back again. This whole experience opened my eyes to the Venetian glass industry.

Everywhere I went, all I could see was the glass and how much time went into making each and every one of those pieces. Somehow, I also came to terms with the price tags attached to each masterpiece since after seeing the skill and time it takes, the prices just seemed justified.

Even in the restaurants, I could spot many Murano glasses. Each one looks colourful and unique. Not one single glass looked like the other. I found it helpful to understand how they were made in the first place.

Now being back in Germany and not surrounded by colourful glass everywhere I go now seems bland. Therefore in the future, should I need some glass centrepieces for my home, at least I know where to look.