Vittorio Constantini visit

Thursday April 3rd

Pati’s class today. Mmmm…more canes! Anyways, we worked on our gardens, this time I incorporated silver foil into my bead to give it a bit more oomf. It worked. Plus, I’m better at making these beads the second time ’round Pati did a demo of her latticino bead - it’s really pretty. I won one of her latticino beads so I’m happy. It’s really gorgeous.

After lunch, we got a visit from glass maestro Vittorio Constantini! Pati knows him and invited him to come and do a demo for us. (Thanks Pati!!) This guy does unbelievably realistic bugs and fish. He kindly did a demonstration of a butterfly and a seashell. I would recommend anyone visiting Venice to go to his shop in Venice (he’s not based in Murano) as his command of glass is amazing. It was interesting to see him make a butterfly wing. He started making it by building up a blob of clear on the end of a opaque rod (I think lapis blue). He then gave the blog 4 thin swipes of opaque colour. He attached a thick stringer as a punty and then started twisting the punty rod. (To stop and explain it to someone, it was like he was making a twistie but instead of pulling it out long he kept it as a hot blob and spun it on the spot.) He then squeezed out the blob to the shape of a wing and you could see the effect that the 4 swipes of colour had on the wing. Sorry to describe it like this, it’s better to see it in person. I’ve uploaded the photos so maybe it might make a bit more sense there.

Another interesting thing he did was have the butterfly on a thin punty as he worked on it. Lucio did this also when doing his arm demo. Again, this has blown my mind! Gosh, do I sound just like a glass noobie? All you experienced lampworkers probably have seen this all before and are like “Yawn”? Oh well, I have to start somewhere :-D  Vittorio makes a sea shell while waiting for the butterfly to cool down.

Later in the day Johnny O did another boro bead demo. Man, that is so impressive. I’ll never tire of watching him do it. The way he does it is like nothing I do in glass bead making - the steps he takes are completely different. One day, when I grow up I’m gonna play with boro! But I’d like to take a class with Johnny O first!

Marianne, Sharon and I head home after the demo. Our late nights and days of endless adrenalin are starting to catch up with us and we are starting to feel it. We head to the supermarket for food for dinner and ice-cream for dessert. We head back to our place and make dinner and chat. It was nice to sit back and chill for the evening. And the ice-cream sure helped!!