Category — murano

Tuesday 25th March

Woke up this morning after having a weird dream about a man that was dressed in black but he glowed blue.  He had a pet (dog?) that was irridescent kind of like aurora b, oh crap, I had to pick a word I can’t spell didn’t I? Borealis!  Aurora borealis. Anyway back to the dream, I figure that John’s boro bead demo from yesterday really made an impression on my mind.  The colours in his beads are brilliant and they were the same colour as the man and dog in my dream - weird but cool.

But enough about my psychedelic trips, there’s a whole day to write about. Today we visited the Vetrofond glass factory!  Well we all had to meet at the Museo vaporetto stop to catch the Alilaguna boat to Marco Polo Airport.  (The vaporettos are the boats that take you around Murano, Venice and all the little islands.  The Alilaguna is the convenient airport boat that takes you to Venice and Murano.)  Quinton managed to herd us onto the vaporetto and then into a coffee shop once we arrived at the airport.  We managed to fluster the barista with a massive order of coffees which is hard to do to Italian baristas.  We sat on our coffees until Laura, the sales manager for Verofond arrived.  She organised Quinton’s van and another car to take us all to the factory.

By now we’re all getting abit excited as we were about to see the birth place of Vetrfond glass and odd lots.  (Insert girly squealing here.)  Arriving at the factory, we all piled in to one of the offices for introductions and a few rules for safety by Laura.  One of the rules is no photos to be taken inside the factory.  Then we moved in a tight group around the factory floor which is interesting but it has nothing to do with glass rods.  Woah, it’s warm, and there’s hot furnace’s burning, men with rods of hot glass swinging around us, loud machines and hot kilns.  I’m nervous for my jacket, but they all are working in synchronisation.  So as long as we don’t swing our arms around then we’re okay.  The factory’s biggest product is light shades - they’re number one in Italy.  Glass rod making is a small part of their business.

 The glass masters and assistants were checking us out.  Apparently we’re the first lot of students taken through the place – ever – so we are new to them.  Plus we’re all females, of course.  Italian factory workers do the same as any all-male factory’s do - they put up girly pin-ups on the walls.  And we saw someone’s collection of cans of international beers.

Laura takes us around to see the big kiln, the glass cutting areas, the shed where all the colour materials are, and finally we arrive at where they make our glass rods.  Unfortunately they weren’t running as normal due to maintenance.  But we got to see the 2 pots - one for regular colours and the other for odd colours.  We got to see loads of clear rods stacked at the end of the run. That must have been the last lot they did before closing the machines.  We are then taken to the store room for the cut glass rods and we go crazy.  We’re allowed to take photos in here so flash bulbs are popping everywhere.  We’re all eyeing off the colours, touching the glass, licking the glass, photographing the glass…bascially squealing like little girls.  We spot a couple of “odd” shades in there too.

After about 20 minutes we have all calmed down and composed ourselves.  Laura then walks us back to the offices.  On the way we watch a master making horses.  It takes him 55 seconds from start to finish to make one.  Very impressive.  Back at the office we get to meet Mr Moretti - a busy man of few words.  We’re then off to lunch, paid for by Vetronfond.  It was a nice local restaurant full of people.  I ordered a pizza.  Actually their menu was great, and the menu of the day was pretty cheap.  There was something like 5 or 6 pages for their pizza menu - the vegetarian option was at least one page long.

We had a nice time chatting with Laura.  After lunch we piled back into the cars and headed back to Murano again.  We were all chatty and bouncy on the Alilaguna, we’re all buzzing from the tour.  Back on Murano, we 3 Sharon, Marianne and I, go hunt down Carlo Dona’s shop.  Carlo Dona is a tool shop now being run by his son Roberto Dona.  We don’t find it but manage to see Andrea Guibelli’s shop again.  Sharon hadn’t seen Andrea work so we stop in there and watch him blow a bead.  We ask him for directions to Carlo Dona’s shop.  So finally we get to Carlo Dona’s….oh and it’s bad.  So bad - because we spent alot of money there!!!  Oh that place is amazing.  We buy blow tubes for making hollows, glass scissors, mashers, pincers, tweezers, rod warmers…. Oh holy crap our luggage is going to be heavy!

So after the tool shop, we dash back to the studio to try out our new tools!  When everyone saw our tools, they all asked for directions back to the store!  Roberto Dona is going to be busy the next 2 weeks, for sure

Monday 24th March

Today is cold! We met up with Sharon at the little coffee shop at the metal bridge this morning. Quinton and Griet were already there, plus his daughter Tyler-Grace, and his mother who had come over for a few days for a visit. It’s cool sitting in the coffee shop, soaking up a little bit of Murano, watching the locals on the way to work…And we don’t have to work!

But we have to make beads! So the morning was spent trying out new techniques and ideas inspired from yesterdays day trip, chatting to Tyler-Grace and also beach-combing. At low tide there is a little bit of sand exposed of the island just around the corner from the studio. We’ve all fossicked here, finding all sorts of old Murano glass that’s been dumped into the lagoon of the years, maybe even centuries. Di East has even melted some down to make a bead. There is also an old glass factory behind the studio that is now owned by Vetrofond. The old kilns are being dismantled and moved out, but there is one or two furnaces and kilns working under a glass maestro Davide (oh, I’m terrible with names). But there is quite a bit of glass being dumped around the place and this has been fun to rummage through. But we all have to be careful, not because of the sharp glass, but how much our luggage is going to weigh after the trip! I highly recommend doing classes on Murano - just don’t bring much luggage!

Lunch was particularly memorable for me. Di East sat next to me and I had to hold myself back from jumping up and down in excitement and fan adoration. I think I managed to keep my shit together quite well enough to have a lovely chat with her. She has a quiet voice but a funny, almost impish, sense of humor. She wears this big fleecy jumper that makes me want to cuddle as it looks like a Wombles coat. It is really cold here, unusually so, and Di is wearing as many layers as possible. It’s quite funny to watch her peel off and pile it on everywhere we go. Q jokes and calls it “the many layers of Di”.

But back to lunch! Sorry! The other memorable part was that on the way to lunch we bumped into Pati Walton and Johnny Olson! Q invited them to lunch so they joined us. So it was all very cool to have these 3 great bead makers at my table! Oh, plus the restaurant gave us free Panettone cake (traditional Easter cake) for dessert - okay, that’s not so exciting Just a little bit though

Johnny O did a boro bead demo for us. It was very interesting to watch as I’ve never seen it before. He used hollow boro tubes and blew a hollow bead. He calls it his “inside-out bead”. He fumes it with silver and gold, then lays boro dots inside the bead before he closes it, shapes it and puts in the holes for the stringing. Very impressive. Marianne has a great shot of me looking really excited when he blows a huge bubble - I hope you guys get to see it!

Next Pati did a demo a 3-D flower using pink flower cane she’s made. It’s quite simple and it makes sense when you see it done, but it’s so effective and it can make a really nice pendant bead. I’ve practised this and haven’t been so successful yet. Actually, the things that I’ve seen so far here have been so simple (well, they look that way) and different enough to blow me away and inspire me to make beads.

I so want to get a bigger torch when I get back home. I want to be able to make bigger beads and hollows….Being away from home, away from my little studio and hot head torch has been great. My thoughts on glass and what you can do with it, how you can work with it has just been widened. When I think about my desk and torch all I can think is that it’s not big enough for everything I want to do! Johnny O described my predicament in terms that I understood - I’ll be going from broadband to dial-up when I get home! Ouch! That’s gonna hurt

Cheers for now

Sunday 23rd March

Today is a free day again. Dorothy suggested to take us all to see some of the great glass workers on the island. We all agreed and a day trip was planned.

First stop was Diego (what’s his name??) Botticine, he makes contemporary style beads after being influenced by American bead workers that he’s met while traveling in the US. His beads are not so “Murano” looking, he definitely has his own style. He is particularly good at rings. Plus he does some cold work on his beads which gives it a unique look. I’m planning on going back to buy a ring and some “golf ball” beads. I’ll show photos once I get them. I was happy to be at this shop as almost 2 years ago I had come to this shop and I had regretted not buying any of his beads. I’m glad to see that his work is considered highly and that I know have the opportunity to buy from him again. Unfortunately, no photos of his shop Diego actually apprenticed under Lucio Bubacco. Dorothy knew of him from taking a class of Lucio’s back in 2005. So she says he’s come a long way since then. I can agree that he has some very nice work.

Next on our day trip was a little shop that sold a mix of things. Glass and tools. We all ogled the tools and asked to see their catalogue. “We don’t make the tools anymore” she said and we cried. But Dorothy said that we have to see Carlo Dona’s shop if we want tools. We dried our eyes and moved onto the next shop.

Next we went to Maximillian Schiavon’s shop. He makes vases with fantastic and interesting detail and cold work. His sister (can’t remember her name) makes hollow glass beads of murrini then encased with an opaque colour then cold-worked diamond drill is used to reveal the murrini. Unique and special. I love the uniqueness and would like to buy one, but at 100 euros for one big hollow bead – I don’t think so.

They had 2 shops and the 2^nd one let us have a look at the guy working in the furnace. Dressed well, smoking a cigarette he made a vase or glass of some sort. I got a couple of photos of him.

Marianne and I then headed off the the airport to meet Sharon. She was happy to see us. We got her back to her apartment, got her showered and fed and then we all went back to the studio to torch. This perked up Sharon and she said she’s found the cure to jet lag! She even managed to demonstrate a murrini implosion-style bead to the ‘girls’. Good one Sharon!

I’ll just back track abit, on the way to the studio we stopped in to see Davide Penso’s shop. Great work, very droolable - check out Corina Tettinger’s blog to see a couple of pictures of him and his work. He also does classes!

Another great day but tomorrow Pati Walton & John Olson arrive. They’ll be popping in to give us a couple of demos. Can’twait!

Saturday 22nd March - I’m a big fan of Diana East. With beads like this how can you not be - she has a great sense of humor that comes out in her beads. I love it.

Our days start off with breakfast in our apartments, but coffee is taken in a cafe on the way to the studio. This is the routine for everyday. We just stand at the bar and drink our not-quite-so-hot cappuccinos (cappuccinis!) as sitting down to drink costs a little more. But it’s fine as you don’t want to get settled and stuck at the cafe, you want to keep moving on to class to make beads. The espresso here is great by the way

Marianne and I head to the local Co-op supermarket and pick up some groceries before we get to class. Today is a sort of free day so there is no official starting time, but Claudia Trimbur-Pagel from France offered to do a demonstration of her stringer work so we are quick with the groceries and trot off to the studio. Really, we are here just for the glass not for grocery shopping - duh!

We got to the studio on time to see Claudia start her bead. She made a really cool Sandpiper on a bead (her signature bead, I think) and a bead with a lizard on it with some fancy stringer work on the back of it. Wow, her stringer control is amazing. I even saw her make an emergency stringer a hair strand thick from another stringer! She works with fine stringer and it’s quite impressive. There were lots of stringers left over after her demo, and after she left I started making a bead at her station…so I used her thin stringer to see what it’s like. Woah! That just evaporated into a ball. I tried again and again trying to understand how she did it. There is definitely a spot you have to know about under the flame. Where that spot is will be different every time and you just have to discover it for yourself. Quite tough but it comes with practice I guess. Sigh, back to balls of stringer for me!

We had 2 new ladies join us for classes that day, Esther and Nachuma. They both are very interested (and interesting) and they ask lots of questions which is great for me who always seems to stay quiet and not ask anything. Claudia is very patient in answering our questions which is super for us noobies.

Next up, Di comes into class and after we have a chat about her “Little Thinker” beads she gets stuck into making a one. Yes! I was really excited with this as I love her Little Thinkers. I remember seeing them for the first time last year at my beginner class and they just blew my mind. I saw them on the cover of the Jim Kervin book about her, and my mind just opened up, “You can stick bits of metal in glass?!!” Fantastic! I wanna do that! She also had her book there with her for sale, so I asked if she would sign one for me - yes again! I was so happy that afternoon

Her Little Thinker uses enamel and small pieces cut from fine mandrels and it has to be made carefully as it has a high chance of cracking. I tried making one later and it failed miserably with it’s feet popping off as I worked on his head. Di told me how it’s a little stinker to make and that is part of how it got it’s name, Little Thinker.

Dorothy told us of a glass blower that makes hollow beads nearby. She raved about him and suggested we all go see him after lunch. So we all trundle off to find Andrea Guibelli’s little shop almost hidden away in some back streets. He is worth finding just to see his technique. This guy blew my mind. He has a style when he makes his hollow beads that I can only describe as “Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma’am”! The way he makes one, it’s so fast, so assured and so unfussy (if that is a word)…it’s amazing that a a big bloke like him makes something so small and fragile! And they come out perfectly. He does this everyday so I’m sure he’s made thousands of them and knows exactly how to treat them. Whereas I would be all nervous and gentle with them, he is confident but careful, knowing exactly how to treat the glass. I’ve been raving about this guy since I’ve seen him, and I send all the other bead makers in the Murano Magic classes to go see him. I will buy some beads from him soon so will show you all once I get them.

The rest of the day I practised making hollow beads on a mandrel, inspired by Guibelli. They looked like a dogs breakfast at the start, but I managed to get them to work out okay. They were certainly not as delicate and fine as Andrea’s, but it will do for first ones. Plus his are blown hollow beads so are much finer than wound hollow beads. One day I’d like to blow the hollow bead like Guibelli.

Later that day Andrea Guibelli came over to our studio to say hello and to see what we were doing, thanks to Dorothy’s coaxing. He was impressed by Diana East’s work, saying in broken English that she does very difficult work. Di was tinkering around with some more of her murrini beads. She has an idea in her head and keeps working at it until she gets it right. These beads are getting better and better each day. One funny thing happened to her, she was trying to make a really green murrini, really nice and bright but somehow ended up making orange murrini. Pretty funny as we were all perplexed about how that could have happened.

Marianne and I head back to our apartment for the night. Our apartment is called the Palazzo and is a big walk to get to. The exercise is good but you feel so far from everything. But we did find out that we are practically next door to Effetre glass factory! And the way we have to walk takes us passed a large lit glass structure made by Simone Cenedese. It’s impressive and very beautiful.

Friday 21st March - First up, apologies to everyone for not writing sooner. Internet access is a little hard to get to here on Murano. It is here but when you have to dash off to class each day and then hang around in the evening for glass playing sessions, you are left with no time to do other stuff like internet access, shopping, glass licking and that sort of thing that you would normally do on Murano.

So now I’ve had to move to another apartment, (long story) but I have wireless access - sweet! But finding the extra time is getting harder and harder to do - but I’ll manage somehow! Now, I should stop carrying on about the woes of internet access on Murano and actually talk about Murano!

It is loads of fun so far. We’re at the end of week 2 (my first week for me) now and have one week to go, but I will start the blog on the first couple of days of the trip so that you grab abit of the excitement from the start.

I caught the vaporetto from the airport to Colonna stop on Murano on Good Friday morning. I just flew in from Wroclaw, Poland and I was lucky to be on the flight due to mass crowds at the airport for the long weekend at Warsaw airport. My delay meant that the flight was delayed by 10 minutes - oops. But who cares once you’re in Venice!!

Quinton met me at the Colonna stop and suggested we take the ferry around the island to the studio. Me, stupidly, thought the island wasn’t that big and that we could walk the distance, and me also being hyper excited, said we should walk it. With my backpack. It’s not really a long walk, but it is when you are carrying 15 kilos on your back. Oh well, at least I got to pass all the glass shops! Wow, you don’t realise how much glass is going on in Murano. I was in Murano in the summer of 2006 and I felt that alot of the glass was too extravagant for my tastes but did find a couple of things that I liked. Now I’ve found that the ratio is now tipping to my favour. I also found the glass bead shop I loved last time I was here but didn’t buy anything. I always regretted not buying anything. But I think that will change this trip!

The studio is out on a far point on Murano, a decent walk, in an old building that Mr Moretti has bought along with some glass making factories out the back. Mr Moretti has transformed a couple of rooms into a bathroom, kitchen and studio. The studio is quite big with big windows facing the canal. It lets in a lot of great light to the beadmakers at the table. The table is huge, with about 8 bead stations set up – minors and mega minors. Q has another table with all the equipment – 2 kilns, glass, silver, tools, murrini, frit, more torches etc. And it’s mostly all Vetrofond glass (of course, they’re sponsoring the classes) with even some odd lots in it! Quinton has printed out some posters of the teacher’s beads and stuck them on the wall around the studio. It looks pretty cool.

There are nice views out to the canal and the Alps. Di East was coming to the end of demonstrating a murrini to a small class - Marianne from home, Dorothy - USA but living in Italy, Claudia Trimbur-Pagel (France), Alessia Fatone (Italy) - oh! how international! I arrived just in time for lunch which is at a local restaurant. Of course it’s pasta for lunch followed by espresso, but the conversation is the highlight. Chatting to everyone and learning about where they’re from and how they got into glass is really intersting. Alessia teaches here in Italy, Claudia is about to show in a gallery in Paris with other artists, and Dorothy is a bead maker that’s living in Italy - lucky girl!After lunch we head back to the studio to watch Di demonstrate a flower murrini Japanese-style. Such a long process but so worth it. She shapes her murrini in a special way so that they’re easy to incorporate into a bead, which she also demonstrates. She uses Thomson enamels to bring out brighter colours. She also shows us how to make our own alabaster-like colours using enamels and gives us lots of tips on how to use them.

After this, we all get into making beads - whatever we want. Around 7.30 -8pm Marianne and I leave to get to our apartment that we are sharing. I see now that leaving the studio at this late time is quite normal, but staying later is normal too. I am exhausted from the long day but happy and can’t wait for the next day

Being Easter, it’s a full moon here and the tide is coming in really high at night. So high that it comes over the edges of the walkways. Scary if it gets so high that it can get into your apartment!

So, that’s the first day so far. Photos to come soon, I promise.

Well my Africa trip is definitely over now. I’m sitting at my friend’s apartment in Wroclaw, Poland, wrapped up in layers of garments while watching the snow fall. I arrived in Poland yesterday having left Africa 2 days ago. And man is it freezing!! I could not feel further away from Africa than I do right now. A cold snap has moved over Europe so I’m feeling the cold right now. And to make it worse, every European country is experiencing winter-like temperatures instead of spring temperatures right now. I so hope Venice is warm!

Talking about Venice, I’ll be there in 2 days time. Very exciting! But I thought I’d better get some photos I promised up onto the site before hand. I bought some beads and tribal jewellery while travelling through east Africa. And I’ve photographed them and have put them up to share with you. I have got some ideas to put them into picture frames to display them when I get home. I’ll hang them up in my office to remind me of my trip and to inspire me to make something.

So here are the photos - Enjoy!

Heheh! The title sounds so over the top. This is how I imagine Quinton to be

Okay, ahem! Announcing the Murano Magic Workshop Extravaganza 2008. Quinton, of Glassworks in Belgium, the land of chocolates, frits and mussels, drinks of half half and a royal palace with a ceiling lined with green bug wings - has been busily organising classes and teachers (and a million other things I’m sure) for the MMWE for this March/April in Murano, Italy!

And I just so happen to have a ticket to London kind of around the same time so I can’t believe my luck that this has worked out, like it was meant to be and I am actually going to this event. It’s all very exciting and I’m sure you already know about it, BUT please do let me go on about it! We will have our own studio set up by the glass factory Vetrofond, on Murano. We will also be staying on Murano too, so it’s going to eat, sleep and drink glass for 3 weeks solid. But I will only be there for 16 days.

There is going to be a few different teachers doing classes over a 3 week period starting on the 17th of March. First up is Alessia Fatone, then Diana East, Dora Schubert, Pati Walton and then it’s Sarah Hornik. Sarah and Pati do some alternating days so that they get a break between some of their classes and also for everyone to get a break and see Venice, do some tours. So it’s a great mix of artists with different styles from different places so it should be great. The huge variety that all these teachers do will make it really interesting.

What else…Oh, we’ve heard we’ll get a tour of the glass factory (but no cameras allowed, so sorry no photos) and we’ll be having a party on the 6th

And, oh yeah, I’ll be blogging it here on my site. I’ll get there in the second week, so stay tuned from the 21st of March!