Glass Tour in Murano

We had a wonderful opportunity to take a private tour of Murano island.  Having, myself, used murano glass in my jewelry when I had my business, Eclecticat, up and running, I was particularly interested in the beads, but, of course, it's also an amazing educational experience for the boys.

Venice has been a glass-making city for a LONG time.  The glass factories were moved off the island of Venice to Murano in 1291 for fear of fires.  We visited the Signoretti factory (http://www.signoretti.it/) and were able to observe in one of their 10 studio areas where three guys (the master and two apprentices worked) were working to make an amber-colored chandelier.  The apprenticeship period is 15 years and while there are no laws about it, glassmakers are only men.  There are some female designers and finish-work artists, but none who blow glass.  In the past, the glass masters were required to live on the island of Murano and if they were caught having shared any secrets of the factory they worked in, their tongue and one hand would be cut off in punishment.  Serious business!  While we were allowed to take pictures in the workshop, we were not allowed to click away in their showroom.  You can see some of their work if you follow the link above.  There are approximately 400 glass factories on Murano and SERIOUS competition between them.  However, their greatest threat, I heard, is from China where they are getting pretty good at making copies.  

While the majority of the time in the workshop we watched the master and apprentices at work making a chandelier, they did pause at the end for a brief demonstration.  One of the apprentices took a lump of molten glass and sculpted it into the shape of a horse in a matter of seconds while we watched.  You can see the video here.   Then we walked through their showrooms with jaws dropped.  While not all of it was to our tastes, it was all amazing!  I bought a beautiful set of glasses with a pitcher which is being shipped home.  At the end of the tour, Nate was searching for some souvenir that he could buy.  Our tour guide said he would be happy to give us one of the horses that they make in the workshop for the tours.  Wow!  We were amazed!  The catch was that they will not ship them.  They are too fragile to be shipped safely and we must hand-carry them.  He actually gave us three of them as we have two boys and one spare in case of breakage.  With 11 days and 3 cities left in our trip we were really nervous but also thankful so took them gratefully.

At the very end, they offered the boys to try blowing glass!  We went back into the workshop and one of the apprentices drew a chalk circle on the floor for each boy, in turn to stand in.  Check out the videos here and here.  I'm so proud and amazed!!

At the end of it all, the only disappointing thing  is that I didn't get to see any beads being made nor was there an opportunity to buy any beads.  Alas...