Contemporary Murano Glass Fusion – Looking at the 6 Steps Involved One of the most ancient techniques became one of the most recent, thanks to a paradox of history. That is, the Murano glass fusion, the glass which is born from glass, neither from the moulding of sand, soda, carbonate or various oxides in the powerful furnaces, nor the half-processed glass of the rod used in the lamp working art. Instead it is created from a glass sheet, which is fragmented and recomposed according to a defined design, is melted and cooled again, alone or over other sheets. Let’s take a look at the contemporary Murano glass fusion, step by step:
The modern electric or gas furnaces considerably simplify the production of glass-fused artworks, even if, in any case, the process is still very delicate and requires much competence of the artisans who use such technique. Usually, these furnaces measure internally at most 200cm x 100cm, thus the glass sheets usedin this technique barely exceed such dimensions. The task of these machineries is of gradually heating the substance roughly at 820°C, which is the fusion point, and letting the substance become less and less viscous to solidifying again in the desired shape. A complete cycle takes around 10-12 hours, in accordance with the dimensions of the glass surface, the type of glass which composed the previous one. 1. Many different objects can be created, from plates to decorated windows, from jewels to paperweight, but let us take the example of a generic ‘tableau’ made up of glassy pieces.The first step, in any case, is the planning with marker and cardboard. As if one is drawing a mosaic, from the soul of the starting imagination, one poses a beautiful female figure on a wooden background, drawing lines which divide the subject and background in many parts of different dimensions. 2. Presenting the cardboard on the glass sheet of the selected colour for the dress – previously meticulously cleaned - the possible trees and shrubs in the foreground are cut through the cardboard and the glass.The action is done through a tool called ‘tagliavetro’ or ‘diamante’ and it