Glittering Glass
All that glitters is not always gold. Sometimes it’s just glass - but what great variety and complexity! Glass has served both functional and decorative uses, but when it’s used artistically you can see its true brilliance and range.
One of the oldest materials in the world, glass has been around for so long that we take it for granted. Glass is a naturally occurring material – in the form of obsidian – but the glass that we’re most familiar with was created by man back in the third millennium BC in ancient Egypt. What’s the first glass object ancient Egyptians made? Beads, of course! Admittedly, the beads were probably an accidental by-product from smelting ores. From humble beginnings, glass-making developed and man learned to melt, fuse, blow, and shape different glass forms.
In the 13th century, glass-making was such a fire hazard that Venetian glass-makers were forced to assemble on the island of Murano, Italy to practice their craft. Because of their proximity to each other’s ideas and the abundant nearby supply of pure silica from which glass is made, major advancements in glass technology developed. The clearest and finest glass began to come out of Murano and by the 14th century Murano glass became world- famous.
To this day, Murano glass is prized for its purity and the complex techniques used to produce it. Many jewelry designers use Murano glass beads to create jewelry pieces. Some examples of the colored glass from Murano, as seen above, are the Luna, Millefiore, and Plum glass beads. Murano glass is created by melting colored glass rods in a furnace and then using a blowpipe, so that air is blown through the glass. Finally the glassmaker forms the molten glass into various shapes using several tools. The artisan may add gold or silver foil and other materials and finally encase it in transparent colored glass. These glass beads can be arranged in an infinite number of ways to create earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. The Rialto bracelet and Rose Garden earrings from Marco Polo Designs include Murano art glass. The designer added a small pearl and a heishi flower to the lime green Murano bead creating the colorful Rose Garden drop earring.
Lampworking is another glass-making technique that the Venetians from Murano developed. Lampwork glass is created by melting rods and tubes of different colored glass by a gas torch and the glassmaker then forms new shapes from the molten glass. Lampworking differs from glassblowing in the way the glass is heated. Glassblowers use a furnace whereas lampworkers used an alcohol lamp to melt glass originally but now use a gas flame. Examples of lampwork beads are the pastel flower beads and swirl beads from Artbeads.
Another special glass is dichroic glass, which, like regular glass, is made of silica --- but added to the silica are thin layers of metals such as gold or silver and metal oxides such as aluminum, chromium, titanium or magnesium, giving the glass a wide array of colors. Glassmakers can fuse a plate of dichroic glass with as many as 50 layers of other glass in multiple firings, and yet dichroic glass still remains very thin in size.
All these beads - from Murano glass to lampwork and dichroic beads – can be mixed with other materials, such as Swarovski crystals, pearls, gold or silver-plated beads, and gemstones to create a myriad of designs. The Crocodile necklace from Marco Polo is a mixture of Murano glass, lampwork beads, Swarovski crystal beads, and gold vermeil heishi. The Twister ring designed by Antica Murrina of Italy boasts of handblown glass that is further twisted for special effect and donut shaped glass beads mounted to jump rings and a sterling silver band.
Glass is a very flexible material and is a great alternative to precious metals for providing glitter and brilliance. Glass is also much more affordable and thus provides greater opportunity to use in many designs.
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