The glass fusing
Our production technique is called "glass fusing" and uses electric furnaces for melting glass components.
The parts we use the most, to create and give personality to our articles, are the murrine, glass rods with a thickness ranging from a few millimeters up to a few centimeters, which contain a design, a pattern, along everything. their volume.
Through these murrine, together with simple colored glass rods, the composition of the article is made.
These murrine, generally with a diameter of 5/6 mm, are first cut in section, in order to obtain pieces with a height of around 5/6 mm, and subsequently positioned , together with the other colored glass rods, on molds of material resistant to high temperatures, inside electric ovens. The work of positioning the murrine requires patience and skill, because these small glass pieces must be arranged according to the design to be made, without leaving too large spaces between murrina and murrina; a single murrina not perfectly positioned, can compromise the creation of a plate with a diameter of 22 cm, to complete which it takes at least 50 minutes to position the individual pieces! (In addition to the time needed to study the article and to choose and cut the murrine)
For our compositions we also use very thin leaves of real gold or silver, which we place between two glass plates, as can be seen in the photos that portray, together with the precious metal leaves, also two other types of special glass:
the "aventurine", consisting of flakes of luminescent brown stones, and "chalcedony", a mixture of colors with shades of gray, purple and green, which we use in flakes positioned between two glass plates.
Together with the primary components of the workmanship, two pendants made with those materials are photographed; you can see the basic color of the pendants, a mix of black and chalcedony, with shades of gold leaf which, during the casting, partially dissolved.
Circular and square murrine rods, black and white, concentric
Square and triangular green murrine, diameter 1.2 cm and 7 mm.
Circular murrine of 2 cm and square, note how the patter of the murrina follows along the entire length of the bar.
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Black and white murrine, positioned together with amber, red and black canes, in a wavy way, so as to form a design that gives life to what will be a circular plate, 22 centimeters in diameter.
Black, white, blue and aquamarine murrine, positioned to give life to a dish
Square and triangular green murrine, diameter 1.2 cm and 7 mm.
Aventurine flakes, green / black chalcedony, black plate and crystal 1 cm.
The first cooking cycle lasts about 8 hours, with this phase the first fusion is made and the product obtained is still raw, flat, it must be worked in the "mill", in order to smooth out its imperfections and make it perfectly circular. whether it is dishes or pendants, items that will have to undergo a second cooking cycle.
Here are some examples of semi-finished products, after the first casting cycle.
The article must, therefore, be worked on the grinding machines, it is up to the master glassmaker to apply the necessary skill to make the surface of the article homogeneous, giving the circular or oval shape that the finished product must have.
Square plates of 4 mm in height, with real silver leaves inserted between two crystal plates, together with sections of aventurine and murrine cut in section. These plates will be used to produce smaller components, such as pendants and earrings.
Mosaics of 2 * 2 cm, 12 mm high, ready to be fused together, in the second cycle, to make frames or clocks.
Multicolour frames with gold and silver leaf and other multicolored items
The articles, once cut into the required shape and beveled, are subjected to a second firing, which will return the product ready for sale.
Below, you can see some circular plates, with a diameter of 20 centimeters
approximately, after the second melting cycle has ended and the temperature inside the oven has normalized.
You can also see some frames, made with gold or silver leaf fused between two glass plates, ready to be attached to the plexiglass supports, thus becoming portrait frames.
