Murano Glass - Venice: A Travel Guide to Murano Glass, Carnival Masks, Gondolas, Lace, Paper and More - page 17

look hideous. When it's well done, it takes your breath away.
How Murano Glass is Made
For centuries, Murano glassmakers have been masters of experimentation. True to the
Venetian interest in reflective materials and saturated color, over the centuries Murano
glassmakers experimented with techniques that would impart the shimmering effects and
deep contrasts of hues that travelers and collectors still appreciate today. In particular,
they developed ways to formulate many shades of red—the color most associated with
Venice—from deep burgundy to translucent pink-lavender. Murano glassmakers also
played with different combinations of opaque, translucent, and transparent glass.
Glass consists of a paste made with little more than sand, water, and ashes. The main
component of glass paste is silica, made from sand or crushed pebbles, which forms about
seventy percent of the mix. Sodium carbonate is obtained from the ashes of burned plants.
Lime is also added to the mix on Murano, distinguishing it from crystal and lead glass. To
create color, cobalt, manganese, and other metallic oxides may be added to the mix.
By the mid-fifteenth century glassmakers had perfected the use of cobalt oxide to pro-
duce a deep, sapphire blue; manganese to achieve reddish-purple; tin oxide to produce