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| Island of Murano |
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Jokes apart, the masters subtle rotation of the rod, with a blob of glass hot out of the furnace at one end, and gravity doing its part in pulling the blob off the rod, to form weird shapes, is nothing but sheer magic. A gentle blow from the other end and a few strokes of the rod and voila, a vase comes to life. If you thought this was sheer brilliance one must admire the pulling technique with awe. Clearly, working on glass with the pulling technique is like sculpting castles of the sand. The imaginative parlance of the 'Master' is far beyond any viewer in the room. A couple of gentle pulls using tongs clubbed with gravity doing a tad of its part and the end result can be anything but your imagination!
Apart from farming, I cannot imagine another practice that has been passed down from father to son for over a thousand years. Even today, there are no schools to teach one to become a glass-maker. All masters across the island of Murano's factories, are descendants of great masters from the renaissance.
As soon as you step foot on Murano, you are greeted by many factories lined-up on the shore-line. The boat ride brings along a tour guide who recommends one of the factories and escorts us to meet the factory guide. The sharply dressed guide from the factory takes us through the process and history of glass-making at Murano. He does struggle to keep up speed with his explanation of the same in 3-4 different languages and he cannot be blamed for the same. The master is so skillful and fast, that a couple of strokes and the final product is ready for display in 3-5 minutes.
The glass blowing demonstration ends with a tour of their personal and rather exquisite showroom. While photography is not permitted for proprietary reasons, one gets so engrossed with the charm of sculpting with glass, that you forget everything and everyone around. The individual brilliance and sheer imagination is limitless when you see some of the details that have gone into the Ferrari's of glass making. Not only is the finish as fine and delicate, they are equally expensive to their four-wheeled Italian cousins. A few souvenirs from the showroom to bring back memories of a fading yet glamorous industry, is all that a common man can think of. Most buyers, a rather elite group, place orders and let these factories ship them across the globe. This sleepy town has been the holy grail for glass making for over 700 years and would continue to do so in many hundreds of years to come. Murano... a bow to the king of glass-making.
As you speed past Murano and head along the highways of the channel, a glimpse of Burano from the deck of the boat skims past like a finger-smudge of verdant hues of greens, reds and yellows. Little houses are painted different colors and is such a candy-treat to the eye.
Apart from farming, I cannot imagine another practice that has been passed down from father to son for over a thousand years. Even today, there are no schools to teach one to become a glass-maker. All masters across the island of Murano's factories, are descendants of great masters from the renaissance.
As soon as you step foot on Murano, you are greeted by many factories lined-up on the shore-line. The boat ride brings along a tour guide who recommends one of the factories and escorts us to meet the factory guide. The sharply dressed guide from the factory takes us through the process and history of glass-making at Murano. He does struggle to keep up speed with his explanation of the same in 3-4 different languages and he cannot be blamed for the same. The master is so skillful and fast, that a couple of strokes and the final product is ready for display in 3-5 minutes.
The glass blowing demonstration ends with a tour of their personal and rather exquisite showroom. While photography is not permitted for proprietary reasons, one gets so engrossed with the charm of sculpting with glass, that you forget everything and everyone around. The individual brilliance and sheer imagination is limitless when you see some of the details that have gone into the Ferrari's of glass making. Not only is the finish as fine and delicate, they are equally expensive to their four-wheeled Italian cousins. A few souvenirs from the showroom to bring back memories of a fading yet glamorous industry, is all that a common man can think of. Most buyers, a rather elite group, place orders and let these factories ship them across the globe. This sleepy town has been the holy grail for glass making for over 700 years and would continue to do so in many hundreds of years to come. Murano... a bow to the king of glass-making.
As you speed past Murano and head along the highways of the channel, a glimpse of Burano from the deck of the boat skims past like a finger-smudge of verdant hues of greens, reds and yellows. Little houses are painted different colors and is such a candy-treat to the eye.
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| Island of Burano |
An artists imagination can only be as vivid as the town itself. Beautiful houses brought to life among all the Roman ruins spread across Italy. Apart from a few shops in the midst of the Piazza, to attract the outnumbered tourists, one does find the town a bit spooky as the day goes by. No loud people, hardly anyone out on the streets and old women working with their needles to create the wonders of lace, that is how this island celebrates life.
The island has been a wonder since the 6th century but it truly got its space in the world map in the 16th century, when lace making with needles was introduced to the world. The mainstay of the island being fishing, the women would get together and find solitude in lace making while the men wander off to the sea. This was the life for a hundreds of years, till the lace making industry developed to a factory model reducing time and cost of production. Today, although the business proposition of lace making has declined drastically, one may still find a few old women weaving their magic in designing some of the best tableware and garments.
Murano and Burano would always remind me of how artists and homemakers are striving hard to maintain their tradition ways, in the so called modern age. For now, it still seems a distant reality for someone from the hustle and bustle of the information age!
Murano and Burano would always remind me of how artists and homemakers are striving hard to maintain their tradition ways, in the so called modern age. For now, it still seems a distant reality for someone from the hustle and bustle of the information age!
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