Trip with APART to Murano & Beads Collection.
Imagine the tiny goldsmith workshop on a small picturesque island – (of area of about 5 km²) in a lagoon near Venice. In front of you there’s a craftsman at a table full of tools – iron rods, scissors for cutting and tubes for blowing glass… You’re 2 steps from it (to keep a safe distance from the fire blazing torch). He is holding a red-hot piece of glass with tongs…
Small bead. How it is done.
All clever Magpies are inquisitive, aren’t they. Therefore, we are observing with great interest how a piece of glass is heated over a flame until molten. You have to know that the heated glass is plastic and can be easily wound on an iron rod. In front of us the craftsman is forming it on the bead base, so it is pretty and round.
When the bead is shaped it is time to color it. There are many techniques of decorating glass. One of them is painting the designs with a very thin colored piece of glass over the flame. What is interesting – you can embed: metals, minerals or air bubbles – it looks simply fabulous, like HERE.
You are probably suspecting that it’s time to cover our bead with protective transparent coating to make it water and shock resistant. In the end the bead gets clamps (making it easir for the bead to slip on your bracelet) with APART logo and… there we have it!
Blower, that is Maestro?
In Murano there are over 100 glass workshops. Specialist skills are passed from generation to generation. Will you believe that the craftsmen can blow glass for even 4-8 hours a day? The best “blowers” are called Maestro. One of the local artists has told me that to make a sparkling glass trinket the skills are more important than good tools.
I have also learned that the glass in 70% is made from sand and other substances with strange names 😉 which allow the glass to make the bead melt in low temperature and doesn’t dissolve in water.
Aaaaah. Are you curious how they get the colors of the beads? Let me tell you. To get blue you need to add copper and cobalt compounds, while red is obtained by adding the gold solution as a colorant. Interesting, isn’t it?
Every kind under the sun!
I hope you’ve learned a lot and are reading Magpie’s stories with pleasure. And I believe you are hooked up with colorful beads like we are. If so put a photo of your bracelet, it can also be a dream one, in the comments – I’ll only tell you that the full collection can be found HERE. A great thank you to Polish brand APART for a fantastic trip and we are glad that we can promote knowledge together among our inquisitive Magpies. Enjoy!9