The Magical Bells of Murano
For centuries, the small island of Murano, just off the coast of Venice, has been a world center for beautiful glass, including glass bells. These bells are remarkable not only for their beauty but for the fascinating way they are made.
Glass is created when silica, usually some form of sand, is mixed with soda or potash and then lime and melted at very high temperatures. As it cools, the liquid glass first becomes thick and viscous and then transitions to a solid state. But glass has an unusual chemical structure that allows the intermediate or viscous state to continue for a short period of time before the glass becomes solid. During this time, the glass is malleable, allowing the glass maker to work with it and form it into different shapes.
The glass maker begins by putting his long blow pipe into the furnace, twirling it, and bringing out a globule of glass. Continuing to twirl it, he takes the glass over to a flat metal table called a marver where he rolls it to elongate it and make it symmetrical. He can then start working with it, blowing it, pulling it, or twisting it into the shape he wants. As the glass starts to harden, he can put it back in the furnace to soften it and then continue to work with it. This process can be repeated many times, giving the glass maker the enormous flexibility to create a wide range of glass objects, including bells.
The two bells pictured here are made with what are called canes, which are rods of multicolored glass. To make a cane, the glass maker starts with a globule of clear glass, which he marvers and then dips into a vat of molten colored glass that coats the clear glass. After again marvering the glass, he can dip it into more different colors until he builds up a pattern of colored glass. He then attaches a second pipe to the other end of the glass mass, and an assistant starts to pull the glass away until it is stretched into a long, narrow cylinder about the width of a pencil. This cylinder can be from just a few feet to as much as thirty or forty feet long. The cylinder is then put on the ground to finish solidifying and finally cut into different lengths depending on what it will be used for.
One variation on this is for the glass maker to dip the glass in patterned molds as he adds each layer of color.After the original glass is dipped in a color, it is pushed into an open mold with a pattern on the inside such as a star or flower shape that is impressed on the glass. After the next color is added, it is dipped into a slightly large mold and so on. Each layer cools enough in-between so the new impression does not distort the previous one. This creates an intricate pattern inside the glass canes which can be seen when the cane is looked at from the end.
The lovely bell pictured above is made by cutting this kind of glass cane into small horizontal pieces, each displaying the interior pattern. These are scattered on a flat surface and look rather like the rock candy children have at holiday times (see photo). The glass maker starts with a new globule of clear glass, which he rolls over these pieces, marvering them so they start to be integrated into the clear glass. He does this over and over again until the pieces are totally integrated. He can then blow the glass into any shape he wants, such as the bell shape here. Because the pattern looks so much like flowers, it is known as millefleurs or million flowers.
Another variation in creating canes is for the two glass makers to twist the cane as it is being pulled so that the glass has a twist pattern inside. Canes made this way are usually cut into longer pieces and used to form vertical patterns in the glass, like in the bell below. The cut canes are placed side by side on a metal shelf and heated so they start to meld into each other. They are then picked up on a new globule of glass and rolled until they are integrated into the glass. The glass maker can then blow them into many wonderful forms, sometimes even using double twists in the glass. Good videos of creating and using canes in glass making can be found on YouTube, particularly the videos put out by the Corning Museum of Glass.
The famed American glass artist Dale Chihuly called glass “the most magical of all materials.” These two Murano bells are wonderful examples of that magic.
Next on BellTalk, Chimes: Dicken’s Other Christmas Story
Share your own memories, thoughts, and stories about bells with Jaan at: jaan@thebellsbook.com