Topic: Murano 101: Bubbles Bubbles and more Bubbles!!!

[svazzo]

This is fascinating!  I look forward to your kind sharing of your knowledge, Javier.

Thanks Lynne,

There are other threads like this one all the way in the back, that I posted when first was asked to be the Moderator for the Murano Forum.

Javier

[bidda]

Thanks Javier

We can thank the search function for the bump. I looked up "frothy" ha ha.

Is it common for a bubbled layer such as this one in a sommerso piece? I don't think I've seen it before. Also, I was under the impression that opalescent pieces appear to have a subtle rainbow effect (like the opal gemstone) though not as blatent as iridiscent glass (carnival?). The frothy layer just adds a sort of cloudy, semi-opaque appearance to the outside of the bowl.

I think the shape of this bowl is fairly common. It's got a nearly complete "Genuine Venetian Glass Made In Murano Italy" green and gold scalloped foil sticker on the bottom. Have you any idea to whom it may reasonably be attributed?

Thanks so much for all your help!

Bidda

[buydesigns]

Hi Javier,

I love your 101 topic!  What a great idea.  

It would be so nice to be able to put a sound to the visuals in this thread.  

I wonder if you might add a sticky note?  

I'm afraid I haven't a clue if it's "pool lay goose oh" or "Pay luh gus oh"

I'd love to be able to manage names and techniques.

[Anne]

Great idea, we could add this to GlasSpeak along with the existing names there.

[bidda]

Hi, I have a small shell shaped bowl that is done in three layers (sommerso?): clear exterior; green interior and what appears to be a frothy, semi-opaque whitish layer in between. I can't see any clearly defined bubbles but the whitish glass layer looks almost grainy. Would this middle layer be considered "bollicine"? Thanks for any direction on this issue.
Bidda
http://www.schellers.org/ebay_images/fro1.jpg
http://www.schellers.org/ebay_images/fro2.jpg
http://www.schellers.org/ebay_images/fro3.jpg

[bidda]

whoops, hit post instead of preview   :spls2: i just realized that the photo links no longer works and wanted to replace them with working ones

bidda

[shandiane78]

Javier, how would you describe sfumato? My idea of it seems to be at odds with the definitions in my Pina books. There's a very confusing "bubbles" topic at the fossilfly board, if you feel like chiming in over there! Entitled "pulegoso bowl?" which we now believe might actually be sfumato.

[shandiane78]

bidda, the bollicine examples I've seen look to me like pulegoso, only not as dense. So you can see the individual bubbles, but there are many, they vary in size, and are not "controlled".

[svazzo]

Id say Sfumato is a "smoke" bubble effect.
The bubbles are so tiny that it looks like captured smoke inside the glass.

On the cased green opal bowl. The bubbles you see are from the cased layers.
I have had a lot of them (opalescent cased with other layers) and they all have had an in-between layer of irregular bubbles formed. I doubt it is meant to be a separate layer, just the in-between part.
I just had a Fratelli Toso orange opalescent beaker vase on Ebay, and it had the same small bubbles within it.
Javier

[langhaugh]

Javier: Anita and I have been having a discussion about pulegoso, bollicine and other bubbles, and so I'm interested in the revival of this thread. I've got a few pieces where the bubbles seem to be what you describe as bubbles in the in-between part (as in the F'lli Toso vase). Do you you know what creates those bubbles and are they there intentionally?

It seems to me that here are two ways of adding bubbles to glass, chemically or physically. Chemically it can be done with gasoline and a number of other substances, including wet wood it seems. Do we have a different name for the process for each chemical we add, or do we use the same name? Is it a different process, bollicine, when the pulegoso is cased, or when a chemical other than gasoline is used? I just checked  Venini Catalogue Raisonne, which defines pulegoso as "purposely introducing foreign matter into the mass while molten (sodium bicarbonate or petrol) which burns off under intense heat leaving gas pockets of various dimensions." That seems the most practical and useful definition I've come across.

Physically adding the bubbles, bullicante, seems simpler. At some point in the manufacture, the glass come into contact with metal points that penetrate the surface of the glass. The points are either placed on the marver or are in a type of mould. Adding another layer of glass after this creates the bubbles. The regularity of the bubbles depends upon the the physical layout of the points and the manipulation of the glass after this step.

Imagine if we extended this discussion to bubbles in Scandinavian glass?

David