Topic: Ferro & Lazzarini ?

[Wuff]

This paperweight is scratch signed - signature doesn't look very professional, though.

I am aware of Ferro & Lazzarini, of course, and know their label(s) - but have never seen a scratch signed paperweight. The aventurine hints towards Murano .... questions:
1. Is this actually Ferro & Lazzarini? ... and (if yes)
2. Is the signature genuine, or added by someone else at a later stage?

[rosieposie]

Hi Wolf,  I have a Ferro and Lazzarini Elephant (2 in fact) and I have never seen an engraved signature for  F&L.
The first word is definately Ferro,  but can you be certain the second word is Lazzarini? I'm not too sure, and the engraving looks very 'Dremmelled'... maybe you are right to question it.
What are the red chunks in the glass?  Are they lumps of iron oxide?  If so, is the 'signature' saying Ferro something, Ferro being iron.
These are just thoughts not facts.

[adam20]

I have owned Ferro & Lazzarini weights in the past and they were labelled not signed. I also think that signature looks a bit rough.

Adam

[chopin-liszt]

 

The lumps inside it look like what is called "goldstone" - when it's being described by folk who are into crystals.
I'm pretty sure it's glass containing copper specks - and what is used as Aventurine in glass making (as opposed to the green stone the crystal folk call aventurine.)
However, I don't know how it's made if it is glass containing copper specks - how does it not oxidise?
It can get very confusing. 
You see bracelets and lumps of crystal on leather straps produced by crystal folk, who say it promotes good health or brings luck or whatever, and they have their names for certain semi-precious stones, then there are the real chemical names, the gemologists names etc.

Frankly, the whole weight looks like something fairly contemporary, probably from the far east, and is basically just lumps of goldstone shoved at the bottom of a lump of glass.
I can see no artistic merit in it at all, I can easily imagine a whole stall of them at some new-age fair.

You can buy elastic bracelets of goldstone and other crystally things very cheaply in British Heart Foundation shops, I don't think it's confined to Murano.

[rosieposie]

Goldstone is not a naturally occurring crystal, but a man made glass formed by adding copper crystals to glass, and is never used by true crystal therapists (of which I am one!). It has no useful properties other than to look pretty.
That said, I don't think the chunks in the paperweight are Goldstone, although difficult to be certain without actually seeing one.
I agree, the paperweight looks as though it has had chunks of something added...

[flying free]

I'm pretty sure that mark just says Ferro Murano.  I don't think it looks like a bad mark, it's neatly written I think and that is quite hard to do I believe.
Not sure about the goldstone, to me it looks like chunks of pink bath sponge 
m

[chopin-liszt]

I know you do crystal stuff, Rosieposie - but I don't know the difference between what you do and what I see on sale being promoted as crystal stuff. 
I didn't even know there was more than one kind. It's not my sort of thing at all, so sorry for any offence caused by my confusion.

I also didn't think "goldstone" was naturally occurring, but I am still curious as to how copper particles get suspended in glass without the heat affecting the copper's sparkly appearance. Copper is very highly reactive.

It's obviously possible or aventurine wouldn't be in glass.

  I want the recipe, the mechanics, the physics, the chemistry, please, somebody?
I've asked this before on threads about aventurine, no answer has been forthcoming!


I still think this is some generic modern un-artistic thing with goldstone lumps in it.

[Sach]

  I want the recipe, the mechanics, the physics, the chemistry, please, somebody?

I want the recipe, the mechanics, the physics, the chemistry, please, somebody?
I've asked this before on threads about aventurine, no answer has been forthcoming!
 

Let me try then.  Aventurine glass is made by melting a formula very rich in copper.  The furnace is then turned off and the glass allowed to slowly cool.  While cooling the copper will begin to precipitate into small crystals.  The rate of cooling controls the size of the crystals formed.  To utilize the aventurine glass the crucible is removed from the furnace and the glass in the pot is broken in to usable sized pieces.  Over heating the aventurine when using it will destroy the crystals by remelting the copper into the glass.

[Sach]

Well clearly I managed to enter my text inside the quote somehow......

[chopin-liszt]

I don't care how you embedded things - this is wonderful Sach, thanks!

Last question, when you say "formula rich in copper" do you mean the mix of raw ingredients, all the different solid lumps and powder etc. that constitute the batch before melting?

(just for complete clarity - I need to be able to "see" the whole process happening in my head.)