Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Wuff on October 08, 2010, 10:13:31 AM
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"Vetro a Reticello" is a Filigrana technique, developed in Murano during the 16th century. As a first step the glass is decorated with (white and/or coloured) rods - these could be kept straight but usually will be be twisted into a helix; this would be called "Vetro a Fili". When the upper half of the glass of a twisted setup is "folded over" a mesh pattern is created; this is then called "Vetro a Fili Reticello" (or short "Vetro a Reticello") - it could contain (or not) air bubbles between the rods.
When Alastair MacIntosh demonstrated this technique during the recent Edinburgh Glass Meeting, making a paperweight, he finally also added a flash overlay to it.
As only 4 attachments per post are possible, the following selection of images will come in parts.
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He had a small aluminium pot to hold and support the canes.
This pot was something he designed and cast himself. It had a ring of tiny pits in the base, to hold the canes at the bottom, while the top ends were threaded through holes in the collar of the pot.
The precision of the size and dimensions of the gather to be carefully and precisely lowered through the hole in the collar must have been absolutely critical, the ease with which he achieved this was astounding -
as was the way he managed to obtain the perfect and precise twisting of the canes on the marver,
before blowing them, on the gather, into a long tube shape, which he then nipped in half and turned it inside out, back onto itself to achieve the perfect contrast of twisted canes.
He pointed out that this is not the only way of achieving the effect, that two blown gathers with canes twisted in opposition to each other can be placed, one inside the other, but that this does not result in such a perfect match of twists.
He made it all look so easy... :thud: But you need to have been there, just to watch the way his fingers were constantly working the punty - it was like watching a world-class musician playing their instrument.
I noticed his assistant, when holding a punty with no glass on it, was still constantly working it round - it seemed to be automatic - rod in hand = fingers gently working it around,
then I noticed that about all of them!
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Amazing! Thank you so much for posting all this and for sharing your observations. It must have been great to be there.
My best .... Lily :D
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Nice post Wolf - good selection of pix.
Alastair may not be 'apprenticed at the furnace' - but his skills are on a level with many Venetian Master Glassmakers.
He made all of the Helen MacDonald engraved cameo plate blanks - mutiple overlay - very thin layers.
- and his glass technical knowledge surpasses most in glassmaking.
It was a real treat for me to at last see Alastair making something, and especially as complex as a reticello weight.
andy_n
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Alastair has now faceted the weight, images have been added here (http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=173:alastair-macintosh-2010-conference-demonstration&catid=19:scottish-glass-makers-h-m&Itemid=12)