The last and least ordinary city we visited during our ten-day jaunt in Europe was Venice. We spent four days wandering around the tiniest alleys I've ever seen, feasting on hazelnut and lemon-basil gelato, soaking up the sunshine and, of course, checking out the art and the glass. The island of Murano alone, not to mention the rest of Venice, was pretty saturated with glass. There were even glass statuettes of the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very good photos of the glass that we saw in the shops and galleries because the people in them don't allow photographs to be taken. I did manage to get a few though. It helped to talk to the people in the galleries and tell them that I had been studying glassblowing - with modesty of course, since I'm only fresh out of college, and the glassblowers on Murano started doing it when they were tiny and have been doing it for years and years and years - but when I showed them I wasn't interested so much in the product as the process, their manner seemed to change. One of the galleries even had a guy come fetch us from the store, lead us out the back and through some small alleys to their production shop, where we watched a couple of guys making pieces for chandeliers.
Nothing huge or fancy; production stuff, but it was still very cool to see. Note that the above photo is a great contrast to most of the other hot shops we saw in Murano, which were a part of the tourist attraction and had guys whipping out quick vases and pulling cats (something I have never been able to do, granted I've only tried a few times, is pull a pony) accompanied by abrupt commentary. However -
This is the small window outside Cesare Toffolo's gallery and shop, which should give you some idea how ridiculous his work is - super thin and precise.
Toffolo Studio was on the bottom floor, a shop for which the products are I believe designed by Toffolo and produced by himself and other glassmakers, and
Cesare Toffolo's personal gallery was up a flight of stairs. His work looks incredible when it's right in front of you.
I don't know if I'm allowed to put this photo online, but chatting with the nice lady that took us up to his gallery and asking nicely, I was allowed to take ONE photo, and this piece wasn't on his website at the time I think, so I chose this one. You can see it big if you click on it. It's hard to see the images inside the balloons - it's really not a very good picture - but they were done painstakingly by
graffito, and there are little men inside the balloons gazing proudly at them or painting them. I think my favorite pieces, though, are the ones of the little glass men inside the hourglass and the pitcher, pouring out (which are on his website). Rock on, Cesare.
We also visited the Museo del Vetro on Murano, which was no Corning Museum of Glass, but very historical and informative, and it did have a bit of contemporary glasswork. They didn't allow photos in their either, and I wasn't motivated to try and sneak any, except for this last one which was one of two lonely-looking sculptures in the garden behind the Museo. Still, if you're ever on Murano, I would reccommend stopping in. Back on the main island of Venice we saw some of the 53rd Venice Biennale at the Giardini location and in small galleries all over the island, which I think I will post a photo update of later.
The last and least ordinary city we visited during our ten-day jaunt in Europe was Venice. We spent four days wandering around the tiniest alleys I've ever seen, feasting on hazelnut and lemon-basil gelato, soaking up the sunshine and, of course, checking out the art and the glass. The island of Murano alone, not to mention the rest of Venice, was pretty saturated with glass. There were even glass statuettes of the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very good photos of the glass that we saw in the shops and galleries because the people in them don't allow photographs to be taken. I did manage to get a few though. It helped to talk to the people in the galleries and tell them that I had been studying glassblowing - with modesty of course, since I'm only fresh out of college, and the glassblowers on Murano started doing it when they were tiny and have been doing it for years and years and years - but when I showed them I wasn't interested so much in the product as the process, their manner seemed to change. One of the galleries even had a guy come fetch us from the store, lead us out the back and through some small alleys to their production shop, where we watched a couple of guys making pieces for chandeliers.
Nothing huge or fancy; production stuff, but it was still very cool to see. Note that the above photo is a great contrast to most of the other hot shops we saw in Murano, which were a part of the tourist attraction and had guys whipping out quick vases and pulling cats (something I have never been able to do, granted I've only tried a few times, is pull a pony) accompanied by abrupt commentary. However -
This is the small window outside Cesare Toffolo's gallery and shop, which should give you some idea how ridiculous his work is - super thin and precise. Toffolo Studio was on the bottom floor, a shop for which the products are I believe designed by Toffolo and produced by himself and other glassmakers, and Cesare Toffolo's personal gallery was up a flight of stairs. His work looks incredible when it's right in front of you.
I don't know if I'm allowed to put this photo online, but chatting with the nice lady that took us up to his gallery and asking nicely, I was allowed to take ONE photo, and this piece wasn't on his website at the time I think, so I chose this one. You can see it big if you click on it. It's hard to see the images inside the balloons - it's really not a very good picture - but they were done painstakingly by graffito, and there are little men inside the balloons gazing proudly at them or painting them. I think my favorite pieces, though, are the ones of the little glass men inside the hourglass and the pitcher, pouring out (which are on his website). Rock on, Cesare.
We also visited the Museo del Vetro on Murano, which was no Corning Museum of Glass, but very historical and informative, and it did have a bit of contemporary glasswork. They didn't allow photos in their either, and I wasn't motivated to try and sneak any, except for this last one which was one of two lonely-looking sculptures in the garden behind the Museo. Still, if you're ever on Murano, I would reccommend stopping in. Back on the main island of Venice we saw some of the 53rd Venice Biennale at the Giardini location and in small galleries all over the island, which I think I will post a photo update of later.
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