Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. Image File history File links Millefioripendant. ... Glass can be made transparent and flat, or into other shapes and colors as shown in this sphere from the Verrerie of Brehat in Brittany. ...

The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). A. Pellatt (in his book "Curiosities of Glass Making") was the first to use the term "millefiori", which did not appear in the Oxford Dictionary until 1849. The beads were called mosaic beads before that time. While the use of this technique long precedes the term millefiori, it is now frequently associated with Venetian glassware. Millifiori will always contain flowers and has a very distinct pattern to it which is easy to recognize. Mosaic is the art of decoration with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other material. ... Venetian glass is a type of glass object made in Venice, Italy, world-renowned for being colorful, elaborate, and skilfully made. ...

More recently, the millefiori technique has been applied to polymer clays and other materials. Because polymer clay is quite pliable and does not need to be heated and reheated in order to fuse it, it is much easier to produce millefiori patterns than with glass. Polymer clay is polymer polyvinyl chloride; it contains no clay minerals, and only shares the name to reflect that both can exhibit plasticity. ...

Millefiore glass pendant

Image File history File links Milliflori. ... Image File history File links Milliflori. ...

History of Millefiori

The making of Millefiori beads involves two glass making techniques. Until the 15th century, Murano glassmakers were only producing drawn Rosetta beads made from mould-made Rosetta canes. Rosetta beads are made by the layering of a variable number of layers of glass of various colors in a mould, and by pulling the soft glass from both ends until the cane has reached the desired thickness. It is then cut into short segments for further processing. The murrine used for decorative purposes were manufactured by applying the same technique, and sold to the lamp workers who made Millefiori beads by weight. Located off the shore of Venice, Italy, the island of Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th Century. ... One half of a bronze mould for casting a socketed spear head dated to the period 1400-1000 BC. There are no known parallels for this mould. ...

Creating Millefiori

Millefiori beads, 1920s

The millefiori technique involves the production of glass canes or rods, known as murrine, with multicolored patterns which are viewable only from the cut ends of the cane. Millefiori beads are made of plain wound glass bead cores. Thin slices of cut cane (murrine) are being pressed into the bead surface, forming mosaic-like patterns, while the glass is still hot. Millefiori beads can be decorated sparingly with a small number of murrine or they can be covered entirely, either by the same style of murrine, or by a combination of two or more styles, applied to form a flush, smooth surface, or left protruding from the bead. The manufacture of mosaic beads can be traced back to Ancient Rome, Phoenician and Alexandrine times. Although the Millefiori technique was developed in Murano, Italy in the 15th century, the heyday of Millefiori bead manufacture ranged from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Image File history File links Millefiori_beads,_1920s. ... Image File history File links Millefiori_beads,_1920s. ... Glass can be made transparent and flat, or into other shapes and colors as shown in this sphere from the Verrerie of Brehat in Brittany. ... A shop with boats, Murano Murano is usually described as an island in the Venetian Lagoon, although like Venice itself it is actually an archipelago of islands linked by bridges. ...

The Millefiori technique is a labour intensive process. Each Millefiori item is individually and painstakingly handmade.