Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware, including small glass beads used in jewelry making. The term millefiori literally translates to thousand flowers owing to the decorations which closely resemble small, colorful flowers. The style is often associated with Venetian glass works.
Using glass canes or rods which are called murrine, the millefiori piece is covered in small slabs of the canes and the piece is then fused together to create a multi-colored surface of small and colorful designs. The canes have designs which are only visible from the ends as they are created by rolling the various decorative elements into a long roll of glass and after heating, slicing off thin bits, much like a jelly or cinnamon roll.
Millefiori beads which are used in jewelry-making are crafted up from simple glass beads. Heated slices of the murrine canes are applied to the surface of the bead and kiln heat is applied which fuses the slices together over the surface forming intricate and beautiful patterns over each bead. Some beads use the murrine slices sparingly, while other beads have the entire surface covered. These sorts of beads have been used in jewelry since ancient Roman times, with examples being found from the early Phoenician and Alexandrine years.
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The most generally accepted technique of creating millefiori was invented in Murano, Italy in the early 1600’s. The technique’s secrets were lost over the years as the style fell out of favor. But the high art period of the style was re-discovered and ranged from the late 19th century through to the early 20th century. When the technique was re-discovered in the mid-19th century, several factories in Venice, France and England began producing the murrine canes and millefiori pieces themselves. The millefiori technique requires many long hours of handwork and each piece is completely unique.
Millefiori is generally associated with the creation of handmade and unique glass paperweights. The pieces are very much in demand by today’s collectors of fine glasswork. The murrine canes or rods are gathered within a metal hoop and a blob of molten glass is brought down over them.
The gathering of canes is dipped several times into molten glass until there is enough glass built up and covering the rod ends. This created a thick lens over the millefiori design within the globe of glass. After slowly cooling the glass in an annealing oven, the ball of glass was then flattened on the bottom and the piece was ready to be used as a paperweight.
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