Glass shopping in Venice
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A
Camuffo
Kids, entomologists and glass collectors troop over the bridge, under the portico and into the second calle (alleyway) on the left to arrive at the city’s finest selection of lampworked glass beetles and dragonflies. With a miniature blowtorch and the patience of a saint, Signor Camuffo adds metallic foils to molten glass to make shimmering wings. Between bugs, he’ll chat about his work and sell you strands of Murano glass beads at excellent prices.
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B
Cesare Sent
Amid the blitz of glitz along the Fondamenta Vetrai, Cesare Sent’s matt-glass modernism and restrained palette of black, brick-red and deep purple stand out. Even the prices are pleasingly minimalist: sculptural matt-glass rings start at €20, and rectangular platters with amoeba-shaped murrine (glass insets; usually stars or flowers) start at €75.
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C
De Rossi
To set a romantic Venetian mood in your own backyard, try an authentic fisherman’s lantern, a bubble of glass in a forged-iron frame. This family workshop is among the last, best Venetian lantern-makers, producing traditional and new styles with coloured and matt glass in shapes that range from zucca (pumpkin) to mid-century modernist styles.
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D
I Vetri a Lume di Amadi
Glass menageries don’t get more fascinating than the one created before your eyes by Signor Amadi. Fierce little glass crabs approach pink-tipped sea anemones, and glass peas spill from a speckled peapod. You might be tempted to swat at eerily lifelike glass mosquitoes, and the outlines of galloping horses in blue glass would do Picasso proud.
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E
Orovetro Murano
Not all Murano glass chandeliers require baroque ballrooms. These dramatic modern designs in black, red, and acid-green glass could turn studio bedrooms into boutique hotel suites and dens into swanky lounge-bars. Prices begin under €1000 for limited-edition lighting; architect-designed chandeliers with more waving arms than Kali hit five digits.
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F
L’isola
Backlit chalices and spotlit vases emit an otherworldly glow at this shrine to Murano modernist glass master Carlo Moretti. Strict shapes contain freeform swirls of orange and red, and glasses etched with fish-scale patterns add wit and a wink to high-minded modernism. Prices for signature water glasses start at €47.
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G
Giuseppe Tinti
Look on the bright side with Victor Vasarely-style Murano glass lamps inset with Op art squares, or orange and red striped lamps inspired by commedia dell’arte costumes. Lamps run to about €155 plus shipping; for highly portable, affordable souvenirs, check out Tinti’s signature cartoony glass fish magnets (€4 to €7).
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H
Nasonmoretti
Unexpected asymmetrical shapes and striking two-colour combinations have been NasonMoretti’s hallmark since the 1950s. Today, third-generation glass designers layer heavy crystal over neon-coloured glass for vases that look like isotopes trapped in ice. Prices start at €44 for signed, hand-blown drinking glasses.
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I
Linea Arte Vetro
Mounds of flaming orange beads and shelves of octopus-tentacle glass rings keep DIY designers and bargain shoppers enthralled at this collective of emerging Murano glass artists. Prices like these are how Murano glass collections begin: beads start at €30 and rings at €7.
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J
Toffolo Gallery
Classic gold-leafed goblets and mind-boggling miniatures are the trademarks of this Murano glass-blower, but you’ll also find some dramatic departures: chiselled cobalt-blue vases, glossy black candlesticks that look like Dubai minarets, and highly hypnotic pendants.
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