Murano Glass-making is not just a craft but an art form, with Murano art glass holding a prominent spot among the collectors of modern and contemporary art. Murano island for centuries has been a place where creative ideas merge with technical virtuosity and give rise to masterpieces.
While Murano masters create many stunning pieces, such as unique vases and ingenious sculptures, but the most challenging creations of Murano Glass are probably aquariums. Murano Glass aquariums come in many forms and designs, from playful cats holding a jar with goldfish and faucets dripping water with fish swimming in it to bags holding fish, or round, oval, or rectangular glass with fish and sea life inside.
The most valuable aquariums from art glass perspective are large pieces of translucent glass, inside which there are perfectly sculpted and lifelike seaweed and corals, many colorful tropical fish and beautiful sea creatures such as medusas, lobsters, clams, crabs, crawfish and other inhabitants of the sea. It is extremely difficult to create these kinds of Murano Glass aquariums, because they involve totally translucent glass needed for optical clarity and require creation of many exquisite glass elements, some of them really tiny. All this work is done of course entirely by hand using very basic tools and instruments.
Murano Glass artisans first create all the inhabitants of the aquarium one by one using lampworking method, and sometimes working under a magnifying glass. For larger pieces they create and shape the fish or the animal twisting and turning melting glass on a special metal rod and re-heating it multiple times in between shaping to maintain the required consistency. Once all the fish and marine animals have been created, they layer transparent glass above them in a multi-step process, until they rich the required thickness and clarity.
The end result is a gorgeous Murano Glass aquarium that looks very realistic, and is even better than a real-life aquarium in its luminosity, crystal-clear water made of glass, and stunning beauty that never fades. At Glass Of Venice we sell a wide variety of Murano Glass aquarium sculptures from the best masters on Murano island, from in all styles and sizes. These aquariums make amazing gifts to all the sea lovers, fans of Venice, and interior decor aficionados that seek a contemporary artisanal and artistic theme and an accent to light up the room.