2.25 Weights cooling in annealing oven

 

shaped and smoothed with a wet wooden block or contoured pad of wet tissue or newspaper to form a smooth dome [2.20]. While the glass is still in this pliable state, tongs are used to form a slender neck at the base of the weight [2.21]. When the piece has cooled sufficiently the worker gives a sharp tap to the pontil rod [2.22]. The weight breaks off and falls into a bed of sand or a special device con­structed to hold it [2.23].

The next step is to gradually and evenly cool the

2.27 Uncut millefiori canes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

weight in an annealing oven [2.25]. This process is extremely delicate. Sometimes the gathers of glass and the design elements within a weight cool at different rates; then the piece shatters or cracks.

The final stage of the process is grinding and polishing. At this point the pontil mark, the scar made when the weight was separated from the pontil rod, is ground and polished. Often the dome of a weight can be faceted, that is, cut with a flat or rounded grinding wheel to form decorative win­dows for viewing the design.

A paperweight is hand crafted during each step of its creation. Even if many weights of the same design are made by a glass factory, each one is dif­ferent.

Millefiori

The Italian word millefiori means “thousand flowers”; it is used to describe the decorative ele­ments that make up the most well-known type of glass paperweights. Millefiori are small round cross sections of glass rods or canes showing a design or image [2.27]. In paperweights these glass slices are arranged, almost like pieces in a mosaic, to form the subject or pattern within a piece.

Prior to its use in paperweights of the mid­nineteenth century, millefiori was used as a deco­rative element in bowls, knife handles, pen hold­ers, newel posts [2.28], seals, scent bottles, and other glassware of Italian origin. The earliest known objects containing millefiori decoration were made

MILLEFIORI 19

in ancient Egypt. Then the Romans and possibly the Greeks formed beautiful arabesques and other designs of mosaic glass. Ancient pavements were inlaid with small pieces of colored glass, some quite opaque, of various tints, put together with cement. Similarly small pieces of opaque enamel and glass were also used in great abundance to ornament the fountains of Pompeii.

The first step in making a millefiori paper­weight is the production of a variety⁷ of glass rods or canes [2.29]. Using an iron pontil rod the glass- worker gathers molten glass from the furnace and works it into shape on a marver. If color is desired the gather is rolled in glass powders or color is gathered over the molten glass. It is then pressed into an iron mold [2.30-2.32]. The glass is then re­moved and another gather of molten glass is added. The piece is again worked on the marver and pressed into a mold of a different shape. This process can be repeated several times to build

2.30 Iron molds for millefiori

2.31 Molten glass plunged into mold

2.32 The glass fills the mold

2.33 The second pontil is attached

2.35 Arranging canes on template

 

 

 

 

 

layers of colors and designs within a cane.

At this stage the glass rod may be about three inches in diameter and six inches long. The piece is reheated and another glassworker attaches a second pontil to it [2.3 3]. The two workers quickly move apart, stretching the heated rod until it is pencil-thin and up to thirty feet long [2.34]. The design within the rod, no matter how intricate, is accurately miniaturized. However, only a small portion of the elongated rod is stretched evenly enough to be used. This choice section is sliced into tiny pieces that become the canes within a pa­perweight.

After the canes have been made they are ar­ranged in a pattern on a metal template, heated with a hand or blow torch, and encased in glass [2.35, 2.36].