Marco Franzato, Glass Artist

    Marco Franzato, Glass Artist

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    Marco Franzato, Glass Artist - Venezia Autentica | Discover and Support the Authentic Venice - Marco is the last leaded glass artisan still operating in Venice. Working with ancient techniques, he crafts artistic leaded glass windows as well as jeawellery and decorations.

    Marco Franzato, glass artist

    Marco is one of the two last leaded glass artisan still operating in Venice. Working with ancient techniques, he crafts artistic leaded glass windows as well as jewelry and decorations.

    Techniques

    Marco makes mainly use of two different ancient techniques:

    • The traditional lead technique uses colored glasses joined with lead, and is put together by welding the joints with tin.
    • The “Tiffany” technique is glass welded with tin only: a tape of copper is placed around the glass and it is then welded together with the tin

    With the first technique, the lead is embedded; the second technique uses the tin as a glue.

    Other techniques used by Marco are torching, fusing and glass decoration.

    Philosophy

    Marco has chosen to increase even further the quality of its handmade production in a clear counter-trend with the current situation in Venice, where the invasion of mass-produced cheap plastic souvenirs is dramatically decreasing the quality and the value of the offering.

    Traditional, high quality, handcrafted, made in Italy production as a stand for real quality and authenticity.

    I hope that people will start appreciating beauty again, because as Dostoyevsky used to say “Beauty will save the world”.

    Hello, I’m Marco Franzato. I’m a Venetian artisan. I create leaded glass windows. I’m the only one in the historical city of Venice, I have a colleague in Murano but there are very few of us left.

    What I do is creating artistic glass windows, with the traditional medieval technique and its evolution, the “Tiffany” technique, which was born in the ‘800.

    The traditional lead technique uses colored glasses joined with lead, like in this case and is finished by welding the joints with tin. The “Tiffany” technique is glass welded with only tin: a tape of copper is placed around the glass and then it’s welded together with the glass, Getting a similar result as the one obtained with the lead approach; the lead is embedded, while the tin is glued. Those are the main techniques that I use, but I also use other techniques such as torching, fusing, and glass decoration. With all these techniques combined together, I create glass windows, objects, necklaces… and more

    No. Not only did I stick to my style, but I have wanted to be even more myself I went counter trend to what has been happening in Venice: most shops have been diminishing the quality and the prices, I instead have tried to increase the quality working more and better; the prices increased, but so has the quality of my production. And it has been rewarded because I see that there is still people willing to pay for quality… fewer and fewer, but still some.

    Some type of customers really appreciate handmade products, done the right way, like the things I’ve shown you. Americans for example really like products of the tradition, like small glass windows or even just the single glass roll. This roll here is like having a piece of Venice: they bring it back home and are happy to have it.

    Well, there are these design pieces, like those ethnic ones, very easy to wear, that I personally designed and created, so it makes me especially happy to sell them, and they are also really appreciated by my customers.

    Yes, I really hope that people will continue or start appreciating beauty again because, as Dostoevskij used to say, “Beauty will save the world”.

    I'm visiting Venice. Why should I follow your recommendations?

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