Murano glass inherits its name from the master glass artisans of Murano from way back in the 13th century. Back then, glassmakers were regarded very highly, and were the most prominent people in society because of the monopoly in quality glass art, jewelry, and other accessories. This trend went on for centuries, but despite the efforts of Venice to contain the technology of Murano’s glass artistry, other glassmakers started to emerge in some parts of Italy.

Today, glass-working technologies are already widespread, but the finest glass works still come from Murano. Throughout the centuries, Murano’s glass masters have refined their techniques and were able to develop crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass. Make no mistake about it, the intricately-designed pendants, beads, and gems that are very common nowadays take a lot of work to make.

As with other kinds of glass, Murano glass is made from fine silica. The silica melts when exposed to high temperatures and becomes molten glass. After it hardens, it becomes solid glass. When glass is in its semi-molten state, it can be bent or shaped, stretched or packed, or hot worked in other ways. The time that glass stays in its semi-molten state before it hardens depends on the amount of sodium oxide mixed with the silica. Flux, or melting agents, may also be added to the mixture before heating so that melting is possible at lower temperatures than the normal melting point of the silica. Nitrate and arsenic are also added to prevent bubbling during melting so that the glass retains its surface texture. To add color to glass, additional reagents are included, like a gold solution to produce a ruby red color, or copper and cobalt solution to produce an aquamarine color. Glass is normally transparent after melting, but additional reagents may be added to make the resulting glass opaque.

The traditions of Murano and its glassmakers continues to this day and the fine jewelry that is its result is sought after throughout the world.