massimo micheluzzi {glass + venice}

When we were up in Venice a few weeks ago it wasn’t all about the food. Even though I was busy updating Eat Venice, what we had really come to do was meet Emma and see the architecture Biennale. While most of you know me as someone whose life revolves around food, I also have a long career writing about architecture and decorative arts. Not only did I move to Italy during graduate school to study Renaissance garden architecture, my last six books have all been about design.

One of the reasons I chose to study 16th century garden architecture was because it was the meeting point where so much came together. Specifically, my topic was garden grottoes, which allowed me to see how fluid the line between what was considered ‘art’ and ‘design’ and (dare I say it in a Renaissance context?) ‘lifestyle’ was almost non-existent. I mean, when you’ve got someone like Cellini designing your salt cellar can you really dismiss it as ‘merely’ decorative arts?

Anyway, all this to say the intersection between the arts, especially when it comes to craftsmanship in Italy, continues to fascinate me. You already know about my passion for majolica. I’m equally in love with glass making.

On this most recent trip I got a chance to visit the workroom and studio of Massimo Micheluzzi. I first saw his work at the home of interior designer Ilaria Miani and had been curious to see exactly how Micheluzzi used traditional techniques to produce such extraordinarily beautiful modern works.

I was especially curious to learn how he created his heavy, chunky and almost sculptural vases I  had seen at Ilaria’s. As it turns out they are carved. He starts out with a thick, transparent shape. He then grinds it down, using a wheel, to not only form ridges and swirls, but also give the entire vase a milky, frosted finish.

The other style of vase he makes involves using murrine and other small bits of glass to create mosaic sheets, which are fused. He then  molds the sheets of glass into the desired shapes. If you look below you can kind of follow the process.

Aren’t they gorgeous? Not what you thought Venetian glass was all about, right?

(And nothing at all to do with food. Sorry. It’ll be back, I  promise)

Vases before they are ground down

A black vase in the process of being ground down.

Finished black vase. This started out shiny, then was ground down to form the pattern.

A type of vase made from sheets of glass mosaics that are forged into sheets

Pieces used to make the mosaic vase

Massimo Micheluzzi
Rio di San Trovaso
Ponte delle Meravege
Dosoduro 1071
[email protected]

For more information on dining in Venice, please download my app, Eat Venice, available on iTunes.