Venetian Torchworking

The most amazing demonstration I watched this weekend was the two venetian men making a candelabra.

Lucia Bubbaco made these amazing glass figures, a woman and a satyr playing a flute and an angel playing the violin. Diego Bottacin made the spectacular candelabra that held all the figures. In the end they even put candles in the candle-holders and lit them and let them burn away. Its amazing to see soft glass wielded with such grace and finesse - and then even more so: to see this huge piece just set on the table and left there for us all to check out. It was annealed later that night to later be sold at the auction.
Above is a picture of Diego Bottacin lighting the candles.

Lucio Bubbaco also made an "Eve" figure for the demonstrations (she was not put on the candelabra) that was a beautiful ivory colored figure (he even did the hair!) that had amber colored snakes running up and around her. That is what the videos show him making. This blew my mind, it takes a lot of experience to work softglass in the flame like this. In this next video I am being blown away that he can make the snakes around her without causing cracks and blow-ups. Amazing.



This last picture is a shot of their torches. They were beautiful, ran a pretty big flame that seemed kinda fluffy and kind to the glass, not so forceful, but still neutral. And they are pretty torches to look at too, those Venetians :)