Tool o' the Day: Nippers

This odd looking tool is called the Rolling Edge Nippers - and man they are useful in snipping up little pieces of glass. You can cut a rod in half with this nippers, or snap off a bit of scrap glass from flat pieces. Its really a great tool!


Pro: easy to use, very effective and efficient
Con: the rolling edges need to be tightened a lot, when loose its hard to actually snip down on the glass (as the rolling edges simply roll off the glass rather than cut it) and this can get frustrating.

One amazing use of this tool is cutting up Millefiories.(pictured to the left courtesy of Murano Millefiori)

This technique comes from the Italian words "mille" and "fiori" meaning millions of flowers. It is a labor intensive process of creating canes called Murine that have intricate patterns inside that are viewed from the end of the rod. These Murine canes are cut up into many many little tiny discs, each one bearing the image of the flower or whatever intricate design was made in the cane.

These rolling edge nipper tools would be how one would cut up the Murine canes to make the Millefiories. This is an ancient Italian technique that is associated with Venetian island of Murano - the picture to the right shows what I am talking about and it is courtesy of the incredible website Murano Millefiori