In glassblowing, cane refers to rods of glass with color; these rods can be simple, containing a single color, or they can be complex and contain strands of one or several colors in pattern. Caneworking refers to the process of making cane, and also to the use of pieces of cane, lengthwise, in the blowing process to add intricate, often spiral, patterns and stripes to vessels or other blown glass objects. Cane is also used to make murrine (singular murrina, sometimes called mosaic glass), thin discs cut from the cane in cross-section that are also added to blown or hot-worked objects. A particular form of murrine glasswork is millefiori ("thousand flowers"), in which many murrine with a flower-like or star-shaped cross-section are included in a blown glass piece.
Caneworking is an ancient technique, first invented in southern Italy in the second half of the third century BC, and elaborately developed centuries later on the Italian island of Murano.[1][2]
- ^ Tatton-Brown, Veronica; Andrews, Carol (1991). "Chapter One: Before the Invention of Glassblowing". In Tait, Hugh (ed.). Glass: 5,000 Years. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-3361-6.
- ^ Tait, Hugh. "Chapter Five: Europe from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution". In Tait, Hugh (ed.). Glass: 5,000 Years.