 | The arresting Graal technique was invented at Orrefors around 1916 and was extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The process involves engraving the desired motif onto a custom colored glass vessel before reheating it and casing it within an outer shell of clear glass, which is then blown into the final form… |
 | The superlative skills of Scandinavian glassmakers were by no means limited to colored art glass. They also excelled in the field of textured and custom engraved glass, none more so than Timo Sarpaneva and Tapia Wirkkala, who designed for the Finnish firm Iittala… |
 | Sarpaneva in particular played a crucial role in the elevation of Scandinavian designer glass from functional household necessity to sculptural art… |
 | The most prominent figure in mid-century Swedish cut glass was Vicke Lindstrand. His cased glass designs for Kosta Boda in the early 1950s use textural ribbed effects and spiraling stripes… |
 | In tandem with Anzolo Fuga, Martens reworked the traditional Venetian zanfirico technique for the AVEM factory. Named after the 19th–century Venetian art dealer Antonio Sanquirico, who revived this ancient process, the zanfiirico technique consists of heating multicolored glass rods, twisting them together, and encasing them within a clear glass shell, resulting in an intricate filigree effect… |
 | The 20th–century renaissance of Murano glassmaking was not wholly reliant on updated versions of old techniques. The prevailing climate of creativity threw up many original forms and decorative treatments that peripatetic workers and designers helped to inseminate between competing factories… |
 | One of the most prevalent of the new techniques developed in the Murano factories was sommerso cased glass, which was perfected by Carlo Scarpa for Venini during the 1930s. The name sommerso (which translates as «submerged») is a fair evocation of the decorative effect produced by sommerso vessels, which can look remarkably like blocks of glass suspended in a colored liquid… |
 | In his capacity as artistic director at Venini between 1934 and 1947, Carlo Scarpa was responsible for many other innovations that helped
cement the repuration of Paolo Venini's fledgling company. Among these are an opaque milky white glass known as Lattimo and a matte glass with a faint iridescent sheen called corroso… |
 | As Murano factories attracted greater esteem, the market for their wares expanded commensurately. Smaller factories determined to profit from this boom quickly appropriated the most commercially attractive designs… |
 | In the United States, Blenko was one of the most innovative custom glass producers. After World War II, Willia H. Blenko Jr. became the third generation to join the family firm and his arrival coincided with that of Winslow Anderson… |
