Buon Giorno... join me on "My Venetian Adventure" (part one)

I must begin by first apologizing for being MIA for longer than expected... my intent was to do a few blog posts while in Venice but I honestly had no time to do so! As you know, I was there to attend a Master Mosaic Class at the renown Orsoni glass foundry. ( FYI... Orsoni is the only glass foundry left in Venice, all of the other furnaces, being much larger, were moved to the nearby island of Murano in an effort to protect the city from fires. ) The facility turned out to be so far beyond my expectations that I found myself in a constant state of awe! Yes, I knew of their wonderful and respected reputation in the "mosaic world" but to find myself actually there in person turned out to be transcendent. Everywhere I turned, I felt a part of history... stepping back in time, when mosaics artists and their works were revered by all and the evidence of that can still be experienced throughout this magnificent city today! As expected, the class was quite challenging... using Smalti to create mosaics is the ultimate reason that one goes to Orsoni. I felt like a kid in a candy store, everything is at your disposal, any color imaginable along with over 2000 varying shades and as much as you want! Mosaic 24K "gold" is their specialty in over 30 shades, their production techniques have remained a secret throughout the years. We were given a tour that allowed us to see part of the process but no photography was permitted. 
( If you are interested in knowing more about Orsoni Mosaici, click on the link that I have provided to the right! )

Having forgotten to pack my intended design, I found myself just jumping in and creating as I went... this actually was a blessing in disguise, it forced me to be more realistic about the time restraints for completing a project... the design I had planned would have been far too time consuming to accomplish successfully. Now the fun part begins... choosing the color palette... as I said previously, soooooo many choices, how do I choose???? 

In the next few "blog posts" my project will evolve from a work in progress until my finished work is revealed... hopefully you'll check back to see!!

Below are a few pictures of what is called the "Library" ... page after page of glass! There are several more walls, these are just a few... in the rest of the area are bins and bags of Smalti that were cut from the slabs you see on the walls!

 First step in making "Gold". As I said, the rest of the process is TOP SECRET!!

  

Stop by in the days to come as I share more of my Venetian Adventure... Ciao, Ciao for now!!