Written and translated by Silvana Gubetta

The reticello technique is one of the most complex of hot decorative glass techniques.

The creation of an object with reticello decoration needs at least three people. It consists of the preparation of two pastorali plates of filigree cane, which need to be heated up and shaped separately.

The first cane pick up is shaped into a form of an open cylinder, (called in Murano “femena”) and the second one into a form of a closed cylinder (“masc’io”). A spiral movement is impressed to each one of the two pieces: one clockwise, the other anticlockwise, so to form two half-filigree cups.

When the two parts are inserted one into the other, the crossing of the two half-filigree decoration composes a delicate net texture, in whose lozenges (diamonds) are trapped small air bubbles.