Reticello (Italian, “glass with a small network”) is a type of blown glass made with canes organized in a crisscross pattern to form a fine net, which may contain tiny air traps. Although the theory is simple, the execution is meticulous.
Executing the Reticello Technique
Start by pulling cane with a colored core. Chop cane to length and sort by diameter. Lay out canes on a preheated steel or ceramic plate. Heat the plate until the canes fuse together. Roll the sheet up on the blow pipe, forming a tube. Carefully twist the tube and close the end, creating a bubble. Inflate and twist the bubble into a tapered cup with a small hole.
Reticella (also reticello or in French point coupé or point couppe) is a needle lace dating from the 15th century and remaining popular into the first quarter of the 17th century.
Reticello Glass Characteristics
Well-executed pieces of reticello glass are coveted by collectors and displayed with great pride. The form is characterized by a transparent glass base embedded with a network of crisscrossing threads of opaque glass, forming a lattice of diamond-shaped pockets.
Reticello Glass Production
This is a variant of the filigrana already known in Murano in the XVI century. It is obtained by joining two colonical vases under heat, covered externally with thin colored rods, one arranged clockwise and the other anticlockwise. A network is thus formed, having a rhomboid-like mesh.
Reticello Origins
The reticello glass technique emerged in Murano in the mid 16th century. In 1549 “reticello” is mentioned in the Mariegola or Capitular of Art, with another filigree decoration named “retortoli”.