Reflections of Murano

Fratelli Barbini Glass Mirror Company, Murano, Venice - Friday, June 17th, 2011

A detailed corner view of a completed mirror.

While on Murano Island in Venice, we visited a company called Fratelli Barbini, which manufactures ornate mirrors in the Ventian traditional style. Fratelli Barbini has aways been a small family company, and can trace it's traditions back to the 17th century when Girolamo Barbini created beautiful mirrors for the royal palace in Versailles.

One of the most interesting parts of our visit to Murano was learning all of the techniques and processes used to make these beautiful creations. Below is a step-by-step guide on how traditiona Venetian mirrors are made.



Step 1 - A sketch of the final mirror shape is made on paper. This paper layout is then transferred into a wood template, which is made in-house. The template has outlines for each of the individual mirror shapes, which will be combined at the end to make one complete mirror.

Step 2 - In order to add decoration or design to the mirror, a piece of glass is etched using a spinning stone wheel. The worker ensures that water is always flowing on the wheel to ensure that the friction doesn't make it too hot, which would cause it to break.

Step 3 - A smaller wheel is used to add the final details. A sample finished etching is shown.


Step 4 - All of the pieces used for one mirror are cut and etched.

Step 5 - The etched pieces of glass are cleaned using distilled water (which must be pure).

Step 6 - A soution of water and stain (silver nitrate and sodium) is poured on top of the glass and then rinsed off.

Step 7 - Step 6 is repeated a few times until a perfect mirrored surface is created.

Step 8 - All of the mirror pieces are assembled into one amazing mirror.

Note: It takes about two days to complete each mirror with about seven employees (depending on the size and intricacy of the pattern).

By Amanda Cox, Laura Van Staveren and Anne Charbonneau

Keywords: Design History