How this Boston physics student became one of Murano’s youngest master glassmakers

A souvenir shop in Venice, displays ornate glass goods. (Richard I'Anson/The Image Bank Unreleased/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Born in the Italian town of Brescia, Roberto Beltrami grew up just a few hours’ drive from Venice and the island of Murano, world-famous for producing beautiful glassware. But it was nearly 4,000 miles away in Boston, Massachusetts, that he first came across the art of glassblowing.

“I was just so struck by this material, the colours, the transparency, the shapes,” recalled Beltrami.

It was 2011, and Beltrami, then a sophomore physics student at Boston University, was captivated by an exhibition of the work of American artist Dale Chihuly. Known for pushing the boundaries of contemporary glassblowing, Chihuly’s pursuit of his craft has taken him around the globe, including a stint in Murano in the 1960s.

Beltrami visited the island on his summer break, taking up a class in glass blowing. That class turned into an apprenticeship, and the summer turned into a year. Beltrami quit university, trading lecture halls for roaring furnaces, sweating it out in centuries-old workshops, and studying under some of the world’s most renowned glassblowing masters.

At one time, Murano was the global leader in glassmaking, renowned for unparalleled quality, style, and innovation, including the invention of “cristallo,” clear glass.

But over its 700-year glassblowing history, Murano has faced numerous challenges, and in recent years, the number of factories has plummeted. While many in the industry say that young people are disinterested in pursuing hot, hard manual labor, Beltrami has a different perspective.

With a long legacy of closely guarding their trade secrets, workshops in Murano are reluctant to welcome newcomers, said Beltrami, 34. “Everybody was afraid you were going to steal their job, and nobody wanted to teach you anything.”

“It was really nightmarish, having this passion for this material, and then you can’t really learn anything,” he added.

Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, Beltrami decided to strike out on his own. In 2017, the then-25-year-old started his own workshop, Wave Murano Glass.

Now with a team of 20, many of them in their twenties and thirties, Beltrami — believed to be the youngest glass master in Murano — is ushering in a new generation of artisans. “We’re not all under the age of 35 but the average age is definitely under 35 — which is unheard of in Murano,” said Beltrami.

A millennium of glassmaking

Glass is formed by melting sand, soda ash and limestone at temperatures of up to 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 degrees Fahrenheit). With a texture similar to treacle, the molten glass mixture is held on the end of a hollow pipe, inflated with air, and then shaped swiftly by swinging, blowing, and rolling while the material is still hot and pliable. Once cooled, it takes on a hard, transparent form.

In Venice, glass has been manufactured for over 1,000 years. To prevent fires from the hot furnaces and keep trade secrets from escaping the city, all the glass factories were moved to Murano in 1291, where they’ve remained since.

In addition to the invention of cristallo, Murano became well-known for its ability to add vibrant colour to clear glass.

“It’s not so easy to have different colours of glass together and have them match chemically,” said Beltrami, explaining that each shade uses a unique element — such as cobalt for purple-blue, lead for pale yellow, or tellurium for a pink tint — which expand and contract at different rates when they heat and cool.

“Being able to melt all these colours and have them match chemically so a piece doesn’t break at the end was one of the biggest strengths of Murano glass,” Beltrami added.

A self-confessed pyromaniac who unwittingly torched a sofa before he could walk, Beltrami says glass blowing combines his love of fire with his passion for making things and working with people.

“Glass blowing is kind of like a team sport, because it’s very physical, very intense. You need to work in a team because you can barely do anything by yourself,” he said.

The size and weight of many of the glass objects require at least one person to hold the pipe and turn the molten glass, while another shapes it, and another person may be required to torch the glass to keep it pliable, or add embellishments. “It’s like a choreography,” Beltrami added.

Making waves

At its peak in the 16th century, more than 30,000 people were living on the 1.7-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometre) island of Murano. Now, it is home to around 4,000 people. According to Consorzio Promovetro Murano, a trade consortium that promotes and protects Murano glass, less than a third of them work at the island’s 105 glass-making workshops.

The small factories struggle to compete on large-scale industrial orders, said Beltrami. Murano instead focuses on luxury and artistic glassware, although that too has been threatened by an influx of counterfeit goods: according to Consorzio Promovetro Murano, cheap imitation products are common in Venice’s souvenir stores. Not only do they divert profits from local glassmakers, but they also risk damaging the reputation of Murano glass.

The industry has been further impacted by a series of crises, including the financial crash of 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic, and rising gas prices. But despite the challenges, Beltrami is optimistic about the future of the craft.

A major problem he saw across the factories he worked in previously was antiquated equipment and inefficient processes. So, at Wave Murano Glass, he introduced a variety of modern technologies, including streamlining administrative workflows with AI-enabled software and introducing more energy-efficient furnaces.

Designed in the US, these furnaces capture heat that is typically lost via exhaust fumes and reuse it to preheat the air going into the burner, reducing gas usage by 80% compared to furnaces of a similar size, said Beltrami.

According to Beltrami, Murano’s factories have historically worked on small-scale industrial orders, with many rejecting commissions of less than a few hundred but unable to cater for those of a few thousand. Seeing a missed opportunity, he set up his furnaces to be flexible, allowing Wave to cover anything from one-off pieces, to a few dozen, up to 1,200 pieces.

While the bulk of Wave’s output is white label products for brands, designers, and artists, up to 10% of the company’s turnover comes from classes and tours, which Beltrami hopes can share the art of glass blowing with a wider audience.

His efforts have already paid off. Beltrami has made a point of offering internships to young, enthusiastic talent from around the globe, many of whom are now employed at Wave, including several women, who are underrepresented in the industry.

For Beltrami, finding new talent is an essential step in preserving the craft he’s come to love — and continuing its legacy of artistry and innovation.

“The craftsmanship, the tradition of over a thousand years of history, all make it very special,” he added.

Written by Rebecca Cairns, CNN