This is more than a gallery of pictures on how the main ingredients of mosaic work, the tessorae, are produced in Venice. It is also an invitation for curious visitors to come to Venice to learn the skills of Venetian mosaic technique while on vacation, or at least to lodge amongst the mosaic works.
Orsoni, one of Venice's top producers of "smalti", the fused, colored and opaque glass that is eventually cut into tesserae for use in mosaic arts. The process, illustrated here, is fascinating. We'll follow the manufacture of gold leaf smalti and see how they're used in the Domus Orsoni, the small guest house attached to the foundry used as housing for students during the mosaic school sessions and for regular guests when the school is not in session.
Seeing these pictures in order will give you an idea of how things come together from molten glass and gold leaf, to the finished tiles in decorative or artistic context.
- Graphic Index
- Text Index