Featured Alexandria, Egypt - The Land of Glass ?

Interesting. So you know when the cup is empty by the cup’s color in transmitted light.

 

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At what point does Murine become Millefiori?

 

Technically speaking Murrine is a hybrid of Millefiori. Both techniques create glass rods that are formed by combining other glass rods that are arraigned in a specific pattern, fused together, & then carefully drawn out by heat to shrink the diameter of the rod without distorting the image. Millefirori rods, like the name implies, are flower-like designs that are carefully cut to the same thickness, arraigned in a mold, & fused by heat to stick together, like the small dish pictured below. I bought this dish at the Corning Museum of Glass many years ago. It's a modern piece made in Venice, using the same technique as the ancient Romans did, 4.0 in. long.



Murrine glass, on the other hand, tries to create glass rods that produce a complex photo-like picture of a person, place or scene. The ancient artists were famous for creating portrait-like glass rods. They understood the complexity of this technique & would usually make half portrait rods, cut them, & combine the 2 halves to form a single portrait, like the example pictured below.



The most complex Murrine glass cane I've seen is pictured below. It was made by the American artist Loren Stump, & is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, Virgin on the Rocks. This glass rod is small enough to use in jewelry.