Zanfirico Glass Sherlock Pipe

Amazing glass Sherlock pipe made with classic Italian glass blowing techniques with a modern twist. 

So many steps to create this Sherlock. Here is some of the process.

Making cane

There are several different methods of making cane. In each, the fundamental technique is the same: a lump of glass, often containing some pattern of colored and clear glass, is heated in a furnace (glory hole) and then pulled, by means of a long metal rod (punty) attached at each end. As the glass is stretched out, it retains whatever cross-sectional pattern was in the original lump, but narrows quite uniformly along its length (due to the skill of the glassblowers doing the pulling, aided by the fact that if the glass becomes narrower at some point along the length, it cools more there and thus becomes stiffer). Cane is usually pulled until it reaches roughly the diameter of a pencil, when, depending on the size of the original lump, it may be anywhere from one to fifty feet in length. After cooling, it is broken into sections usually from four to six inches long, which can then be used in making more complex canes or in other glassblowing techniques.

The simplest cane, called vetro a fili (glass with threads) is clear glass with one or more threads of colored (often white) glass running its length. It is commonly made by heating and shaping a chunk of clear, white, or colored glass on the end of a punty, and then gathering molten clear glass over the color by dipping the punty in a furnace containing the clear glass. After the desired amount of clear glass is surrounding the color, this cylinder of hot glass is then shaped, cooled and heated until uniform in shape and temperature. Simultaneously an assistant prepares a ‘post’ which is another punty with a small platform of clear glass on the end. The post is pressed against the end of the hot cylinder of glass to connect them, and the glassblower (or ‘gaffer’) and assistant walk away from each other with the punties, until the cane is stretched to the desired length and diameter. The cane cools within minutes and is cut into small sections. 

A simple single-thread cane can then be used to make more complex canes. A small bundle of single-thread canes can be heated until they fuse, or heated canes, laid parallel, can be picked up on the circumference of a hot cylinder of clear or colored glass. This bundle, treated just as the chunk of color in the description above, is cased in clear glass and pulled out, forming a vetro a fili cane with multiple threads and perhaps a clear or solid color core. If the cane is twisted as it is pulled, the threads take a spiral shape called vetro a retorti (twisted glass) or ZANFIRICO. 

And this is where it starts to get fun…..

Ballotini is a cane technique in which several vetro a fili canes are picked up while laid side-by-side rather than a bundle, with a clear glass gather over them. This gather is shaped into a cylinder with the canes directed along the axis, so that the canes form a sort of “fence” across the diameter of the cylinder. When this is simultaneously twisted and pulled, the resulting cane has a helix of threads across its thickness.

Cane use

The generic term for blown glass made using canes in the lengthwise direction is filigrano (filigree glass), as contrasted with murrine when the canes are sliced and used in cross-section. (An older term is latticino, which has fallen into disuse). 

One way glassblowers incorporate cane into their work is to line up canes on a steel or ceramic plate and heat them slowly to avoid cracking. When the surfaces of the canes just begin to melt, the canes adhere to each other. The tip of a glassblowing pipe (blowpipe) is covered with a ‘collar’ of clear molten glass, and touched to one corner of the aligned canes. The tip of the blowpipe is then rolled along the bottom of the canes, which stick to the collar, aligned cylindrically around the edge of the blowpipe. They are heated further until soft enough to shape. The cylinder of canes is sealed at the bottom with jacks and tweezers, to form the beginning of a bubble. The bubble is then blown using traditional glassblowing techniques. 

Cane can also be incorporated in larger blown glass work by picking it up on a bubble of molten clear glass. This technique involves the gaffer creating a bubble from molten clear glass while an assistant heats the pattern of cane. When the cane design is fused and at the correct temperature and the bubble is exactly the correct size and temperature, the bubble is rolled over the cane pattern, which sticks to the hot glass. The bubble must be the right size and temperature for the pattern to cover it fully without any gaps or trapping air. Once the canes have been picked up, the bubble can be further heated, blown, and smoothed and shaped on the marver to give whatever final shape the glassblower wishes, with an embedded lacy pattern from the canes. Twisting the object as it is being shaped imparts a spiral shape to the overall pattern.

So yea, that’s why this pipe is ONE OF A KIND!

• You will receive this exact piece.
• Handmade in the USA 🇺🇸
• Dimensions: ~6 (L) x 2 (W) x 4 (H)
• Weight: ~7 oz
• Bowl Size: Thumb