Milon Townsend

Focus on Flamework

Canework: Filigrana, Murrine, & External Color Patterns

           This video covers more ground, in more detail, than its 3 predecessors in the series. Most interesting is the demonstration of ways to actually use the different canes in a piece, as a goblet stem, paperweight figure, or a freestanding insect.

Townsend explains the difference between 'filigrana' and 'latticino', and how the term 'milli's' came to be used instead of 'murrine'. He shows examples of the work of masters in the field, and makes the concept of canemaking accessible to anyone working in glass, clearly demonstrating technique and method for doing so.

You will learn how to make: cane with simple external pattern; cane with internal twist; alternate colors in a pattern on the outside; simple star murrine cane; realistic eye cane for an amphibian; and how to bundle sections of a cane together and draw that down into a complex cane.

As before, the combination of interview, demonstration, still images, finished pieces, and now captions and digital animation will make this information both useful and easy to understand.

Townsend lives and works just outside a small village in upstate New York, with his wife Kiyoko and son Timo. He works with a small team of highly skilled artists to create the prolific output of his studio. He is active in teaching, writing, and speaking about glass as well as about marketing, design, and excellence. He is a regular contributor to a number of magazines, has written 6 books, is working on 2 more, and continues to involve himself in the development of flameworking as a serious artform.