Marcolin Fumato Smoky Gray Glass Fish, Made in Sweden by Italian Glassmaker Brothers, Perfect Gift

This beautiful crystal fish was designed by Benito Marcolin, using the Fumato technique to produce the smoky gray internal pattern. The fish is 6 inches long and 3.5 inches tall, and it weighs about a pound. It is in excellent condition.

The glass artists Josef and Benito Marcolin were born in Rome in 1933 and 1936, respectively. They both received their vocational training in Murano, partly as apprentices in various workshops, partly as students at the Scuola Internationale del Vetro. In May 1954, Glimma glassworks invited them to come to Sweden to work at the mill. The intention was to give Swedish glass art new impetus. In the years 1957-61, the brothers had a collaboration with Reijmyre glassworks. In 1961, Josef and Benito started their own glass cabin in Ronneby, Sweden. Their production was based on artisanal methods, mouth-blown glass without mechanical aids. 

According to a man who worked at Ronneby, this is how the Fumato technique was done...

You take some amethyst-colored glass as a base for the barrel, press it down into a mold full of inward-facing "tips / spikes" so that pointed cavities form in the glass. Lift the barrel a little and spin it slightly so that the glass turns a little (to get a feather / scales pattern). Take up the barrel with the now slightly solidified glass and place the barrel "over" the heating oven so that the smoke from there sticks to the glass. Then take clear glass on top of the solidified, "smoked" amethyst glass and start sculpting. - Easy as pie! :-)