Artisan Francesco Juliano, together with his family, moved from the island of Murano, Italy to Canada.  The island of Murano is widely known for the art of blown glass; Juliano however, made a choice to work with glass differently than many of his countrymen in Italy.

His glassware is processed by fusing, which is a method of  melting glass on glass and then shaping it into molds.  Raw artist glass and colored glass is first cut and placed in a kiln at 1100-1200 degrees Celsius.  There it melts together for about 4-6 hours and then is cooled for approximately 3-4 hours.

Because the glass is cooled slowly, the molecules are allowed to go back to their original order and not stressed in the process.  After the piece is cooled, a flat piece of colored glass is added and prepared.  It is then put into a mould and fired again for 6-8 hours.  Each artistic piece is 100% hand crafted, closely inspected for workmanship and signed by the artist himself.

Francesco Juliano and his wife Linda together with their children Valerie and Francesco Jr. reside in Ontario.  Their ‘Gems of Glass’ can be seen at William Ashley’s and is used in the best hotels in countries around the world.  In the Edmonton area, Picture This gallery is proud to distribute ‘Gems of Glass’ in Western Canada.