Roberto Beltrami

The 27-year-old founder and glass master of Wave Murano Glass shares insights on building a glass empire and why he loves the material.

When you’re one brand out of 374 exhibitors at the International Furniture Fair Singapore, not only are your products fair game, but standing out is a tall order. It takes a work of exceptional design, along with visible placement and luck, to get noticed, and these were all in alignment when the glistening sculpted pieces by Wave Murano Glass caught our eye at the Italian Hospitality booth in March.

What is Murano glass and how is it unique from other types of glasswork?

Compositionally speaking, Murano glass might be a typical soda-limesilica glass, but its working range (the temperatures at which the glass is soft enough to be worked by hand) is wider than that of similar industrial glasses. What makes Murano glass unique is the skill and the know-how required. Muranese craftsmen are some of the world’s most skilled glass handlers, who know how to sculpt, shape and blow the hot, mouldable glass by hand – an artistic technique that was developed and has been passed down over hundreds of years of practice on the Italian island of Murano.