Fabio Fornasier

Vetreria Artistica Fornasier Luigi

Glassblower

©Fabio Fornasier

Progressive Venetian glass work

Fabio has reinvented the glassblown chandelier
His pieces combine craft, design and technology
He started out working with his father

As a boy, Fabio Fornasier did not think he would follow in the footsteps of his father Luigi, a celebrated chandelier artist in Murano. But at the age of 16, when he was sent to the furnace by his parents as a punishment for not doing well at school, he was struck by a vocation for glasswork. Heir to an ancient and celebrated tradition, he soon felt the need to create a different chandelier, “new in design, but consistent with the tradition in the structure and method of assembly,” he says. The Aria e Fuoco (Air and Fire) oil chandelier, with its slender shapes and sinuous lines, was the starting point of a new path for Fabio. It gave life to the LU Murano collection. Characterised by the union of design, art and technology, Fabio's creations blend the needs of contemporaneity with the ancient wisdom of the furnace.

Interview

©Fabio Fornasier

©Fabio Fornasier

How did you learn your craft?: I started because I didn't want to continue my studies. I had chosen the nautical institute, a school that would lead me to be close to one of my passions, the sea. Now my passion is glass and I keep the sea as my hobby.
What makes glass a special material?: Glass is beautiful and damned at the same time. Every day it puts you in front of new challenges. It is an unpredictable but wonderful material, full of traps and as many satisfactions.
How do you merge tradition and innovation?: Always with respect. The first steps under my father's teaching were fundamental, unfortunately he passed away very soon and from there I was self-taught, but this allowed me to develop the technical know-how on new ideas that, perhaps under a traditional guide, would never have blossomed.
What is the side of your work you love the most?: The fire, the heat, the sweat, the satisfaction in the eyes of my clients. I love waking up early in the morning and getting to the furnace with the curiosity to see what I made the day before, how a work turned out. This is something that still grips me.

Fabio Fornasier is an expert artisan: he began his career in 1979