Walter Furlan

Toucan Large Murano Glass Sculpture

1980

Walter Furlan was born in 1931 in Chioggia, a small town near Venice. He started to work in a furnace called VAMSA very early. He apprenticed from one of the most famous glass masters on the island, Romano Tosi, better known as Mamaracio. Towards the end of the second world war, from 1940–45, he worked in the furnace Gino Cenedese, where he met Alfredo Barbini along with the old masters from Vamsa. During this period, Furlan learned the particular technique called a massello, that is, he learned how to shape a quantity of glass that was not blown and therefore quite difficult to handle. In 1963, he exhibited his works of art in the official Glass Display on Murano Island sponsored by the Venetian Institute for work and later on in the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Reggio, Calabria. At the beginning of the 70s, Furlan cooperated with Maestro Angelo Seguso and designer Mario Pisoni in the glass factory Seguso Art Glass. The works of Furlan are to be found in museum collections all over the world.