Glass production, on an artisan level, has not changed at all throughout the centuries. No new advanced techniques have been invented after the blow pipe technique: the result depends most of all on the expertise and the artistic skills of the glass artisan.
If you visit a workshop in which glass objects are made and you assist all of the production phases (in Murano the glass experts are more than happy to provide the public with a demonstration of their skills), you will feel as though you have gone back in the centuries.
The crucible is removed from the furnace where the glass mixture is prepared.
The expert removes the quantity of material required from the crucible that is still hot and incandescent, using the tip of the blow tube: it is normally a large drop called a ‘bolus’.
Therefore with just a few fast operations, blowing in the tube as he rotates it at the same time, he shapes the object to be created with the help of pliers and scissors that his apprentice hands over to him. When the glass mixture cools down and solidifies during production, the object still to be completed and held by pliers with a very long handle, is heated in the furnace in order to simplify the shaping process.
As all of the phases of operations are due to improvisation of the artisan and the temperature of the paste, no objects will ever be identical.