Millebolle
Salviati,
2000
A thousand bubbles of light and memory.
For centuries, Venice has nurtured the world’s most skilled glassmakers, where mastery and intuition pass through generations like whispered secrets. Within this lineage emerged Millebolle, a collection for Salviati whose name means “a thousand bubbles.” The project captures glass’s poetic fragility and the discipline shaping it, transforming air and transparency into something tactile, luminous, and enduring.
Millebolle also began a lasting collaboration between Luca Nichetto and Salviati. In 1999, while studying at IUAV University in Venice, he met art director Simon Moore. Selling sketches to fund his studies, he was invited to intern at Salviati, learning alongside Murano’s master glassblowers. From mentorship and experimentation, Millebolle emerged as his first professional design.
Each vase is crafted through a complex process in which large air bubbles are carefully trapped within molten glass. The artisan must maintain perfect timing and control so the bubbles remain suspended, forming the textured surface that defines every piece. Produced in three sizes, each vase holds its own constellation of air, transforming invisibility into shimmering depth.
Millebolle expresses the harmony between technique and intuition central to Venetian glassmaking. More than two decades later, it remains in Salviati’s catalogue, a testament to craftsmanship and memory. From its first suspended bubbles onward, it reflects how mastery and imagination can unite to create objects that feel timeless, delicate, and alive.
