A cane is a long and narrow piece of glass, usually in the form of rod (round in cross-section) (50.3.3). Sometimes canes are made flat and strip-like (72.1.11).
Canes are made by stretching a compact mass of hot glass, sometimes to great length (twenty meters or more). The glass being pulled can be simply a large "gather" of one color, but more commonly there is a core of colored glass thickly covered with clear glass. More complicated designs can be created by attaching previously made canes to the outside of contrasting soft glass then twisting the tools as the cane is pulled (see video "Cane Making.")
For very complex patterns, a large bundle of canes that has been carefully assembled can be fused, and then pulled long. Here, no matter how long the bundle is pulled and how small its resulting diameter, the pattern is retained perfectly (66.1.78 and 94.4.111).
All canes fall into one of two basic categories:
Murrini are slices of cane.
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