Adriano dalla Valentina was born on the island of Murano in 1945. He began working in a glass factory at the incredibly early age of ten. For the next fourteen years, he worked in various factories in Murano and thus was exposed to numerous traditional glass-blowing techniques. Then, when he was twenty-four, dalla Valentina opened his own studio, where he could put into practice for himself all that he had absorbed from other “maestros.” In 1974 he founded his glassworks called Linea Valentina. In the following years, dalla Valentina began to distinguish himself for his commitment to the traditional techniques of the island.  His use of “murrina” and “filigrana,” incorporated into new forms and objects, has become his hallmark. He makes all his own canes for his complex vessels. His colors and patterns are marvelous, achieving an intricacy that is rare today, even in Murano. Rosa Barovier Mentasti, the eminent glass historian, has written that dalla Valentina “was led by the small dimensions of his furnace to develop the techniques of the murrine and cane working, in which he is outstanding.”