Italy’s artisan glassblowers feel heat as gas prices soar

A glass-worker heats a glass artistic creation in a methane powered oven in Murano island, Venice (Antonio Calanni/AP)

Surging energy prices are posing problems for the artisan glassblowers of Italy’s Murano.

They have seen off plagues and pandemics and changed their business model to outrun low-priced competition from Asia.