Home   >   Daily Wire Jewelry Tips   >   All NEW Venetian Glass Beads

All NEW Venetian Glass Beads

By on July 16, 2014
Print Friendly

by Judy Ellis, Wire-Sculpture.com

New Product Tip for July 16, 2014

Handmade Venetian Glass Beads

I’m so excited to share with you a gorgeous NEW line of beads we’ve just begun carrying here at Wire-Sculpture. They are absolutely beautiful and I know that you will love them!

Handmade Venetian Glass Beads:

Venetian glass is a type of glass object made in Venice, Italy, primarily on the island of Murano. It is world-renowned for being colorful, elaborate, and skillfully made.

Many of the important characteristics of these objects had been developed by the thirteenth century. Toward the end of that century, the center of the Venetian glass industry moved to Murano.

Byzantine craftsmen played an important role in the development of Venetian glass, an art form for which the city is well-known. When Constantinople was sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, some fleeing artisans came to Venice. This happened again when the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, supplying Venice with still more glassworkers. By the sixteenth century, Venetian artisans had gained even greater control over the color and transparency of their glass, and had mastered a variety of decorative techniques.

Our NEW Venetian Glass Beads:

All of our Venetian Glass Beads are Genuine and handmade in Venice and the Island of Murano. Venetian Glass Beads are among the most recognized and collected beads in the world. Add tremendous value to your handmade work by using quality Italian made beads to any piece of your wire jewelry.

Diamond
Disc
Heart
Lentil
Melon
Nugget
Oval
Rectangle
Round
Square
Teardrop
Triangle

 

How are they made?

Color:

The process of Murano bead-making begins with the production of color canes. The chemical compounds involved in color fabrication are extremely sensitive so they must be mixed with absolute accuracy. Aquamarine is created through the use of copper and cobalt and ruby red is achieved through the use of a gold solution as a coloring agent.

Lampworked, Perle a Lume Venetian beads:

Most Murano beads are made using an air pump burner lampworking or torch and mandrel technique, once the mandrel was made by using an iron rod covered with a release material stuck on the top of the rod, now a copper tube has taken its place.The copper tube helps make many other different shapes.

The lamp-work method is the most time consuming method of glass bead-making. As each bead must be formed individually. Using a torch for heat, Murano glass rods and tubes are heated to a molten state and wrapped around a metal rod until the desired shape is achieved. Several layers of different colored glass as well as gold and silver leaf are used to produce the desired effect. After the bead is slowly cooled, it is removed from the rod which produces a hole for eventual stringing.

Wedding cake beads “Fiorato”(decorated with glass overlays featuring roses, swirls and dots) and Venetian foil beads (with their fusion of color, gold and silver foil) are just two of the kinds of beads made using the lamp-work method.

Using Venetian Glass Beads in your Jewelry:

There are so many ways to incorporate these beautiful beads into your Jewelry. I’ve put two examples below, but I will do another feature with a few more examples in another post. This is just to get your ideas flowing!

Take a look at Patti Bullards all NEW “La-Te-Dah” Jewelry in her latest DVD Series: The Complete Wire & Pliers DVD’s.

“La-Te-Dah” Bracelet
“La-Te-Dah” Pendants

Get your Handmade Venetian Glass Beads today!

Happy Wrapping!

Do you love this information- why not sign up today for your FREE Jewelry Making Patterns. It’s a great place to start!

 

Read more about Venetian Glass Beads

Click to Receive Daily Tips by Email

One Comment

  1. avatar

    beverly

    July 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm

    Oh my god, I am in heaven! I have collected these beads from other sources at much higher prices. These beads make fabulous bracelets with wire componets. I will be purchasing many in the future to be used in my pieces. Thank you for this new opportunity. Bebeaz