Unveiling Murano Glass’ Hidden Power in Venice

A look at Venice Glass Week 2026

There are places where inspiration seems to be everywhere you look.

Venice is certainly one of them.

During The Venice Glass Week, you begin to see the city a little differently.

Rather than just canals, bridges, and old buildings, you notice the glass in windows, exhibitions, workshops, and galleries.

Murano Beads appear in the hands of makers, adding a local highlight.

The 2026 edition was particularly special because it marked the 10th anniversary of The Venice Glass Week. Additionally, from September 12–20, Venice, Murano and Mestre hosted more than 200 events. These events celebrated glass through exhibitions, installations, demonstrations, workshops, talks and guided tours.

I spent some time exploring this year’s events, and as someone who is especially interested in beads, I naturally found myself looking beyond the finished pieces to the materials and techniques behind them.

And that is what I wanted to share with you.

Where the beads begin

One of my favorite sights was something that might seem fairly ordinary if you don’t work with glass.

Glass rods.

Lots and lots of glass rods.

But when you work with beads, a collection like this is anything but ordinary.

There are colors everywhere — transparent, opaque, delicate pastels, intense blues and reds.

Additionally, greens, yellows, blacks, and whites are difficult to describe, yet they are immediately recognizable once you see them.

And then there are the shapes.

Some rods are straight and orderly. Others have been bent, pulled or worked in some way before they’ve even become part of a bead.

Looking at them reminded me that a finished Venetian bead is really only the end of a much longer story.

First there is the glass.

Then there is the heat.

The tools.

The technique.

And, perhaps most importantly, the person making it.

The beauty of the workbench

I could happily spend far too much time looking at a glassmaker’s workbench.

There is something wonderful about seeing the evidence of the process rather than just the finished object.

Tools sitting where they were last used.

Small pieces of glass waiting to be incorporated into something else.

Containers full of color.

And everywhere, possibilities.

This is one of the things I love about glassmaking.

There is an incredible amount of skill involved, but there is also experimentation.

A beadmaker starts with an idea, but the glass has a say in what happens next.

The temperature changes.

The colors react.

The shape evolves.

And sometimes the little surprise that wasn’t planned becomes the best part.

Venice Glass Week: looking at glass from every direction

One of the wonderful things about Venice Glass Week is that it isn’t simply a series of exhibitions.

The program brings together exhibitions and installations with demonstrations, workshops, guided tours, talks and other events. The 2026 program stretched across Venice, Murano and Mestre.

There was plenty for anyone interested in the history of glass.

It covers 1948–1958 Murano Glass and the Venice Biennale.

Additionally, LE STANZE DEL VETRO hosted an exhibition on the period’s importance for Murano glass and the Biennale.

Nevertheless, there was also a strong focus on what is happening now.

That balance is important.

Venetian glass has an extraordinary history, but it isn’t simply something preserved in a museum.

Artists and glassmakers are continuing to experiment with it, reinterpret it and find new ways to work with an old material.

And then there are the beads

Of course, this is the part that really inspires me.

One of the 2026 events was Glass Beads from Around the World, an exhibition in Mestre featuring finalist beads from previous editions of Your Bead for Venice. The exhibition brings together work by glass bead artists from around the world who have been inspired by Venetian techniques and traditions.

Check out the finalist: https://www.yourbeadforvenice.org/finalists-2026/

I love the idea behind this.

Venetian beadmaking is a very specific tradition, rooted in a particular place and history — but its influence doesn’t stop at the edge of the Venetian lagoon.

Beadmakers around the world have learned from these techniques, adapted them and made them their own.

And that brings us to one of the projects I was especially happy to see connected with Venice Glass Week.

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Your Bead for Venice

Your Bead for Venice is an international competition celebrating Venetian glass beadmaking and the artists who continue to be inspired by it.

The 2026 competition invited beadmakers around the world to submit a bead inspired by Venetian beads or Venetian glass techniques. The finalists’ work is being exhibited during Venice Glass Week.

There is something particularly nice about the idea of one bead carrying a connection to Venice.

It doesn’t have to be an exact reproduction of an historic bead.

It can be a new interpretation.

A different color combination.

A familiar technique used in a new way.

A personal response to Venetian glass.

In fact, the 2026 competition introduced a special Venetian Star prize recognizing a bead that most closely reflects traditional Venetian design, techniques and Venetian glass. The judging also considered three areas: connection with Venice, quality of the bead and technique used.

And that’s really what makes the project interesting to me.

Tradition doesn’t have to mean standing still.