By Irina Missiuro Sterling silver alloys typically contain about 7.5 percent copper, an addition that not only provides strength to the otherwise pure silver, but also helps the alloys to tarnish fairly quickly—a traditional frustration for jewelers and consumers alike. In addition, both copper and silver readily absorb oxygen when in a liquid state, leading to issues…
Empowering Creativity: How Small Businesses in Vertical Markets Support Artists and Strengthen Communities Authentic artistry risks being overshadowed by large-scale corporations and unseen online, dwarfed by the Amazons, the Googles and visibility certain only by the dollars spent. And online stores such as Temu aggressively use the terms “Murano Glass” with impunity, even going so…
Murano Beads and Tariffs At the moment there is no reason to panic. We will not increase prices until we are forced to pay these tariffs. We have a huge stock of beads already in our bead shop. Maybe it is not the beads that you currently use, but there are plenty of beautiful choices.…
In our last Blog we talked about my mentor and dear friend Franco Albertini who owned the furnace La Fenice in Murano. The furnace was in the gardens of the palazzo da Mulla one of the last remnants of Venetian villas built in Murano in the 15th and 16th centuries. Today WAVE is breathing new life into…
We just wrote an article for Italy Magazine, the online magazine is a great source of news for Italy and what is going on. You can read the entire story here: https://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/brief-history-murano-glass-told-expert It is an online magazine that you can subscribe to for free and enjoy stories of all the regions of Italy, places to…
Making Glass Blowing Look Simple Watching these guys makes it look like play. Watch as they make authentic mouthblown Murano Glasses. Glass blowing is teamwork, the Maestro (the one who sits at the bench) and his servente, basically anyone not sitting at the bench. In more complicated pieces there may be 4 or 5 who…
You are never too old to love Venetian Beads. We began as the “bubble” of COVID when our lovely ladies couldn’t go to mass, couldn’t go to Bingo, nor the hairdresser couldn’t go to any of the things that keep them “young”. And 3 years on, they still come to our beadshop every Wednesday afternoons…
This Corning Museum short clip gives you an idea of the origins of “lampworking”. It was exceedingly painstaking to make a bead, or small animals or fruit. This arduous effort is where we get the term lampwork. Even though today the torches are fueled by bottled gas which does not require a bellows or foot…
The art of Murano Glass we all love is at severe risk. They had barely survived the crisis of COVID when they were required to close, confined to their homes and in fact many did not. Now the cost of gas has increased over 600% from .25 Euro per cubic meter to 1.27 Euro. This…
Today a customer who has been purchasing from us for sometime told me why she works. She works to make money to send her daughter to camp. Most of our customers aren’t huge businesses, but they are the backbone of all societies, the small business. The mom who works to be able to afford a…