Every summer in Venice, the vaporetti become over-crowded with tourist, the boat stops jammed with people from every country, all speaking different languages and very few who know where they want to go or how to get there. Mix this with the locals who absolutely know where they want to go and unlike anywhere else…
What is Calcedonia Glass?
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Visiting Venice Update 2013
Update on Venice 2013: Visiting Venice is easier than ever, though more expensive than ever as the hotels have increased their room rates for the summer for the tourist season by as much as 36% according to a local source. To save some money, you can buy some tickets on line in advance. In addition to…
Bye Bye Love Locks
Ok, so if you declared your love in Venice by attaching a small padlock to any bridge, be prepared for the removal of your lucchetti dell’amore. They have removed some 600 last week and are prepared to remove the more than 2,500 on the Accademia bridge alone. But, it seems they reappear almost as fast…
Costume Jewelry in the US
A couple of years ago when we did a bead show in Providence, Rhode Island, we became fascinated with the rich history of the area. If you make jewelry, you are all too familiar with the term “findings. Well you need look no further than Providence and nearby Attleboro to see where many of the small…
Murano Glass Dichroic Beads
We took dichroic glass back to Venice after we discovered American bead makers using it and saw the beauty in this new decoration. Fortunately, Jerry Sandberg had begun working on dichroic for artist since the 1970s. He was working at a vacuum-coating laboratory in southern California when he saw an artist digging through the trash for…
Dichroic – Where Old Meets New
We took dichroic glass back to Venice after we encountered Jerry Sandberg and saw the beauty in this new decoration. Fortunately, Jerry Sandberg had begun working on dichroic for artist in the early 1970s. He was working at a vacuum-coating laboratory in southern California in the solar cell industry when he saw an artist digging…
Color Secrets of Venetian Beads
In the making of Venetian (Murano Glass) Beads, we are limited by the colors which Effetre makes but long ago the Venetians discovered they could add other metals to change the colors. You can see from this chart the effects of gold, white gold and silver. Gold Foil: The gold warms the color with the…
To Anneal or Not to Anneal
Recently we got a question from a customer who asked if all our Venetian Beads are annealed. She had heard that annealing makes the beads stronger. What is annealing? The word comes from the metallurgy and materials science where it has long been recognized it increases the metals ductility and makes it more workable to heat…
A New Treasure For Lampwork
People often ask us how we find new suppliers. When we began in 1993, we thought we were really preparing for this new career. We took a class in importing from a local junior college. Now we could write the book “What they don’t tell you about importing”. We contacted the Italian representatives in the…