The patent on Gold Fill (process which is the same as Silver Fill) was filed in 1900 in Providence Rhode Island, the birthplace of the costume jewelry industry in the United States. In case you weren’t clear on Silver Fill versus Sterling Silver, our Silver Findings are produced from either Silver Ingot or Silver Pebbles…
Here’s a peek inside the dichroic facility of Sanberg Coatings, where all our Murano Glass goes for the added bling or as I think, the magic machine that gives us all these added colors. The technology is called “vacuum thin film deposition” and was discovered in 1887. It took military and aerospace needs to support…
Effetre aka Moretti is the Beginning Our beads all (except for the few borosilicate) start with the canes that Effetre produces in much the same fashion they have been doing since the late 1800s. That is not to say that Venetians and Muranese did not make beads before Vincenzo Moretti began his production of Murrine…
I feel like we have answered this question before, but we keep getting it. Now those of you who know me, know that beads, specifically Murano Glass Beads are my field of expertise and anything to do with glass, Murano, Venice. So to answer this question I had to do a little sleuthing, naturally on…
We did it, we packed our tables, some of our jewelry and some of our (I say some, because we have a warehouse full of these wonderful treasures) Murano Glass Vases, Bowls and Bottles, Mirrors, Animals, Fish, Aquariums into a large commercial van and drove over the bay. The last couple of days before the…
Well after months of telling everyone we were going to implement Inventory on VenetianBeadShop.com. we DID it! It may not be pretty for a short while as we sort out any inaccurate stock counts here in our warehouse. But it just gets better as we work on it. So ever so often, a product may…
We get this question a lot. And we are always happy to answer, but sometimes if you live on the other side of the world or even across the country, our hours and yours may not sync and you are feeling neglected. So here’s how you can see if your package has shipped. And you…
We have closed the show on 8 days of fun and meeting so many new people, putting faces to our online customers. So here’s my wrap on the show. The preparations start immediately after the Christmas rush and trays of beads must be prepared, filled and labeled correctly (we hope). We operate on a bar…
Fractions – Hieroglyphics It is said that the Egyptians were using fractions in 1800 B.C. writing in hieroglyphics, using them in their payments and taxes. Inches, Yards The inch was originally the width of a man’s thumb. In the 14th century King Edward II of England ruled that 1 inch equaled 3 grains of barley…
We measure our beads in millimeters because that’s how our bead makers work. Millimeters are also how pearls are measured. So most women are slightly familiar with the concept, just ask one if she prefers a 10mm pearl or an 8mm pearl. A handy thing to remember is that 1 inch = ~25mm You need…