Tag: Effetre

Colors of Murano Glass Beads – It Starts with the Canes

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 and subsequently branched into all colors of glass canes. The furnaces of Murano could all make glass canes. It starts with the batches they create each night. But the Moretti family concentrated the production, and made it easy for bead makers to buy in small batches.

Even today our bead makers go to the Effetre warehouse to buy canes by the kilo. It is a secretive place and definitely not open to tourist. Even the largest importer of Moretti canes in the US, Mike Frantz, tells me he has not seen the entire production areas. I sometimes get go with a bead maker, but definitely no cameras.  I count on the office manager to take care of delivery to the bead makers where we supply the materials.

Effetre Factory Warehouse

Catalog of Colors

Well the catalog is actually small pieces of canes in a binder. And if you are looking at newer colors, hand prepared, then they just cut off a piece of cane and put a sticker on it for you, like one of my favorites, Blue Inchiostro. It has yet to make it into the books! My office always is full of pieces of canes, millefiori and samples we have tried. Fortunately Moretti had the forethought to give the canes a 6 digit number, though most of us just use the last 3 digits.

Canes and our Bead Shapes Sample Card

It takes a good bit of imagination to work on beads. Like the artist pallet, there are always things that influence the outcome, the color. You can see in the chart below how the color changes just be adding Gold, Silver or White Gold.

Gold and Silver Change the Colors

Colors and Numbers

And you can see we have our own color codes which are almost uniformly. That’s because late at night I might give something a different number – but never intentional.

  • WG1 is Cristallo/White Gold
  • G1 is Cristallo/Gold
  • S1 is Cristallo/Silver
  • For more on our color codes, visit our VenetianBeadShop Color Chart

White gold foil beads are produced White gold which is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal, such as silver or palladium.

Yellow gold is measured in Karats. With Yellow Gold, there are two applications, interior and exterior and exhibit the same behaviors.

White gold tends to tone down the color, giving the colors a softer look. Think about the difference between Sterling Silver Jewelry and White Gold Jewelry, where the White Gold it has a much softer glow.

Basic Colors in White Gold Foil

The little pads of the precious metals are sold by the weight to the bead makers. It is expensive but fortunately it takes only small amounts for each bead.

Gold, Silver and White Gold Foil in Sheets

Every bead maker has a stash of canes.

Serious Work

Our bead makers have serious supplies of glass. There are a couple reasons. 1) We need lots of beads and 2) Effetre has a schedule for making the glass, and they NEVER deviate from this schedule. If we need Green and they are sold out, then we just have to wait. The batches are in about 250-300 Kilo and if we do not like the Red, then we still have to wait. Not only do we have to wait for the schedule, we also have to wait until they have sold all of the Red we do NOT like.

Blue comes in Many Shades

Now that we have the colors, then you must decide shape, size and decoration.

More about that later.

Working in Venice – Technology

Every time we come to Venice, I think the internet access will be better and in general, it is better than it used to be however, for an Internet Company, we never have the bandwith we need. I am holed up on the landing between stairs which is the only place in the house we get reception. Touted as the only city with free WiFi, we can get it only on the Grand Canal, so riding the boats I can work as well as sitting at the boat stops.

Where is the Sun?

It has been raining for what seems like an eternity with 2 small children with us. One day when we were headed out of Venice to work with a supplier, a tree fell on the train track and we were trapped on the train with our hungry 6 year old. No trains moving, we had to take a bus back to Venice which took about 2 hours. The traffic was snarled with the lack of the trains to move people around.

Kids and Umbrellas and Canals?

It seems there are more tourist here than in the previous couple of years. We spend most rides on the vaporetto giving directions. Jeff has been complimented on his English! One tourist thought the platform where we wait for the vaporetta was a boat and wondered when we would be moving.

Our Ipads have been a huge hit here and even better than a dog or baby to break the ice. Italians love new electronics. One day on the train we met an Italian journalist who was intrigued by the Ipad. He already had an iphone, but was having problems with it. Jeff rebooted his iphone and now he is writing a story about the Apple support on the train.

Marcella plays while we work. No technology needed.

I shall give you the rules for Tourist as rain magnifies every movement in terms of time and effort. So if you come to Venice here are some rules. Too bad the Italians don’t read this as I have a few suggestions as well.

1. When you get on, don’t block the entrance,especially if you have luggage. Move inside. Move back. The locals have no way of getting their carts of groceries home other than the boat and dodging giant luggage makes it difficult.

2. Before you come, go to www.actv.it and look at the boat schedules. Get a bit of the lay of the land so you are not standing on the wrong platform. The Grand Canal is rather a two lane highway and if you figure out which way the boat is pointing, you will be fine. Now the Gira Citta is yet another story. One goes around clockwise and the other counter-clockwise but both eventually work their way around the island.

This Week’s Work

The beginning of the week we went to Effetre to select the canes for a project where we are matching fused pendants, beads for a total look.We bought our sample beadsto begin producing the matching pieces and to take to our fusion supplier to begin producing.

We worked with one of our furnaces to produce some new mosaic canes which will be exclusive to us. Everyone can buy the standard canes from Effetre,even in the US they are sold. But these canes and the colors are being produced only for us.

Ordering Beads on Murano

Additionally there currently is not available aventurina from the factory, but our furnace is now producing for us the canes we will use in the beads. The aventurina is in block form and takes a little work to make the stringers, but the result in the beads is quite stunning.

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