We published this article a few years ago, but it is still valid. I was prompted to update it when a reader on our FaceBook Page commented on a picture of beads and saying “wow so expensive, i find these places …. i go to garage sales, and regular stores and can get some amazing glass beads for way less than half the price”
Another facebook reader said “regardez le travail des vrais perliers vous verrez tout de suite la difference !!” Look the work of real beads you can see immediately the difference. (Translation)
Having worked for over 2 decades with our beadmakers and glass blowers in Venice and Murano and having invested millions in the development of our bead store, our designs and our wonderful bead makers, I am a bit offended by the comments.
I do, however, agree with our French friend. When you see our beads, alongside the Chinese or Indian you will see the brilliance of the Murano Glass immediately distinguishes it. It all starts with the canes, produced in Murano by hand in the traditions of hundreds of years. Often imitated, but never quite the same.
So once again – Why Buy Venetian?
New designers are searching for their niche. Sometimes they fall in love with Swarovski, but it is everywhere and hard to make a name for yourself with such a ubiquitous commodity; and in the words of Brenda “an accent” bead! Though we do admit they compliment our Murano Glass.
They are made by machine, cut by machine and their very sameness is their appeal. Our beads however are NEVER the same! So much depends on the canes, the fire, the humidity, indeed the mental attitude of our bead makers. And when you order 2 beads, we handpick to match those two beads for you!
And let’s face it no one ever advertised that they have “Chinese Beads” and even Czech while again available everywhere, simply doesn’t carry the allure or romance of Venetian Beads. Tthough they were not the first in the world to make beads, the Venetians have certainly influenced the design and production of beads since about the 10th Century. It is also fascinating that women have always been a dominate force in Venetian Beads. While they were not welcomed into the furnaces the lamp workers have always included talented and very business savy women of both Venice and Murano.
Let’s remember that Marco Polo traveled to China taking beads! Remember that Manhattan was purchased with beads! Venetian Beads were the currency in Africa, known as Trade Beads. And we still make them pretty much the same way as then. Now that’s something to talk about with your customers or to tell your friends when you they ask you about the jewelry you are wearing.
Having Venetian Beads in your design gives you a story to tell. When you are at that hot and dusty Craft Fair, the sparkle under the sunlight will bring your customers in and your ability to weave the history of Venice will help you sell your jewelry. It sets you apart as a jewelry maker who appreciates the quality and the history. Wear it to the country club or your daughter’s softball game. It’s a fit everywhere.
We try to give you a little of the story behind the beads, behind our sterling silver and the trials and tribulations of daily life in Venice. Use the resources on our website to learn more about Venice and you’ll be able to talk to your customers, or just tell your friends why you chose Venetian Beads. No two beads are ever exactly alike, each is a small work of art born in the flames.
And if you ask me, I will just say I never was interested in any beads other than Venetian. I fell in love with the glass and working with the bead makers is a way for me to be a small part of the story of Murano Glass.
Here are some resources on our website that can help you understand our beads:
I have been a member of ISGB (International Society of Glass Beads) for about 15 years and GAS (Glass Art Society) equally as long. So I was a little taken back when I received a pamphlet at the GAS conference here in San Jose, CA (where I spent 3 days volunteering) called “How to Buy Glass Beads – A Shopper’s Guide to Finding Quality Art Glass Beads” which is a real “looking down the nose” at those of us who produce more than 5 beads a week.
OK, so you can see I am not making this up, I just scanned it in so everyone can read – (hopefully not our bead makers who would be terribly offended!)
And inside it continues…
The prices of the factory-made beads are often “too good to be true”. We work very hard to keep prices down and deal with not only fluctuations in the Euro but also in precious metals pricing.
Another sign of factory-made beads is quantity – the fact that our bead makers show up every day and make beads is a penalty?
Is the work “professionally” displayed (This means 5 beads of in a plate of rice?)
Quality and Techniques used for centuries in Murano are not “real” EXCUSE ME? Where do you think ISGB beadmakers learned?
Ask the seller to tell you the name of who made bead: Yes, really I am going to reveal my beadmakers whom I have cultivated, spend millions – YES, and 20 years of my life to develop.
PLEASE, the Venetians and Muranese have been doing this since the 800s and before. Recent discoveries in Altino digs have uncovered murrine (millefiori) from the 1st Century AD. Altino was destroyed in 452 AD by Attila forcing its people into the islands we now know as Venice.
American “artists” came along only few years ago. The fact that our wonderful bead makers support themselves, raise families, send their children to college, buy homes (and YES they can make quantity) only adds to their status as artists. Most of the beads these so called “ISGB artist” make have origins in Venetian Beads.
Quantity is really just a matter of how hard you work – NOT a definition of “Art”.
For example the Chevron Bead in the brochure that you see above – no artistic work there, just copycat of Venetian and from even earlier bead makers.The development is absolutely Murano in the late 1400s as documented in The History of Beads by Lois Sherr Dublin, the “bible” of beads, ISBN 0-8109-2617-2. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of beads around the world.
The History of Beads!
Among my bead makers, I count
One who owned his own Murano Glass furnace – until his wife making beads became so successful he closed the furnace and now works for her.
A maestro who worked at Venini (Murano Glass Furnace) – have you seen their pieces? I dare you to say he is not an artist!
One who began as an apprentice in a furnace at 12 years old, and has raised 2 daughters making beads in his home.
One who began as an apprentice at 13 in the Seguso Murano Glass Furnace under the famed Archimede Seguso, who was a truly demanding Maestro.
One who is a 3rd generation Venetian bead maker – bead cards from his family are in museums around the world.
One who learned from her mother, who worked in one of those “factories” and is considered the Queen of the Fiorato bead in Venice and Murano.
A maestro in a Murano Glass furnace who invented machines so he could produce blown beads easier (and in quantity) :>)
And many more! And I count them all my friends and respect their work!
They will work day and night, weekends to produce the beads we need.
I find it very interesting that any glassblower, Chihuly included, will acknowledge immediately that Murano is the cradle of glass blowing and respects their Maestri. Yet ISGB somehow believes they invented bead making.
Might I remind them that the Doge of Venice gave the right to make beads to the crafts people Venice in a decree in 1291 when the furnaces moved to Murano? And that the “union” of beadmakers in Venice and Murano dates back to 1308 when the State Inquisition organized the beadmakers into a Guild “Arte de’Margariteri” while the ISGB is a mere baby having been formed in 1993.
Incidentally that is the same year we began importing VenetianBeadShop.com began importing beads from Venice and Murano.
Time Line of Beads from 30,000 BC to Present – Note ISGB a newcomer in 1991!
Here are what our canes look like before they are ground to make either the chevrons or we also use in our Chevron Blown Beads
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 through the trash for broken pieces of dichroic. He was a jeweler as well as engineer and became interested in the creativity. He worked these three scavenger artists to create the first dichroic glass designed for the art industry, Cyan/Red; Magenta/Green and Yellow/Blue.
Today, some forty years later, the equipment CBS (Coatings by Sandberg) uses is as high tech as its companion industry, solar cells for satellites and the photography industry. These machine cost around $2M and apply the metallic films under vacuum. The more colors, the more layers and longer it takes to produce. By the time we arrived on the scene, Sandberg was already familiar with Murano Glass and had begun coating it. Because glass melts and cools as different temperatures, we can only use Murano Glass to make our beads. This is a very strange marriage of high tech equipment and low tech. We just melt glass around mandrels.
Using Class Technique Adding Dichroic
It took us several years, lots of batches of dichroic which we entrusted to only one of our families who produce beads for us. The cost is high for the dichroic and add to that the shipping round trip from Murano to Los Angeles and then back to Murano. Well you can see how these little bits of glitter are expensive. (And of course the Italian Government likes to make their share on the returning glass.)
When we first took the dichroic to Venice, we had no idea how to teach them to work with it. We solicited the help of a well-known insect artist in Venice, only to be told by him that he had no intention of sharing his knowledge with any “Muranese”. He is Venetian so a little of the feud between Venice and Murano. (So much for that, we were on our own.)
So we went to work with one of our beadmakers, an ex-maestro in a major furnace. His knowledge of the glass guided us through the early days, but we had no idea the colors that would work. It was an expensive trial and error period taking us about two years before we got a bead we could sell. But we knew inside these magic color wands we had some beautiful beads, if only we could learn how NOT to burn out the color.
It is one thing to make a few beads each day as many lampwork artist do. It is an entirely different thing to produce in quantities that we require. So some compromise has to be reached which requires us working with the bead makers.
On a recent trip, we once again explored how we could make the best use of the dichroic. When our newest line, Carnevale Glitz were still in the fire, we knew they would be a hit. Adding dichroic to our Gold Foil really made the dichroic pop. We could hardly wait for them to cool and taken off the mandrels. The colors really jump our against the exterior gold. So enjoy a bit of old Venetian Bead Making and thanks to Jerry Sandberg, some added amazing colors.
