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 above its critical temperature and then to cool which also relieves the internal stress of the metal.
At left, large muffola in a production furnace. At right vermiculite with beads (you see only the mandrels) This is where it comes into the glass world. In glass, it is about mainting the glass at a constant temperature, known as soaking at the annealing point where the glass is too cold to continue working, but will continue to relax, so that the entire piece can gradually cool at the same rate. If the glass were left in the open, you can easily see that the outside would cool faster than the inside. Annealing keeps the temperature constant throughout the bead. For centuries, the Venetians have annealed by:1) flash annealed, where the bead is put back into the flame one final time to heat the bead to a consistent temperature and2) slowly cooled the bead in a container of silica which helps hold the temperature. In older days, the Venetians used the sand from the lagoon which is called “fango” in Italian and was also used for the “bead release”. Today the world uses vermiculite for this process. Vermiculite is a mineral similar to mica which is fire proof. The stresses set up in the bead have a lot to do with the amount of time it takes to make the bead, the decorations, etc and frankly the skill level of the bead maker. In our small beads, they are made rather quickly and there is very little value of annealing other than by use of the vermiculite.
For our larger, obviously more expensive, beads we do use an annealing oven – called a muffola in Italian. For our Moretti glass, the annealing temperature is about 940F and it is important to keep them at this level and then bring down gradually. For our blown beads they are all annealed, here you see the small kiln beside the furnace.
Annealing does not make the bead stronger, it insures that there are no stresses set up in the bead during the cooling cycle. Tempering makes the glass stronger – which is the process used for car windows, shatter-proof glass, etc. Below is a type of annealing oven, a kiln produced in the US.Google
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 US who were extremely helpful. They gladly faxed and mailed a lengthy list of glass makers in Italy in fact all over Italy. The list was valuable as the input was provided by the various artisan, craft consortiums around Italy. It made for some interesting trips to small towns and villages all around northern Italy. It was a beginning, but certainly not all encompassing. Maybe it was the best way, as at least some of those had sold to companies outside Italy and maybe knew a little bit about packaging and shipping.
But as great as our first list was, unfortunately we chose to enter into this business by making our first buying trip in August. Do you know how many Italians there are in Italy in August, the month of the national holiday known as Ferragosto? Well at least 2! We found both of them, along with a good list of hotels and restaurants with air conditioning. The two we found in Murano and Venice are still good friends until today. But then came the shipping? We had learned from our class that there was an “informal” entry into the US which the US Post provided (and still does – when you get a package in International Mail) and that up to a certain limit, we could have shipped to us. And often we shipped the parcels ourselves before leaving Italy.
Oh, did we mention that we did not speak Italian at that point,? We were fortunate that we had Vince, the Italian son-in-law. His family living in Italy provided our banking and writing of orders, making the phone calls, translations and being generally invaluable. And our mistakes provided plenty of laughs for them, like the time we were trying to buy canes (canna in Italian) and they thought we were buying cane (dogs in Italian). They were a bit concerned as we described how we would chop us the canes while their eyes grew large in horror as they envisioned us chopping up little Italian puppies. Happily hundreds of dogs did not show up in our local post office before we got these two words straightened out! But as time went on, we learned to speak Italian, understand a good deal of dialect and began spending as much time as possible in Venice and Murano. We graduated from hotels to apartments and from restaurants to having family dinners with our friends and suppliers. The new sources for suppliers came from a very unlikely source, the local bar. Now remember that a “bar” in Italy is also where you get your morning cappuccino (or espresso if you are Italian). In Venice it is where you drink an “omber” with your friends and neighbors in the afternoon. And what do we talk about? Of course the weather, the high or not so high water, and whatever in the world brings you to Venice so often. At this point, we explain about how we fell in love with the glass of Murano, and invarably, they know someone who makes beads, blows glass or does lampwork. And from there, we may be introduced to a surprising new creator of the things we all love. Our latest in lampwork is just one of these finds, introduced by a friend in Venice. The family had never sold any products outside of Venice and certainly not outside of Italy. We are more fortunate today as so many people have emails, it makes our work much easier as we can communicate quickly. One of our oldest suppliers remembers when his grandfather began selling in Africa. They would receive a request for beads and write a quote, mailing it. Three or four months later, they would get an order. Then they would prepare a fattura, which would take another three or four months for payment and if they were lucky, the beads would be shipped within the same year. As for our latest supplier, on the day our freight forwarder delivered the pendants, they sent me an email, recommending that we sell them all quickly. They are excited to have their products in the US market. We hope you’ll enjoy these. Google
We previewed these faceted Murano glass twist beads in a post on Facebook a few months back and they have finally arrived! Available in both multi-colored with 24kt gold foil accents as well as in single, transparent colors. The approximate size is 21.5mm across and 7mm thick.
Each year we make table decorations for Thanksgiving and Christmas and they are small gifts to remember the day. Some of our biggest kids (over 90) love them as well as the smaller ones who can’t wait to eat the treats. We got a head start this year as we used the same base from Thanksgiving for our Christmas. The process usually starts with a visit to the candy store and then arts and crafts stores with an open mind for ideas.Santa & Tree for IAF
We made 50 Santa and Christmas tree table favors for our friend’s Italian American Federation Christmas dinner. This took on a production line look as we lined up the candies and decorations. Fortunatel, we could eat our mistakes. Some years are more elaborate than others. Our most difficult undertaking was a couple of years ago when one of our Italian families spent Christmas with us and we were some 35 people at dinner. The table favor that year was a stocking, completely handmade and decorated along with their names written. It was the holder for the silverware and the name cards for dinner. Usually we don’t need name cards, but trying to sit guest who only speak Italian so they have a translator nearby requires a bit of organization.
Stocking to hold Silverware Gingerbreadmen with Names
Ice cream cones Frosted and DecoratedThis is is relatively easy to make, it begins with ice cream cones which you decorate with an icing which dries hard. We use Royal Icying and sprinkles, balls and an a candy star on top.The kids decorated all the cones for this dinner. The kids tend to put as many colors as possible. With the Royal Icing, you can make in advance. Marcella demonstrated how to make this year’s treat. At the end of the day, we had made so many retakes we ran out of KitKats and had eaten too much chocolate! Watch to learn.Supplies:(1) Base, we used KitKats because they are sturdy.(2) Candy Figurine (Santa, Reindeer, etc)(3) Kisses or Gum Drops for the tree. We used peppermint striped Kisses because they are tasty and add color.(4) Cookie Icing (You can make your own, or it’s easy for kids to use the prepackaged as Marcella does). We make these for all the holidays. They are fun for Mother’s Day, 4th of July, any occasion. Just change the figurines and decorations to make it yours. It’s about traditions, start your holiday tradition this year.
The islands of Murano are all about the glass. In the furnaces, their is a caste-like system with the Maestro at the top of the heap. Everyone revolves around his commands. This is the tradition passed down through generations of glass blowers in Murano. This is the view tourist see when they go to Murano. But there are any number of very important other jobs in the production of glass, including the cold workers, the torch makers. And for our bead makers, the men who produce the tools we use in the production of glass beads. Until a few years ago, most of these were produced by hand and getting two exact was an imposibility. One of the most famous of these Murano steel men, was Dona. Now his son carries on the family business, using CNC machines and CADCAM. Clearly, today we can get tools made much faster. Here’s a few pictures we made while working on new shapes, which requires a visit to the tool maker. From the vast assortment available can you believe we needed to have a new one made?
Selecting Heart Moulds
There are also tools for the furnace
More Shapes & a block of Aventurina
A candy store for the bead maker
How Many Heart Shapes?
The Machine Shop
A Wall of Tools to Choose
We’ve Chosen, Next Step Samples!
We will have several new shapes arriving in about 4-6 weeks. The tools are being produced now and then we must have the beads made.
We leave you with a scene of Murano in the late afternoon, the streets deserted as we finish our work waiting on the vaporetto and enjoying the marvelous colors of the skies over Murano.. Google
What’s the Issue: The money hungry states are lobbying, along with Amazon and the NRF (National Retail Federation)and Walmart to impose taxes on all internet sales. (Since they failed in the ligitations, they now jumped on the tax everyone bandwagon.) The proposal is known as The Marketplace Fairness Act. I am not against taxing sales on the internet in principal. What I am against is the number of sales tax authorities, reporting and the amount of time, labor and energy it would take to report in the thousands of sales tax districts in the US. So while today we report in our individual state, now we would have to report in 50 states, 15,000 districts. And not every state is up-to-date with online software. It appears to me that some of the lobby is supported as well by businesses trying to captialize on this requirement. It’s every accountant’s dream, software that we all must use and for which they get paid to “oversee”. So they’ll charge all us small merchants to “sort” it out for us and the cost get added to the cost of doing business. Why Do You Care: Ultimately, you the consumer will pay even more as this “service” becomes part of our operating budget expenses. What’s Fair? The only thing that makes sense from a small business prospective is a National Sales Tax. One rate, wherever business is conducted online. Even so, if you expect that if left to the individual states, that still means we must submit 50 sales tax reports, payments at least 4 times each year. What does it mean for Wholesale Customers? Immediately, every wholesale customer will have to be re-evaluated to make sure your Resale Certificate (or whatever they call it in your state) is valid and that we have it documented. What can you do? If you have an opinion on this, there is another Lobby group (of course) which is supported by ebay which is attempting to put some sanity into the process. You can check them out at their website: WerHereConclusion: The tax will pass eventually as the states are looking at these “lost taxes” like sugar plums on a Christmas Tree. The question is can our elected representatives in government produce a rational national sales tax that is not overly burdensome on small businesses.
I thought I’d give you a little insight of what we’re working on here at VenetianBeadShop.com and the daily “struggles” to keep our website fresh, our products the best and our selection unsurpassed. And of course getting your beads shipped out to you ASAP.
Some days when our new boxes of beads come in we feel like Christmas. Other days when only a portion of it arrives or the colors are off (here’s where you get lots of specials) we feel like really disappointed children on Christmas morning.
It all begins with us working with the bead maker, we have to specify colors ever sooo precisely and even then Moretti will produce a batch of canes which are simply off. Then of course there is the “lost in translations” between the day we decide and the day they sit down to make the beads. And the difference in what beads they think are urgent versus what I think are urgent.
Or simply we are waiting on Moretti to produce the right canes. This happens especially often in the millefiori which require a specific millimeter bead to produce.
Website Woes:
Then there’s the website…..computers often have a way of disrupting everything. Microsoft or Foxfire or Safari launch a software update which throws all our website to the far right of the screen or worse yet, you (our customers) can’t get past step 1. (By the way we urge you to update your Foxfire and that is not easy.)
We are a small company, and Jeff is IT manager, Web Designer, Jewelry Artist, Findings Guru and sometimes he even gets some work done. I am chief translator in Italian, bead expeditor, bead designer, specials star and newsletter editor and most days chief cook! And of course, barista extraordinaire, Miss Sylvia, our espresso machine is always on ready for a cappuccino.
And did I forget to mention that we have four grandchildren who demand their equal attention.
