|
|
|
Venetian Beads
To place an order, call
us at (828) 884-5920 or email us at
orders@abetterbead.com with the words Place an Order
in the subject line of your message. In the text of the message
please include the following information:
-
stock number (Listed in
blue
under the item.)
-
a description of the item(s)
you wish to purchase
-
quantity of item you want to
purchase
-
shipping address
-
the method you wish to use
for payment.
Please
DO
NOT
include credit card numbers in your e-mail.
Payment may be made in the
following ways:
|
|
|
In 1985, Nicole Anderson
departed for Europe with a one-way ticket. Having graduated from
St. Mary’s College of Orchard Lake, Michigan in 1984 with a B.A. in
Communication Arts, she yearned to see all the art history that she
studied for years. During this adventure, she met a man in Venice,
Italy, and got married. The marriage was short-lived but she
decided to stay in Venice because she was spellbound with the charm
of the city.
Nicole’s first job in Italy was
painting masks for Carnivale. This job lasted four years and
gave her the language skills she needed to pursue a career in the
glass industry. She later held jobs in beautiful glass stores in
the historical centers of Venice—St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto
Bridge area, as well managing a glass lighting store on the island
of Murano. It was during these first jobs that Nicole fell in love
with Venetian glass beads and soon discovered that she had a natural
talent for selling an article that she truly adored. She invested
time and money in collecting beads, making jewelry, buying books on
beads, studying the history of Venetian beads, and eventually taking
this passion to the U.S. to share and export the beads.
Nicole lives full-time in
Venice, Italy. She speaks fluent Italian and has Italian
citizenship. She comes to the U.S. every year to embark on a
10,000-mile trunk-show tour. All the beads she carries have been
handcrafted by Murano artisans. Nothing is imported. She carries
beads from the 1920s, vintage beads from the 60s, new chevrons, old
chevrons, blown beads, lamp-worked beads, and contemporary beads and
pendants—all originating from the island of Murano where the art of
blowing glass began in the late 1200s.
Nicole
is currently writing a book on the history of a glass and bead
factory of Murano, the Società Veneziana per l’Industria delle
Conterie (1898-1992). She has won several grants from the
Northwest Bead Society and the Bead Society of Greater Chicago. The
book should be completed by 2012. |
|
Venetian Beads In-Stock |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Hollow Bubble Beads |
|
All our bubble beads are
one-of-a-kind, hand blown beads.
Those pictured
below are all we have.
We have no duplicates. |
|
Ornaments or jewelry,
try filling your bubble beads for a dramatic statement. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Bead Collages
In all these
collages, what you see is what you get.
The beads
pictured are all there are of that particular bead or group
of beads.
|
|
Bubble Bead
Collages |
|
Globes |
|
|
Oblongs |
|
|
Disks |
|
|
Collage 1 |
|
|
Collage 2 |
|
Collage 3 |
|
Collage 4 |
|
Collage 5 |
|
Collage 6 |
|
|
Pendant
Pieces & Pill Boxes |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
38 X 65mm
3890 - $37.50 |
Venetian Pendant
7040-sq - $16 |
Venetian Pendant
7040-rnd - $16 |
|
Pill Boxes - 7024 - $17.50
Rectangle - 20 X
25 X 30mm
Round - 30mm
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Venetian
Pendants
7992 - $32.50 |
|
|
|
|
Where and How
are Venetian Glass Beads Made
Like the city of Venice, Murano comprises a cluster
of small islands, connected by bridges. It has been the center
of the glassmaking industry since 1291 when the furnaces and glass
craftsmen were moved here from the city. This move was
prompted by the risk of fire and the disagreeable effects of
smoke from the furnaces. The buildings and homes of the period
constructed almost entirely of wood.
The island of Murano is about a mile across the water
from Venice and, in Roman times, was already inhabited.
Amurianum was its original name. Used at first as
shelter by refugees escaping from barbaric invasions of Altino,
Opitergio and Aquileia in the 5th Century, Murano soon became a
fulcrum of important traffics and distinguished itself the glass
art.
Men and women from Oderzo later joined these settlers
and by the 7th and 8th centuries, the island’s port of Sant’Erasmo
was an important calling-place for merchant ships. Eventually,
Murano grew in population and prosperity reaching its greatest
splendor in the 16th century. During this time, many palaces
and houses, churches and monasteries, gardens and orchards sat side
by side with glass factories demonstrating the prosperity of this
wealthy community. So densely was the island populated that by
the 11th century, the Doges were encouraging islanders to
move to Venice.
After the 13th century Murano passed under the
jurisdiction of a podesta, a mayor, chosen from the ranks of
the Venetian patricians but continued to have its own Grand
Council. It had a Golden Book, in which were
entered the names of its original families, all of whom enjoyed
special privileges allowing a Veneto aristocrat to marry the
daughter of a glass master without losing any of his claims to his
noble titles.
Just as in Venice, Murano too could coin annually.
From the mid-14th century onwards, the artisans of Murano sold their
products abroad. They quickly gained a reputation for
producing small glass beads and for mirrors which became a major
Murano export during the course of the 15th century. Within
fifty years the island’s glasswork had lost much of it utilitarian
character and had become a fully fledged art form.
Because of the growing importance of the glass
industry, its artisans had to submit to severe political
restrictions in order to balance their very considerable privileges.
By contrast with the rest of Europe, Venice did not require a man to
belong to a glassmaking family as a condition for learning the art.
Any talented apprentice could rise, step by step, through the ranks
to become a master glassmaker. However, the glassmakers were
forbidden to emigrate from Venice on pain of confiscation of all
their worldly goods. Nevertheless it is known that in
the 16th century, several glassmakers did succeed in setting up
factories in Northern Europe where they also flourished.
Independent until 1924, Murano boasts a coat-of-arms
which is a cock with a snake in its beak and a fox on its back,
symbolizing surveillance, shrewdness and prudence. Murano is
currently home to approximately 6,000 Muranese residents. |
|
The
Art of Glass Making |
|
The craft of the glass master has something
miraculous about it. Using a simple iron rod, the master takes
a blob in incandescent glass paste from the pan which lies in the
burning furnace. The preparation of the glass is slow and the
process changes according to the type of desired glass. For a
common glass the fusion must reach 1400/1600 degrees Celsius.
For crystals, instead of using calcium carbonate, potassium
carbonate is used. Lead, aluminum, zinc, barium, and carbon
dioxide are added to increase stiffness and to help avoid having the
glass becomes fragile with time.
The glass master has no model before him; only his
skill and his imagination to help him. He puts the long tube to his
mouth and with the energy of his lungs, the shimmering glass blob
swells, curves, dilates and takes on the shape he desires. A
spatula, pinchers, and a pair of scissors, are some of the
instruments that he uses to squash, flatten, cut, pull, curve, and
twist. Having patiently put the glass through a great many and
variety of operations, the work of art comes out perfect from the
hands of the master and is placed together with all the other works
of the day in a long cooling gallery called the ara before it
can leave the factory.
The oldest and most authentic specimens of Murano
glass which have come down to us date from the middle of the 15th
century. They consist of cups and glasses with large surfaces
of glass in strong colors of ruby red, cobalt blue and emerald
green. Each was painted by the master with profane scenes,
erotic incidents, portraits of married couples in gazes and the
like. The real glory of blown, transparent glass, the Venetian
crystal came between the end of the 15th century and the
beginning of the 16th century. The most beautiful blown glass
of all was produced by the Murano factories in this period and is to
be seen in public and private Italian and foreign collections as
well as in the the paintings of Titian, Veronese and Bonifazio de’
Pitati.
The old traditional family names of the Murano glass
blowers, each with its own busy furnace revived, are as follows:
|
|
