Murano beads are intricate

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

s influenced by

Venetian glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as ...

artists. Since 1291,

Murano glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as ...

makers have refined technologies for producing beads and glasswork such as crystalline glass, enamelled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (

aventurine Aventurine is a form of quartz, characterised by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give it a shimmering or glistening effect termed ''aventurescence''. Background The most common color of aventurine is green, but ...

), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo) and imitation gemstones made of glass.

Color

The process of Murano bead-making begins with the production of color canes. The chemical compounds involved in color fabrication are extremely sensitive so they must be mixed with absolute accuracy. Aquamarine is created through the use of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

, and ruby red is achieved through the use of a gold solution as a coloring agent.

Lampworked beads

Most Murano beads are made using an air pump burner

lampworking Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the moder ...

or torch and mandrel technique. Once the mandrel was made by using an iron rod covered with a release material stuck on the top of the rod; now a copper tube has taken its place. The copper tube helps make many other different shapes. The lamp-work method is the most time-consuming method of

glass bead-making Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

, as each bead must be formed individually. Using a torch for heat, Murano

rods and tubes are heated to a molten state and wrapped around a metal rod until the desired shape is achieved. Several layers of different colored glass, as well as gold and silver leaf, are used to produce the desired effect. After the bead is slowly cooled, it is removed from the rod, resulting in a hole for eventual stringing as jewelry. Wedding cake beads known as ''Fiorato'' (decorated with glass overlays featuring roses, swirls and dots) and Venetian foil beads (with fusion of color, gold and silver foil) are two of the kinds of beads made using the lamp-work method.

Seedbeads or conterie

Seedbeads or ''conterie'' are small, round beads. To produce this tiny bead, hollow tubes of colored glass are formed, then chopped and re-fired for smoothness and shade.

Chevron or Rosetta beads

The Chevron bead is distinguished by a red, white and blue zigzag pattern.

Millefiori or lace beads

The abstract ''

millefiori Millefiori () is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). Apsley Pellatt in his book ''Curiosities of ...

'' beads are created in a manner similar to that of chevron or rosetta beads. There is a wider use of color and the glass cane is not hollow, but completely solid.

Blown beads

Today this glassblowing is called the ''Filigrana'' or

filigree Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork. In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, ma ...

method. To produce these beads with stripes of color and spirals, glassmakers lay canes of glass down and pick them up with a blow-pipe.

References

External links

The world of venetian seed glass beads

How Murano glass is made
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murano Beads Beadwork Venetian glass