The History of Venetian Glass and Murano Glass Beads is Long and Venerable
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Making up a unique charm bracelet using silver and glass beads has become very popular because they can be assembled to suit the wearer's tastes and preferred style or colours.
Among the most popular glass beads are the famous Murano beads made in Venice, the home of glass making.
It's thought that glassmaking in Murano began as early as the 9th Century influenced by Asian and Muslim culture because Venice was a major trading port. The technique of enamelled glass came from the Syrians and after the fall of Damascus in 1400 and Constantinople in 1435 other techniques of decoration were added to the Venetian craftsmen's repertoire.
In 1271 the Venetian authorities banned the import of foreign glass and forbade foreign glass makers from working in the city and in 1291, fearing fire in the city's mostly wooden buildings the authorities ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to the island of Murano.
It was a skill that was jealously guarded and the Murano glassmakers were not allowed to leave the Venetian Republic, though some did take the risk, travelling as far as the Netherlands and England to set up their furnaces.
Glass is made from silica, which becomes liquid at high temperatures. As it cools from liquid to solid there is a period when it is soft and can be worked and shaped.
The Murano glassmakers developed several techniques including enamelled glass, called smalto, glass with threads of gold, called aventurine, and multicoloured glass, called millefiori, milk glass, called lattimo, and imitation gemstone glass.
Various other materials are added to glass that can produce different finishes. Sodium, for example makes the glass surface opaque.
One of the most famous is the millefiori design, which is made by layering coloured, liquid glass with each layer shaped by a mould into a star, that is then stretched into long rods, called canes. When these have cooled the canes are sliced across. The cross section looks like a collection of flowers, hence the name millefiori (a thousand flowers).
Murano beads are made from coloured canes and the colour is introduced using chemical compounds. Aquamarine colour is made from a very precise mix of copper and cobalt, and ruby red uses gold solution as a colouring agent.
The method for bead-making was invented in the 1700s using two techniques, called wound lampworking and the torch and mandrel.
Lampworking is the most time-consuming as it involves making each bead individually. In this method the canes are heated to molten, wrapped around a metal rod and then worked by adding layers of different coloured glass as well as gold or silver leaf to achieve different effects.
Once the beads are cold and have turned solid they can be removed from the metal rod leaving a hole through which they can be threaded.
Among the most popular lampworked beads are the wedding cake - with glass overlays either featuring flowers or patterns of swirls or dots - and Venetian foil beads - fusing colour with gold or silver.
Blown beads are made from melted canes that are then blown. This is called the Filigrana or Filigree method.
There is such a rich variety of colours, finishes and patterns in the beads that it's possible to create a unique bead charm bracelet with a special significance for its owner.
