My beads are made almost exclusively from so-called "Murano glass” rods. For centuries these have been manufactured on the island of Murano, near Venice and their quality of colour and texture is unmatched. These days there still are quite a number of glass factories on the island of Murano.

Glass bead production in Venice started to flourish with the beginning of the 13th to 14th century and beads quickly became a hot commodity on the ever-expanding world market. Until the end of the 19th century Venetian glass beads where traded throughout the world. Today these old glass beads, so called "trade beads” achieve a high price on the collector’s market.

One method of glass beadmaking was and is the so-called ”wire-winding” or "flame-working” technique, a rather labour-intensive and therefore expensive process.
This technique involves the winding of molten glass around a stainless steel rod, similar to the way thread is wound around a spool. The bead is then formed in the flame by means of gravity or with the help of special heat resistant tools. It can be decorated with stringers, dots or gold and silver foil. This process must not be interrupted until the bead has its final look.

The beads I make are of very high quality and do not break easily, which I achieve through annealing the beads right after I make them. This means that the bead is cooled in a particular way in a special oven, called annealer. Tension that has built up in the bead during the forming process is taken out of the glass and the bead becomes quite resistant to breaking.

Should this short introduction have raised your curiosity to learn this technique of glass beadmaking just sign up for one of my workshops. I am looking forward to share my knowledge with you!