Murano glass pearl beads

Pearls beads in beautiful Murano glass created by masterful venetian artisans

To understand where the creation of Murano glass pearls comes from, we need to take a step in the past history. Pearls are one of the first forms of decoration that men has created. In particular, glass beads date back to 3,500 years ago in Egypt and Mesopotamia. However, ancient glassmakers were initially making glass from just sand quartz, soda ash and limestone. After that, the early glass artisans learned to add minerals, for example iron, copper, cobalt, manganese, and even gold to the glass mixture in order to obtain glass articles in various colors. Over the years, more complex chemical processes were used to create opaque glass, colorless glass, and even mosaic glass. Moreover, the construction of glass furnaces facilitated the glassmaking process. During the Roman era, artisans started using glass blowing pipes. This revolutionized the glass-making proces. It became possible to produce large quantities of glass products at a reasonable price. Eventually, in the thirteenth century Venetian glassmakers tried to give beads the appearance of being natural minerals.

With time, artisans realized three different kinds of pearls: rosettes, conteria and lampwork beads.

Rosettes come from a hollow cane. To make them, glassmakers build up layers of colored glass and elaborate the fused glass. Conteria beads come from sections of hollow canes. Lampwork beads come from sticks of colored glass and sections of cane crafted around a hollow metal tube. Three types of techniques are popular with these beads: sommerso, millefiori, fiorate. In the fisrt one, they build up layers of glass, clear or colored. In the second one, they put millefiori rods on a glass fulcrum. Lastly, in the fiorite, they decorate beads with thin glass strands around the the pearls.

What are you waiting for? See some stunning pearl beads on our beautiful Murano glass  jewelry. Here following some samples.