Sunday, February 27, 2011

Pinch Me

A foursome of vintage Venetian beads from my collection.

Cool eh?
The core looks like medium Topaz  with an simple encasing of clear.
These are small beads, each one is only about 1/2" long. They would be great for earrings.


I would start with a tiny core bead of any color and encase that with clear or a pale transparent. Then wind on a thread of clear to form the ridges around the middle of the bead. The ridges were added as one long spiral of glass, not as individual bands.



Finally, spot heat and pinch with a fine point pair of tweezers to make the little gathered spot in the middle. Each bead was pinched on the front and the back. In the photograph below you can get a great look at the spot where the ridges were pinched together.


I cannot believe how scummy the clear is on these, can you?
Apparently nasty clear is not a new problem for the Italian glass makers.

2 comments:

Linda said...

ha,ha, ha....yeah, clear can be icky! I just purchased some WOW wonderful clear from DH!! Worth every penny.

Love the texture on these!

Anonymous said...

really neat-- i just thought you etched them!