Pink Pillows

I hadn't found any nice vintage Venetian beads in some time...

but this week I found a busted necklace.

I love the purple rose color, not sure at all what glass this is.
And that adventurine! The sparkle is amazing.

The shape is a cool pillow-y chicklet with the hole from corner to corner.

I kept a couple for myself as reference beads and the rest are up in my 'Curious Old Things' Etsy shop. They'd make great earrings.

Dreamy Old Turquoise

I found a few vintage Murano glass beads at a household sale this week.

As usual, I kept a pair for my collection and listed the rest on Etsy.

These classic lentils have a clear core with threads of turquoise and adventurine wrapped around it. Then they were encased in more clear.  They're really lovely.

I might just have to make some.

Antique Venetian Wedding Cake Necklace

$4 at an estate sale. Win!
Grinning ear to ear, I wore it the rest of the day.
Granted it was a tad dressy for more thifting and a lunch date at the diner but it's not every day you score an antique Venetian wedding cake bead necklace.

I just going to share a bunch of close-up, bead porn photos of it with you.

So stinking busy here, getting tons of beads and jewelry ready for the holiday sales that are just around my calendar's corner. Stay tuned, there will be lots of new pieces to share on this blog as soon as I get them photographed.

Millefiori Glory

This is one of the most complicated and beautiful millefiori beads I have ever found.

It must have been done by a very skilled flameworker, most likely in Venice in the 1950's.

This little baby was an earring.

Just thought I'd share my treasure.

It's blistering hot here again today and the air feels like there's a thunderstorm coming.
I can't wait.

How hot is it?
I was going to make a nice banana and yogurt and ice cube smoothie for breakfast but my husband ate the last banana - so I just said 'fuck it' and had a coconut popsicle.
Making toast was too hot a task.

Hear that?
Off in the distance, the first roll of thunder.
Yes.

A Dollar & A Dream

I found this tiny, vintage glass poodle at the flea market for $1.

Now, of course, I think I should try and recreate her in my laboratory - er studio.

I am constantly veering off track.
Now is the time to be making beads for fall and holiday shows, not figurines to amuse me.

Copycatter

Mine are on the left, the original vintage Venetian glass beads are on the right.

I started with an oval core bead of black then wrapped it in silver foil (not leaf) and then carefully added loopy, goopy strands of clear glass.

You have to be careful to keep the silvered bead out of the flame while you add the clear otherwise you'll burn it off too soon. Once all the clear blobs are on the bead put the whole thing into the flame and vaporize the silver off the places without the clear - it's the fun part.

Not a bad first try. I need to use a smaller, thinner rod of clear for wrapping the trails over the silver foil.

I also made one with a base of teal and blue mixed together.

I can't wait to try these with lots of other colors, solids as well as transparents.

More Vintage Venetians

I have been so lucky lately finding vintage Italian glass beads.
It seems that if you go to enough household sales you can find just about anything...

These are really different. There was a huge "organic look" movement in Italian art pottery in the 1950s and 1960s lead by artists like Gambone and Fantoni. These beads are most certainly part of that modern mindset.

There were glass artists who worked parallel to these ceramists. Scarpa, Barovier and Tosso come to mind first. They did not make beads but rather vases, sculptures, lamps and larger hot shop blows - no lampwork. Google Image search those names, with the word glass, and be prepared to have your glassy mind blown.

I love these beads. They have a black base that's wrapped in silver foil (not leaf) and then blobbily (inventing a new word) encased with clear. I am so going to try and re-create these beads.

Vintage Venetian Necklace

More vintage Venetian glass beads.

So simple but very pretty - like cherry blossoms in the wind.
Beads of pale transparent pink glass with bits of white frit and aventurine (copper sparkle) frit wound inside them. These would be a snap to make even for newbie flameworkers..

The necklace is for sale in my Etsy "Curious Old Things" shop.

Millefiori Amore

Hey lampworkers - aren't these amazing?

They're a fragment of a strand of vintage Venetian beads that I found at a yard sale. The vivid orange and white millefiori (thousand flowers) on the navy blue base beads are a terrific colorway. So much patience to make these, I cannot even imagine attempting to re-create them.

They're available in my Etsy 'Curious Old Things' shop. (sold)

Vintage Venetian Necklaces

I found some vintage glass beads last week at an estate sale.

above: clear glass with aventurine and sky blue frit
below: clear glass with aventurine and lemon yellow frit

Both necklaces are available in my "Curious Old Things" etsy shop. (sold)

Vintage Venetians

A nice pair of vintage Murano glass beads - thought I would share a snapshot of them.
I like the combination of turquoise with goldstone (aventurine) - the sparkly bits.

If you click on the 'vintage venetians' tag you can see lots of older post with pics of Italian glass beads.

Old Glass Buttons

I lugged home a gallon glass jar full of buttons, from a household sale, on Friday.

What a sucker I am for old buttons. Especially glass ones.

This sweet pair are a ruin, they're all scratched and pitted from use and banging around in a jar with a thousand other buttons, but I adore them.

They were made on 1/16" mandrels. Yes, I am going to attempt to make some. I think you should too.

* I tagged these 'vintage venetians' and if you look to my right sidebar and scroll down you will see that listing in my categories (flavors). If you click on it all of my postings that focus on old Italian glass beads.will come up*

Venetian Ruin

I found this broken strand of lovely, old Venetian glass beads at an estate sale.

The plan was to restring them for myself but I have never gotten around to it.
I think instead I will make myself a strand of beads using this classic Murano technique.

If you want to bring them back to life they're up for sale in my "Curious Old Things" Etsy shop.

Nipped

A couple of posts ago I showed you some old Venetian glass beads that have a great shape.
The violet and silver foil beads in these two pictures are my first attempt at re-creating them.

Here are the old ones again, for comparison (below).

What did I use? How did I do that?
I simply made a nice, plump oval bead and then spot heated and nipped in each side with these old cutters that I found at an estate sale. They're called tile nippers, or end nippers. You might already have a pair in your glass toolbox that you use for clipping rods of murrine cane.

Have a go at it! They are a fun shape to make.
Feel free to ask any how-to questions.

More Murano Beads

I just found a little baggie of old Italian glass beads...

I kept a pair for myself to study and listed the seven above on Etsy.

I like 'em and think I will try to recreate them.

Yesterday was a great day at the torch and this morning when I unpacked my kiln I was not disappointed. Time to go downstairs and get to reaming beads. I should have some pics to share here on the blog soon that are not of dusty old Italian beads.

Vintage Murano Beads

A couple of inspiring additions to my collection of vintage Venetian glass beads.

I almost didn't keep these. The color combination of green tinged yellow with aventurine sparkles is so nasty.

This next pair is very intriguing.

The quality is lacking, there is a ton of crap in the glass and they're pretty sloppy.

But, oh, that shape!
A lozenge with bulbous side wings. I've been thinking about how to re-create these - I am thinking that using a pair of tile nippers might work for squeezing them into shape. Any ideas out there?