Welcome to my new Beaver Island Jewelry Blog! I wanted to start talking about glass lampwork beads and their history.
A few years ago I was offered an opportunity to take a glassmaking class from a master artisan, Lucio Bubucco, on the island of Murano, Italy. Murano is the “heart” of glassmaking. I thought about the offer for about a day and then decided what an opportunity to work with the maestro of glass control and expand my horizons, both professionally and personally. The class consisted of eight other American beadmakers from around the country. As many of you know, I am a glass beadmaker, creating flameworked beads from a rod of glass that comes from Murano, Italy and then selling the beads individually or designing them into jewelry which I sell on ETSY (beaverislandjewelry.ETSY.com) or at Beaver Island Gallery on the island. Also, some shows if I can get in them.
Murano is a group of islands lying about one kilometer off the northern side of the island of Venice. Several interesting islands hide in the shallow Venetian lagoon which is part of the Adriatic Sea. The shallow waters and treacherous sandbars made Venezia safe from attack by land or water; no city wall was needed! Murano is a working class town of about 5,000 people.
