VINTAGE MURANO WEDDING CAKE BEAD NECKLACE ART GLASS ITALIAN Fiorato LAMPWORK

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VINTAGE MURANO WEDDING CAKE BEAD NECKLACE ART GLASS ITALIAN Fiorato LAMPWORK:
$310.89

VINTAGE MURANO WEDDING CAKE BEAD NECKLACE ART GLASS ITALIAN Fiorato LAMPWORKPERFECT 16 INCHES BEADS ARE 17 MM\'S X 14 MM\'S OVAL IN PERFECT CONDITION WITH THE offerDING STARTS AT .99

Fiorato beads get their start on acopper wire, which forms the hole when finished, by winding the hot coloredglass around it into a fairly good sized ball.The centuries old process is called in Italian perle `a lume–we call itlampwork or lampwound. For fiorato, theopaque bead is then decorated according to a theme involving glitter, squigglesand rosebuds. There are as manyvariations, apparently, as there are bead-makers, or moods of bead-makers, butthe basic idea is the same. First, thedazzling glitter effect is applied. Theglitter is actually a specific type of glass known as avventurina or aventurine(not to be confused with the natural quartz of similar name), derived from the Italian word a ventura, “by chance”. This transparent glass infused with copperfilings causes an eye-catching gold-like glint when overlaid onto the surfaceof a bead, and it is characteristic of many exquisite Venetian beads.(Apocryphally, aventurine glass was discovered accidentally in a Muranoworkshop in the 1600s, and for many years was a closely guarded secret.) Thenext decoration applied are the various squiggles, known as a “trailingpattern”, which are narrow strands of glass “trailed” in loops or zigzagsaround the bead. The more there are, themore likely it is the beads are old, as this adds significant time to themanufacture. Finally, more or lesscarefully, the floral details are applied:the rosebuds usually in pink, and the forget-me-nots in dots of blue andwhite with a yellow center.

Thisstyle of flowered bead (in a somewhatsimpler form) is thought to have made its first appearance in the late 1700s,perhaps in response to the wide European interest in the “language of flowers”,a coquettish code of floral symbolism .The very earliest substantiated date is 1815.