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Posts Tagged ‘Millefiori Beads’

The Invention of the Copper Mandrel, and How it Changed Millefiori Bead Production

05 Jul

1920s Millefiori Beads from Murano, Venice. Evelyn S./ Wikimedia.org

It’s hard to believe there are many revolutionary inventions that have altered traditional glass bead production. After all, what more do you need other than a furnace, some bits of glass and a metal rod? Believe it or not, it was the discovery of a new type of rod (mandrel) that transformed Venetian Millefiori Beads from the 1920s onwards. Prior to the discovery, Venetian Trade Beads had been traditionally manufactured using a metal mandrel coated in a white paste (known as a “bead release”) – usually clay or borum nitride. This is evident in nearly all Millefiori Beads produced in the 19th Century, which have a distinctive, powdery white residue in and around the perforation hole.

Father and son glass-making firm Moretti were one of the powerhouses of Venice during the 19th Century. It is they whom are credited with reviving the ancient Roman technique of mosaic glass-making in Italy, and who also discovered that copper was a cost-reducing, efficient alternative to iron and steel for mandrels. At the time, it was considered a landmark discovery, because it required no prior preparation (unlike borum nitride and clay) and it could be found in quantitative supply throughout Europe.

Environmental laws have had a considerable impact on the glass-making industry. Back in the 1920s, there were no regulations in place governing the use of corrosive acids in industrial production, so glass-makers could use Nitric Acid to dissolve the copper within beads after firing. While the toxicity of the fumes cannot be disputed, there was no evidence at the time to suggest such fumes were responsible for terminal illness – so glass-makers were none the wiser.

Environmental awareness and climate change have forced many industries to revise and refine their production techniques. Glass-makers were forced to invest in expense filtering equipment to reduce the toxicity of fumes being emitted into the air, and copper mandrels soon became far too expensive to use in every day production; eventually being replaced with stainless steel. 

 
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Posted in Millefiori Beads, Venetian Trade Beads

 

How To Distinguish Venetian Millefiori Beads From Modern Imitations

08 Jun

From the 1500′s until the close of the 19th Century, Venetian glass-working guilds incepted myriad of ways to produce more elaborate mosaic beads for seafaring merchants. Unlike the relatively primitive mold method employed by Rosetta bead-makers up until the 15th Century, the millefiori technique involved construction of beads one rod at a time. The exact positioning of the canes was critical to the end pattern, however, this method allowed for greater symmetry and uniformity than the old Rosetta method. As such, the mosaic patterns of true Venetian Trade Beads will almost always be uniformly symmetrical.

Although India has a long and fascinating tradition of bead-making, they only began to mass produce Indian Millefiori Beads in earnest in the 1980s. These are far darker and more rustic in appearance than their Venetian counterparts owing to the relatively primitive techniques employed to make them. One sure-fire way to spot the difference between Indian and Venetian Millefiori Beads is to look at the perforation hole; Indian bead perforations are often far larger, with sharp, unfinished edges and white residue at the core.

Indonesia too has a long affiliation with bead-making. In fact, many consider the ancient “Jatim” beads produced from 900 A.D to be the earliest form of millefiori. Unfortunately these old Jatim Beads are rare and expensive, and those you find in Indonesia’s markets today will unlikely be the real thing. Indonesian replications are somewhat more difficult to distinguish from Venetian Millefiori Beads because of their excellent finish. You can usually tell them apart by comparing the glass quality and size. Indonesian beads are commonly made with transparent glass, and are usually longer and wider than Venetian originals.

 
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Posted in History, Millefiori Beads, Venetian Trade Beads