Murano Beads - Lampworked, Perle A Lume Venetian Beads

Lampworked, Perle A Lume Venetian Beads

Most Murano beads are made using an air pump burner lampworking or torch and mandrel technique, once the mandrel was made by using an iron rod covered with a release material stuck on the top of the rod, now a copper tube has taken its place.The copper tube helps make many other different shapes.

The lamp-work method is the most time consuming method of glass bead-making. As each bead must be formed individually. Using a torch for heat, Murano glass rods and tubes are heated to a molten state and wrapped around a metal rod until the desired shape is achieved. Several layers of different colored glass as well as gold and silver leaf are used to produce the desired effect. After the bead is slowly cooled, it is removed from the rod which produces a hole for eventual stringing.

Wedding cake beads "Fiorato"(decorated with glass overlays featuring roses, swirls and dots) and Venetian foil beads (with their fusion of color, gold and silver foil) are just two of the kinds of beads made using the lamp-work method.