MuranoGlassBeads.com is a subsidiary of Venetian Bead Shop,a direct importer of Venetian Beads and Murano Beads. Working directly with the beadmakers of Venice and the island of Murano, often designing our own beads, we feature over 6000 different colors and styles of traditional and modern Venetian glass beads. The Venetian beads begin with Effetre Moretti™ glass canes which are produced on the island of Murano. Each Murano bead is handmade one by one by beadmakers sitting behind a torches with a mandrel in one hand and a cane of glass in the other.
We introduced Venetian Dichroics to the US through our efforts with our beadmakers in Murano. We continue to bring new and innovative ideas to this age old industry. Most recently, we developed the Furnace Glass along with our partner furnace in Venice. It's a blend of old glass making techniques to work with new fashion ideas. MuranoGlassBeads.com is the exclusive distributor of this product in the US.
We remain a family owned business located in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, CA, USA where we have been importing Venetian Glass and Murano Glass commercially since 1993. Our new wholesale showroom has the largest collection of Venetian Beads on display anywhere. We do work by appointment only.
Falling in Love with Murano Glass Beads
Ours is a story of the love of Venetian glass, a fascination with the techniques of glass blowing and, of course, a love of Italy and its people & culture. It all started with a trip to Venice in 1984 when Brenda purchased a Moretti glass necklace with the famous Murano beads (picture below). Many compliments and requests by friends prompted another trip and more purchases and sparked an interest in the glass. When Bob's daughter married an Italian (Vincenzo) naturally we went to Italy more often. We began studying the language and our love and appreciation of the people and the culture grew. Importing the wonderful glass of Murano was a natural extension of our new lives in Italy with friends and family.
Exhibitors for many years with the International Gem and Jewelry Shows, the San Francisco International Gift Show and at various shows in the San Francisco Bay Area, we opened our first online store in 1998 on Yahoo Stores! We were pioneers in ecommerce! And, the rest, as they say, is history. Recently, Brenda sponsored Nicola as a demonstrator at the Lapidary Journal Bead Fest in Pennsylvania, a great experience for Nicola on his first trip to the US.
We work directly with the Venetian beadmakers and the glassblowers of Venice and Murano, selecting and designing the styles, colors, shapes and sizes to be produced for our stores. We work with all the major bead producers in Venice and additionally have a large group of cottage industry beadmakers who produce beads for us which helps us maintain our large inventory and diverse bead collection.
About Our Staff
Brenda worked for many years in high tech in the satellite industry and was Director of Marketing for 2 start-up companies in Silicon Valley. She studied glass blowing at San Jose State University with Mary White as Professor. Both Bob and Brenda have studied beadmaking with San Francisco artists. Shown here, Brenda had a very honored opportunity to work with a glassmaster and furnace owner in Murano.
Bob is a retired electrical engineer and part-time professor of Engineering. He solves all our material problems and has experience with "cold work" of glass, polishing, cutting and grinding. This knowledge of the materials, and experience in working with the glass is a great asset working with beadmakers and glassblowers.
Jeff (Brenda's son) and his wife Tanya have been working alongside Bob and Brenda for the since 2000. They, too, fell in love with the glass, the people and the islands and work with our beadmakers and glassblowers. We refer to their new daughter Marcella as our little "Italian" baby. Marcella will soon be counting beads as she loves going to the "beadshop" and has her favorite beads already. She spends lots of time with us in the beadshop much like little kids in Venice. She is adept at string beads but her color coordination needs some developing.
Vincenzo (Vince) was born in Brescia, Italy. He is an avid car restorer, the older the better. Currently he is restoring a 1940's dump truck. He takes care of our store room and inventory. Naturally his Italian is perfect and he is a great help with technical questions. Vince doesn't consider any day started until we have our morning cappuccino and is often found at noon in our kitchen making pasta for us all. Recently Vince has moved back to Italy though he still helps us with any sourcing issues we have and continues to be involved in our lives. Each trip to Venice involves meeting with him and we update on possibilities of new sources. He is our man on the scene if we need something as is his sister.
Michelle has been with us since 2003. Michelle speaks fluent Spanish and her French isn't bad. She is the patient voice you hear on the phone!
Tina joined us the end of 2006 and immediately became indispensable, we call her the Brenda clone (scarey thought). But she learned our 10,000+ codes and names immediately and will be managing the office, packing and shipping.
In 2006 we moved to a larger facility to open our wholesale showroom, available only to the trade. Our new Wholesale Showroom houses not only our beads, but our large inventory of Murano glass such as our Murano Chandeliers, Venetian Vases, Murano Glass Lighting. We import a line of finished Venetian Jewelry and Corporate Gifts which are on display. The addition of beadstore line is a culmination of years of experience in the production of glass beads, with our partners in Italy.
In 2009 we doubled our showroom space again as our bead styles have outgrown the current space.
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