Clouds Rest

Measures slightly over 16" 

Hand sewn with needle and thread. These are made with Vintage Italian glass beads from the late 1800s - 1920s (read more below), Vintage Japanese freshwater Pearls from the 80's, and a gold fill clasp.

Once these special beads are gone, they are gone for good. 

Handmade to order. Please allow 4-6 weeks to ship. 

Made with love and time. 

** Much of this new Heirloom collection is from the remaining stock from the famed Societa Veneziana de Conterie (SVC) on the island of Murano, Italy. The Societa Veneziana de Conterie was a consortium of sixteen bead making families who joined in business in 1898 and ceased production in 1992.  I was told when sourcing these beads that they came from an untouched old warehouse from SVC where most of these *HANDMADE* glass beads are from the late 1800's to early 1920's but some could be older. 

Each and every bead was made by hand, by pulling a molten long tube of glass and then chopping it (by hand) into individual drawn beads from its slices. Then the freshly chopped glass beads were tumbled in hot sand to round the edges. 

When looking more into the history of these beads I found a quote online about the factory from Prairie Edge and Sioux trading 

‘Their factory included a huge, multi-storied building with a large central courtyard that functioned as storage areas for old, discarded glass. In a personal conversation, Wilma Mangum of Beader's Paradise in Blackfoot, Idaho, told me something about Venetian bead colors as they related to these storage areas:

"When mixing up a recipe for a specific bead color, there was usually an amount of “filler” that was used (this is sort of like making bread and adding different kinds of flour for variance in taste, texture, and color of the finished loaf). As the bead factory storage areas were full of glass canes from over-runs, different color lots, faulty glass . . . rather than just throw these away, the thrifty and knowledgeable bead-makers would use this extra stock as “filler” and this is what made possible all those gradations of color that makes antique Italian beads so beautiful. This is also why, even with old color recipes, the reproduction colors produced today just aren’t the same, for the most part”.

Venetian beads were surrounded by an ancient air of secrecy (some of their processes were literally based on a death bed oath) and bead makers of this caliber were resistant to adopt newer technological innovations (like automating the cutting process). This, coupled with the vagaries of fashion, are thought to be behind the demise of some of the older bead-making enterprises like the Societa Veneziana de Conterie.’