Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Beads Challenge


This is my entry to Artz de Scrap Beads Challenge. For this particular challenge, I made a necklace out of different kinds of beads. I choose murano bead as my pendant because it’s my favorite. Murano beads are made in Murano and Venice itself are among the most recognizable and coveted glass beads worldwide. The making of glass beads and “glass” in general from Murano dates back to 1291 when the Venetian government moved the glass makers out of the city to the island of Murano because of fire hazards associated with the glass making industry. The bead maker makes the bead from molten glass over an open flame. Most beads are made by women, many of them working out of their homes, carrying on a centuries-old tradition of hand-crafting beads from Moretti Effetre glass rods, the raw material for bead making. Beads made in the lamp-work method are the most time consuming, as each bead is made individually. Using a torch for heat, glass cane (also produced in Murano) is heated to a molten state and wrapped around a metal rod until the desired bead shape is formed. To this day Murano still remains the world leader in the hand manufacture of glass beads, jewellery and a wide range of other glassware.

Here’s the procedure on how I came up with the necklace.
1)I determine the length of my necklace and cut out beading wire.
2)Center the seed beads on the wire. On each side, I string seed beads then pass each end in opposite directions and pulled the wires to form a loop.
3)I then string alternating colors of colored crystal beads. On one end string a crimp bead and the flower lock. Go back through the last bead string and tighten the wire. Repeat on the other end, Crimp the crimp beads and trim the excess wire.


With the bracelet, I simply string beads in my nylon elastic thread. I use the beads artz de scrap send me. But I also added some pearls, crystal beads and hematite. I tie them together with a ribbon and added a murano bead accent.

I was also able to make one for a friend. For this project, I use murano pendant, murano beads (chips) and crystal beads. I hope she will like this one.

1 comment:

Aihara Ramintessah Sanchez said...

Hi Judy! Congrats! I am drooling with your bead works. Can you teach me?

Hugs,
Tessah