The Art of Glass Beadmaking

The art of glass bead making has a long history in Italy and France, and it has recently been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This flameworked glass bead was hand made (by me) using traditional flameworking techniques and soda lime glass.

Molten glass is wrapped around a steel mandrel, then more colours, gold leaf and glass flowers or murrine are added while the mandrel is spinning to keep the glass centered.

The glass flowers or murrine inside the bead are also hand-pulled (by me) and cut from cane.

This bead is approximately 2cm in diameter.