Murano Perlen

Here's one of my favorite bracelets of mine - now I finally understand why some painters have such a hard time selling their own pictures. I can't seem to part with this one, although I never wear it. And the reason for my inability to part with it is the tiny center bead. It is a vintage Murano bead (Petra Reski, ignore this post - Petra lives in Venice and CANNOT STAND Murano and/or their cloying customers). It was part of a necklace I bought 15 years ago in what the Germans refer to as "Haushaltsauflösung" (= the resolution of a household, in other words a fancier and more definite form of a garage sale). The lady whose Haushalt was being aufgelöst (today the post is not only bilingual, it is Denglish) was a superrich gal - part of the Budweiser Clan actually - and travelled all over the world. (No wonder, she had houses stashed away all over the world). This bead that was part of a necklace of hers is lovely, all soft, almost feels like plastic, and it is decorated with tiny little flowers in pink and purple and specks of gold.

I never see Murano stuff like this anymore; when I do see Murano stuff it is prohibitively expensive and prohibitively ugly. Garish glass in garish colors. Nonetheless, says writer Petra Reski of Reskis Republik, the tourists continue to pile into their dozens of stores. (I just made up the dozens, and I don't know if Murano and Venice are recession-proof).

This will be the last of my old pictures of my old pieces of jewelry; both the new digital pictures and the new jewelry are a heck of a lot more sophisticated, so sophisticated in fact that I haven't figured out yet how to get them on this here blog. The newer jewelry is so sophisticated because I have taken to following my favorite beaders' designs until I have all of the different techniques down-pat. And when I do I will be designing my own stuff. Until then I'll refer you to who designed what. And then you can go and see the gourgeous stuff they've posted on their own sites.