Collecting old Murano Glass beads

I knew about this relative in Venice whose Mother designed and manufactured necklaces for the trade from 1950 to 1970. When she died he inherited thousands of beads. When I first saw them, I was disappointed because they did not have the typical embedded gold and silver foil or flowers. I purchased some red beads because I knew red is hard to find and they were a lovely graceful oval shape. I would buy a small quantity each year, but they were not important to my design.

Finally I realized the colors, the textures, the shapes are unique. In the picture above you can see textures that look like granulated sugar and satin, and you can tell the human hand has touched them because the shapes are not perfect. They span many eras from the early 1900's to the modern movement.

Now I eagerly travel to Venice to collect beads . I stay in a beautiful room in the family palazzo overlooking roofs and the Venice Lagoon.. The linens on the bed are thick and starched and on the dresser is are multi colored old Murano glass perfume bottles and the Proseco is delicious .

You can see how Andrea and I combined these beads with Andreas' old African bead collection at Adner-Bergart.com

"Red to the Rescue"

The Boston Globe Fall Fashion magazine of 8/23/09 has a standout article about "Red Hot and New". It says that red is the"in"color this year, and has an elegant 6 page photographic spread of models dressed in various shades of black , grey and red. The photographer is Sadie Dayton and the styling is by Marci Duarte/team.

The only thing missing from this wonderful display are necklaces! If they only knew about Adner-Bergart's Niger necklace illustrated above or about the antique Murano opaque red glass and Swarovski black crystal necklace illustrated in Blog #1 they would have achieved perfection.

The "Niger" necklace illustrated above is made from beads made from ceramic from Niger, sterling silver , red glass from Ghana and antique and vintage Murano glass. More information about it can be found at adner-bergart.com.

Antique African Trade Bead necklace

This handmade designer necklace is made from the antique millifiore Murano glass beads used for trade in Africa discussed in blog#2. It is combined with sterling silver, vintage Murano glass, kunzinite, and carnelian beads. It is an informal necklace that adds color to whatever one wears. More about is is found on necklacesbyadner.com.

Finding African trade beads

About 40 years ago I was in Tangiers for a day or so. At that time, in the souk, there were barrels of old millifiore murano glass beads now known as African trade beads. I had no idea what to do with them, but I liked the way they looked. You could buy a huge scoop of beads from a big barrel and it cost a few dollars. Oh how I wish I had I purchased several scoops of beads. Now they are worth a lot of money.

I knew a psychologist who said you only regret the things you don't buy.

Many years later they served their purpose. They started my necklace passion. I made my first necklace combining those beads with semi precious stones from an old necklace my Aunt had given me, and now Andrea Bergart and I are making handmade designer necklaces from her old African beads, and my collection of old Murano glass beads.

They can be seen on our website adner-bergart.com.

Welcome to My Blog -- All About Necklaces

Necklaces! Lace around the neck. A bit of adornment that enhances the wearer. It is amazing to me that there is such a variety of design when all there us to work with is a long or short oval that encircles the neck.

This blog is not about precious stones such as diamonds, rubies and emeralds. It is about handmade designer necklaces made from less expensive materials such as antique African glass, vintage Murano glass, semi-precious stones, pearls, silver and brass.

It will cover necklaces from the Wiener Werkstatte period, the greats of Mexican sterling silver, Miriam Haskell vintage necklaces, and more.

The necklace above is made by Barbara Adner from antique Murano glass circa 1910 and Swarovski crystal. It can be seen at necklacesbyadner.com