The Glassmakers

“Once I discovered that Venetian beads were made primarily by women at kitchen tables in their spare time, I knew I would write about them.” Tracy Chevalier’s best-selling novel The Glassmaker celebrates the art of bead-making through five centuries of a Murano glassblowing family. Historically, women have been the unsung heroines of glassmaking, making beads to supplement the family income. However, this brilliant book establishes their importance and power.

Tracy Chevalier is best known for her historical novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was inspired by the famous Vermeer painting and led to the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name. Her heroines are often makers and she recreates their daily lives in pre-industrial times. Her captivating stories have included tapestries, quilts, embroideries and now glass.

The fictional protagonist in Chevalier’s 11th novel is Orsola Rosso, based on a real-life Italian beadmaker, Maria Barovier, the 15th-century creator of chevron beads, also known as rosetta or star beads. They are made from drawn glass canes, which are shaped using star-shaped molds and consist of many layers of alternating colors.

In Italy, beads were traditionally made by several different methods. Seed beads known as ‘conterie’ were produced by cutting hollow glass canes into tiny segments and rounding them off through heating. ‘Da canna’ beads are made by sectioning, softening and polishing hollow glass canes. ‘Soffiate’ beads involve blowing into a hollow pipe, and ‘murrine’ are produced with multicolored glass canes assembled and cut around a core. ‘Perle a lume’ beads use a torch to melt the glass on copper tubes to create the hole.

A visit to the Corning Museum of Glass in New York State introduced Tracy Chevalier to the wonders of glassmaking and she was enchanted by the gorgeous Venetian beads on display. She continued her historical research at the British Library in London, where she lives, and traveled to Venice to watch the Murano glass blowers at work. She tried making beads by an early method of winding molten glass around an iron rod, which she found incredibly challenging. The experience gave her a great respect for glassmakers and authentic details for her novel.

Murano has been an important glassmaking center since the late 13th century and the Venetians exported glass beads worldwide. When Christopher Columbus arrived in San Salvador in 1492, he brought Italian glass beads to trade with the indigenous people. For several centuries, trade beads were an important form of barter for native Americans. In 2020, UNESCO gave glass beads Intangible Cultural Heritage status, honoring the wealth of knowledge and mastery of material (glass) and element (fire).

Mirela Popovici at work
Mirela's Beads
Mirela Flameworking a Glass Bead
Mirela Flameworking a Glass Bead
Glass Canes in Mirela's Studio
Glass Canes for Beadmaking
Beads in Process
Beads in Process

A passion for beads is shared by the jewelry artists represented in the WMODA Museum Shop. Local artist, Mirela Popovici, is well known to WMODA guests for her clay building projects and pottery wheel-throwing demonstrations but she became interested in fused glass after a Unity in the Community workshop with Chelsea Rousso. While on vacation in Cluj, Romania, Mirela and her daughter took a lampworking class at a little studio called The Murano Atelier and made a small glass heart bead. She loved the process so much that she went back for more lessons last year and set up a lampworking torch at home when she returned. She joined the International Society of Glass Beadmakers and takes online workshops to continue her explorations.

Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Bead by Mirela
Glass Canes for Beadmaking

Mirela works with canes of soft Italian Effetre glass and Double-silvered glass made in the US. When glass is heated, it changes color and becomes liquid, and Mirela enjoys experimenting with the form of the flame, the amount of oxygen and the reactions of the metal oxides in the silvered glass. She then places the bead in the kiln to anneal and cool slowly so it solidifies without tensions. She loves the moment she opens the kiln the next morning and sees the finished beads. She uses a diamond drill to clean the inside of the beads and creates exquisite bracelets, necklaces and earrings which she sells at the WMODA Museum Shop.