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Home>About Us
 

About Us

 

Brenda and Nicola Designing and Making Lampwork Venetian BeadsVenetian Bead Shop is a direct importer of Venetian Glass Beads and Murano Glass Beads. Working directly with the bead makers of Venice Murano, often designing our own beads, we feature over 6000 different colors and styles of traditional and modern Venetian glass beads.

The Venetian beads begin with Effetre™ glass canes which are produced only on the island of Murano. Each Murano bead is handmade one by one by bead makers using a few simple tools and a lot of experience and technique in lamp working. Sitting behind a torches for hours at a time with a mandrel in one hand and a cane of glass in the other, they create the most beautiful beads in the world.

We have been an integral part in promoting Venetian glass beads throughout the world as well as helping to breathe new life into traditional Venetian techniques. A few years ago, we introduced our line of Venetian Dichroics to the US through as a result of years of efforts with our beadmakers in Murano. We continue to bring new and innovative ideas to this age old industry.
Most recently, we developed the Furnace Glass along with our partner furnace in Venice. It's a blend of old glass making techniques to work with new fashion ideas.

We remain a family owned business located in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, CA, USA where we have been importing Venetian Glass and Murano Glass commercially since 1993. Our wholesale showroom has the largest collection of Venetian Beads on display anywhere. We do work by appointment only.


History

Ours is a story of the love of Venetian glass, a fascination with the techniques of glass blowing and, of course, a love of Italy and its people & culture. It all started with a trip to Venice in 1984 when Brenda purchased a Moretti glass necklace with the famous Murano beads (picture below). Many compliments and requests by friends prompted another trip and more purchases and sparked an interest in the glass. We began studying the language and our love and appreciation of the people and the culture grew. Importing the wonderful glass of Murano was a natural extension of our new lives in Italy with friends and family.

Exhibitors for many years with the International Gem and Jewelry Shows, the San Francisco International Gift Show and at various shows in the San Francisco Bay Area, we opened our first online store in 1998 on Yahoo Stores! We were pioneers in ecommerce! And, the rest, as they say, is history.

We work directly with the Venetian bead makers and the glassblowers of Venice and Murano, selecting and designing the styles, colors, shapes and sizes to be produced for our stores. We work with all the major bead producers in Venice and additionally have a large group of cottage industry bead makers who produce beads for us which helps us maintain our large inventory and diverse bead collection.

About Our Staff:Brenda Blowing Glass in a Murano Glass Furnace

Brenda worked for many years in high tech in the satellite industry and was Director of Marketing for 2 start-up companies in Silicon Valley. She studied glass blowing at San Jose State University with Mary White as Professor. Brenda has studied bead making with various San Francisco area artists. Shown here, Brenda had a very honored opportunity to work with a maestro furnace owner in Murano.

Bob is a retired electrical engineer and part-time professor of Engineering. He solves all our material problems and has experience with "cold work" of glass, polishing, cutting and grinding. This knowledge of the materials, and experience in working with the glass is a great asset working with beadmakers and glassblowers.

Jeff and his wife Tanya also left the hi-tech industry and have worked for VenetianBeadShop.com since 2000. They, too, fell in love with the glass, the people and the islands and work with our bead makers and glassblowers. We refer to their new daughter Marcella as our little "Italian" baby. Marcella now accompanies us on buying trips, absolutely loves being in the furnaces and helping select beads. Her little brother Matteo also spends lots of time with us in the beadshop much like little kids in Venice.

Vincenzo (Vince) was born in Brescia, Italy. He is an avid car restorer, the older the better. Currently he is restoring a 1940s dump truck. He takes care of our store room and inventory. Naturally his Italian is perfect and he is a great help with technical questions. Vince doesn't consider any day started until we have our morning cappuccino and is often found at noon in our kitchen making pasta for us all. Vincenzo lives in Bresca Italy and teaches English, he still helps us when we need a "local" on the spot.

2006 We moved to a much larger facility. Our Wholesale Showroom houses not only our beads, but our large inventory of Murano glass such as our Murano Chandeliers, Venetian Vases, Murano Glass Lighting. We import a line of finished Venetian Jewelry and Corporate Gifts which are on display.

In 2007 Edith joined us and she is our best customer interface at shows.  She's the first there and the last out the door.  She says she joined the circus! 

Fast Forward to 2009 and Venetian Bead Shop moves again.  This time we double our space and still growing.  Our customers are the best!

Wow, it is 2012 and we move again. This time the space is a bit smaller, but better organized. And we have screaming fast internet. It's a bit of a mystery how in the middle of Silicone Valley, it's impossible to get fast internet access. But being on the outskirts of the AMD plant (with their very own fiber) left us in a dead zone. Promises by every telecon company never materialized. So we found this great place, quiet little park, nearer our house and best of all in Santa Clara, one of our favorite cities in the bay area.  Moving is traumatic, but we never missed one day of picking, packing and shipping. (This is a real point of pride with us as we know our customers need/want their beads.)



Scenes from the VenetianBeadShop.com and our staff.
Venetian Glass Necklace - Vintage Venetian Glass Jewelry Lampwork Beadmaking in Murano - Tanya studying with Nicola VenetianBeadShop, 3263 Kifer Road, Santa Clara, CA 95051
Brenda's 1st Venetian Beads Necklace
Tanya working in Murano
VenetianBeadShop
new-new Wholesale Showroom


Venetian Bead Shop is a member of the following trade associations committed to the promotion of glass as an art form and the jewelry industry:
  • Glass Art Society(GAS)
  • International Society of Glass Bead Makers  (ISGB)
  • Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America (MJSA)
We enjoy bringing you the beauty of Venice, the tradition of centuries and the passion of a people who work hard each day to produce glass. We work hard to bring you the very best quality Venetian Beads and Murano glass beads at the most reasonable prices possible.

VenetianBeadShop.com
3263 Kifer Road
Santa Clara, CA 95051 USA
Tel: 1 800 439 3551 International 001.408.245.5900
Fax: 1 408 245 5904 International 001 408 245 5904









Call for appointment at our Wholesale Showroom.. Sorry no printed catalog.







Free Jewelry Design Projects and Instruction for Swarovski
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