About Us

Venetian 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.

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.