it was lovely to be in Venice- i stayed with some friends i'd hoped to visit anyway.
in the Abate Zanetti glass art school on Murano there were about perhaps 30 or 40 people? all from the local bead industry, makers, dealers, wholesalers, retailers, archivists and the museum, and one or two collectors.
everything was in Italian and i picked up only some general concerns. so corrections and comments welcome!

chairman was Augusto Panini with assistance from Dottoressa Chiara Squarcina -the glass museum director.

other speakers were:
Gianni Moretti
Salvatore Sito of S. U. V.
Marco Verita
Ivano Ferro
Andrea Tosi and Luigi Ferrigno
Cristina Bedin

i also recognised and met among those attending- Giorgio Terruzzi, Luigi Cattelan, Gianni deCarlo-

in the evening one or two of us were allowed to see the museum exhibit that shows the beads and sample cards in Augusto Panini's fantastic book- which exhibition won't remain on display after next week...
-thank you Augusto for the years you spent documenting this unique archive...!

the most important message that i understood aroused strong feelings was the sad fact that the traditional bead hand production business where Murano led the world for so long is no longer going well for most of them- the technology, chinese and other far east copying, costs, and changing fashions have reduced their market, and factories well as home industries on Murano are all shrinking or closing.

i suppose it needs an exceptional genius who will produce astonishing new ideas - rather than just trying to do things cheaper?

some images may follow if i can resize them-

Augusto Panini and colleagues getting things going-
and Signor Sito of "S. U. V." wearing the most stunning strand of large examples of his beads which are made using murrine from his more traditional predecessors production to create a distinctive look- i felt he spoke with a commitment to the value of such beads as inspirations, memories, and souvenirs.
(the pink necklace i'm wearing is pictured in my book on page 7- venetian beads collected individually by my granny in about 1900...)

Sad to hear that the Muranese bead industry is suffering. The Societa Veneziana Conterie – the principal producer of seed beads on Murano for ca. 90 years – was put out of business by foreign competitors in Japan and other countries in the early 1990s. A few years earlier, Dr. Chiappetta, the director of the Societa, told me that Japan was selling its beads for what it cost the Societa to produce them. To expand its market, the company began to make small glass pellets that were used in atomic reactors. That didn’t help. What can save the remaining Muranese bead industries? Even if they come up with new ideas and styles, those can immediately be copied by China and India who will sell them for far less money. I hope the people attending the meeting can come up with viable solutions. Otherwise, we may well see the end of a truly great beadmaking tradition.

Stefany noticed in the exhibit at the Glass Museum in Murano a bea quite similar to that shown by Uwe in her post of 3.29 "Happy Easter". It was strung in a necklace of beads made by Salvatore Sito (beadmaker and owner of S.u.v, Venezia); I have just a very bad picture of this bead: colors in my picture are dull, but in the original they are as bright as in the pictures posted by Uwe, and leave no doubt about the identity of the beadmaker.

Giorgio