It's pretty flat. I tried to catch the stippling on the back...

The hole is closer to the back, just beneath what seems like a central depression. The hole is pretty big - 4mm?

Can't seem to find this pattern or color sequence anywhere else.

The molded 3 dimensional faces are far more interesting than these 2 dimensional millefiori items. I'm refering to shapes such as geographic places (states of the USA, the 'boot' of Italy), religious symbols (crosses), holiday ornament (bells, stars). Here are a couple I found online.

The features in so far as they can be distinguished appear African-ish.
Mine is even more multicoloured, so its very hard to see the profile.
In my case its threaded on a long silky red tassell necklace as a pendant.
the beads are in my office not at home so maybe shown tomorrow.

(-Preoccupied this weekend and exhausted after attending the actual Olympic opening ceremony with my son who designed the amazing top-secret cauldron, revealed and lit at the climax of the evening -a little swagger moment)

This is an occasion to feel quite "chuffed," yes? [Do I have that idiom right?]

What an exciting and fun event to be able to attend, as a "celebrity," no less.

Neat video in the link, well worth watching.

"terrific", according to Apple computer thesaurus:

"adjective
1 a terrific all-star cast: marvelous, wonderful, sensational, outstanding, great, superb, excellent, first-rate, first-class, dazzling, out of this world, breathtaking; fantastic, fabulous, super, blue-ribbon, magic; informal cool, wicked, awesome, bang-up, dandy, mean.
2 a terrific bang: tremendous, huge, massive, enormous, gigantic, colossal, mighty, great, prodigious, formidable, monstrous, sizable, considerable; intense, extreme, extraordinary; informal whopping, humongous; deafening."

Stefany: One day your son may be referred to as "Sir Thomas Heatherwick".

Stefany, how incredible! Your son is so very talented, and I also love to see/hear him speak about his creative process. It must have been amazing to be present at the opening ceremonies!

The career retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum must be fabulous as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIRZVicmGxE

Congratulations! Artists / designers like him improve the quality of our lives! Thank you!

am having trouble with sending the image from my cellphone to my computer in order to resize and then send to BCN.
Will try again...

Sure looks like the same face, doesn't it? How neat that you have one with the tassel and accessory beads still intact!

Wow ! that's really neat!

Perhaps it is very difficult to mold these?

or even that while interesting for us, as jewellery they are just rather too confusing and unattractive?

Was part of the title of the eBay listing for my yellow bead.

Nonetheless, I love it and plan to combine it with some softly matted old cobalt blue Chinese glass beads in some lengthy flapper-style design. If I ever actually get around to this stringing project, will post the result.

Weird Rulz!

I offer: "We say that 'we know what we like'. But actually, we like what we know about. "

Yeah, Fred, I've heard that before in relation to the Is It Art or Is It Not debate:

"I know what I like" = "I like what I know" [so saith smug Philistines, who don't know very much]

Because, of course, one has to have a fair amount of knowledge to appreciate the unusual.

I think of Red Mountain and his Pig Ear bead - it's a thrill, to discover the rare amidst the common and mundane. But you have to possess the knowledge and openness of mind to perceive the difference, yes? As Pasteur famously quipped, "Fortune favors the prepared mind."

So, it may be a weird yellow bead to some, but I think it's neat. Not exactly the million dollar painting in the attic on Antiques Road Show, but fun nonetheless.

Dear Christine,

I am pleased that you posted the yellow millefiori face bead. I understand your pride.

However, I felt that this thread reminded me of an important observation I may have made after dealing with myself and other collectors for over forty years.

And I wanted to share my thoughts for proper feed back—especially if I am wrong.

Respectfully,

It's a weird yellow bead. I find it amusing. I bought it knowing nothing about its history, it simply struck me as a very unusual bead, probably because I do know enough about beads to recognize that.
Learning that it might be nearly a century old and made in Venice is just icing on the cake. There's lots of old stuff out there.

As to collectors valuing what they know about, I like this recent example from eBay of a strand of plain green beads going for $450 all because of a little brass tag.

Item 330770462010

I looked up this auction. Augh. The Chanel beads are ridiculous. Shows human gullibility and inability to think for selves (ie. relying on brand tags to dictate value, social status, etc.).

I have recently discovered and fallen in love with Basha Beads. I will order with Barbara next month and am so excited. A strand of her beads? Worth $450. Chanel green glass? yuck. boring. shallow. vain. ugly.

Sorry, I can be kind of opinionated ;)
peace,
marjorie

These are Basha Beads :) *sigh* I have been dreaming about them!

C'mon, the beads are a beautiful shade of green, very well made, and nicely strung. I'd love to wear them, even if they are Chanel.

And of course, to the original purchaser their price was probably just tip money.

Trying to locate confirmation but unsuccessful at the moment, but didn't Swarovski come up with a.b. finish on special request from Chanel, early 1950s? Just trying to figure out the origin of those green Chanel beads. Still doesn't justify the selling price, but if Swarovski, the aesthetic of the beads would be unmatched by any other glass beads similar to them "in person"....

They're Gripoix beads. The original Maison Gripoix used "poured glass" and beads from Venice, but that was way back in the 1920s.

I found the link below where one of the newer designers contracting with Gripoix is clearly using at least one lampworker in the workshop. Using Effetre canes?

Here's what they say in the link below:

"This necklace has been hand gilded and polished in Gripoix's Parisan atelier. The blue flower and beads are made using the brand's signature pâte de verre casting method, an intricate process which is only practiced by a few craftsmen in the world."

Oh wow! Sorry, I guess I am very much in the minority here. Didn't mean to offend with my strong words...to each their own. The whole designer tag branding/marketing and haute couture thing turns my stomach a bit (although I love the art of high fashion photography itself...its fascinating and beautiful what they do for editorials). The whole status symbol brand name thing is just very bland for me compared to one of a kind, authentic rural artisan work that no one knows about ;) But again, to each their own, we are a rainbow of different tastes!
peace,
marjorie

now mine for $19.46 postage included.

[Glass imitation coral seed beads in India are referred to as "poor girl" beads, as I recall.]

This past Feb in Tucson, I was offered a similar face bead by one of the the "Traders", as I'm sure other bead persona at the show were also offered the same......I was suspect of the bead that was shown to me, it just did not seem right, now I see 2 more examples and I must admit that I may have been mistaken about the bead I saw first hand. My view about the bead was that it seemed to be a weird thing to do, I really did not appreciate the molded face as the canes made it too busy to see properly, my opinion only here, of course......I was leaning towards an Indonesian make but I now see the Venetians have actually made a few, shows what I know, or don't know....the price was "to the moon" and I decline to purchase, it was interesting. I would like to hear form others that saw the Tucson Show bead, thanks, Thomas

..in my hand, until today...LOL...

It´s ground from a common Millefiori bead pattern...as usual, only fixed at the idea, I forgot to make a "before" photo...two ideas came together: the here shown beautiful face beads and the Millefiori, Rick has shown not so long ago, where he just left the pattern at the ends and ground a dogbone shape down to the base of the beads...

The authorities are going to use evidence on BCN to lock us up and put us away...so that we are not offensive to society with our UGLY beads!

Yours truly,

and then there are the true renegades...liking something, knowing next to nothing about it.....imagine!