Since 1291 Venetian glass beads have been handmade in Venice on the Island of Murano in Italy, the beads are lampworked meticulously one by one in front of an open flame.  Many of the beads have a center core of glass wrapped in  24KT gold, platinum and/or silver. The precious metals shine through the glass to give each bead a personality of its own. The Venetians also use what is called aventurina, which is a mixture of gold, silver and copper to bring an added sparkle to many of their beads. These beads are like no other beads in the world.

Thai Silver is handcrafted by the various hill tribe people of Laos, Burma, Viet Nam and Thailand. “Thai Silver", is composed of .955% silver making it more pure than sterling silver, which is .925% pure. The remaining percentage is a silver alloy. This high grade of silver is used because it is extremely soft and malleable allowing these ancient people to use hand tools to etch, carve and shape each piece individually.
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