The first Chevron beads were made in Murano in Italy at the end of the 14th century.
The beads, which are made from drawn glass cane constructed using specialist star
shaped moulds
are one of the most collectable and valuable beads available to us today.
Chevron beads are constructed with consecutive layers of various coloured glass.
Early examples tend to be in blue white and red glass however other early pieces exist using green
glass.
Inventory lists of glass factories in Murano dating from the year 1496 list Rosetta and star
cane beads.
These are both alternative names for the chevron bead.
Most Chevron beads were made for the purpose of export and trade to West Africa and also to South America
Exceptionally large Chevron beads found their
way to Africa and a smaller models some measuring just
5 mm in diameter, but still containing seven distinct layers were made for the South American market.
The Chevron bead regained popularity at the beginning of the 20th century when four and six layer
models appear on various sample cards from the Venetian bead traders. The production of the Venetian Chevron bead continues to this day although in small quantities and made by specialist glass artists such as Luigi Catalan
The best known contemporary Chevron bead maker is the pioneer glass artist Art Seymour .
Art lives in the USA and produces highly technical and very complicated Chevron bead designs using advanced glass making techniques.
During the 1980s chevron style beads were made in Indian glassmaking centres rather than
being created with the traditional
techniques these weremade from hot glass strips fused together to make a star cane bead the work tends to be less precise and the glass quality differs from those constructed in
Murano.
Recent replicas of the Chevron bead have emerged from the
Chinese production centres. They are
made in the traditional Venetian way, we can identify the new wave of Chinese beads by the different
quality and colours of the glass used for
production.
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