ELY’S VENICE Italy Review – Supplier to Yves S. Laurent, Armani and Hippies Galore

ELY'S VENICE Italy Review – Traditional Venetian Beadcraft - Jewelry Supplier to Yves S. Laurent, Armani and Hippies Galore

Walk into Ely’s Venice atelier and your eyes don’t quite know where to settle.  Here you see a bevy of beads, there you see beads taking the form of a fish or a flower, a fashion magazine framed there, and rack after rack of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and broaches.  It is a feeling of bounty, made all the richer when its proprietor Luisa Conventi shares the photos and lore of her fourth generation family business, and the history of this ever so Venetian jewelry craft.

The working of canna lavoiata (long stick beads)  by conteria skills is an art form that stretches back centuries, and has continuously changed with the times and new technologies.  In 1462 Marietta Barovier, the daughter of a famous Venetian family, invented the classic perla rosetta design. In 1620 l’aventurina – glass made with copper powder- expanded the color palates of the beads. Back in the day it took two men pulling at ends of a glass rod to create the long beads that would later be guillotined.  Today, this is done by machines. Once the string was all cotton; later metal wire was used to make the strings of beads stronger.

There actually used to be more colors than today, because many of the materials that helped make these colors—arsenic, for example- are banned as too dangerous for workers.  Other colors – a certain mauve, for example—are no longer made because the materials used in their fabrication are now too scarce or expensive.  Wood ovens were used in the past; now they are methane.

Luisa’s family has been a part of all these changes in the art of Venetian beadwork through the generations.  Her great grandfather was a bead maker, selling his creations to others who then made them into jewelry.  It was her grandfather that opened this very shop, and later her uncle Ferenaz who ran it during the 50’s when it broke into world of high fashion, first supplying Yves St. Laurent.  Fashionistas may remember Armani’s scorpion jewelry design, actually one of Luisa’s creations.   Many will look at the bead designs on the racks today and automatically think “Woodstock”- they are so associated with hippie times.   

Though a shopping spree is definitely in order--- the storefront allowing you much better pricing for the same jewelry you see ubiquitous in Venice’s boutiques and gift shopes- the best part of the visit is definitely watching the women at work in the atelier behind the showroom.  You see flying finger dexterity, great concentration, and ongoing experimentation to create new designs.  These women are artisans and artists both. 

For more information visit the Ely’s Venice website.

Or, to help arrange a visit to Ely’s Venice, as well as visits to other Venetian ateliers similarly preserving traditional crafts, and other Venice adventures contact Ornella Naccari of ON-View Travel Agency, a member of the Divertimento Group.