The Flowers of Venice

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Summary: Love like a red, red rose....
Review: According to legend, the mortally wounded Crusader troubadour Tancredi fell across a white rose bush. As he lay dying, he begged his comrade Orlando, to take one of the blood-stained roses to his love Vulcana in the city of Venice. When she saw the rose, Vulcana became very pale and could not speak. The next morning she was found dead holding the blood-stained rose in her hand. On April 25, St. Mark's Day, traditional Venetian men give their belles a red rose in commemoration of the lover's tragedy. The best roses are made with Venetian glass beads.

In THE FLOWERS OF VENICE, Giovanna Poggi Marchesi shows the reader how to make Vulcana's rose as well as many other beautiful flowers from glass beads. These flowers can be used in bouquets and floral arrangements, as decorative elements on Easter Eggs, lampshades, trinket boxes, candle holders, mirror frames, and in numerous other ways. The only constraint seems to be one's imagination.

Marchesi provides the reader with step by step written instructions for making the flowers, as well as photographs of completed phases of the process. Although she uses beads manufactured in and around Venice, her book lists both Venetian and other bead suppliers, as well as resources such as magazines dedicated to the craft of glass bead flower making.

The glass blowers of Venice create superior beads from the same materials used to make Murano glass. First, the moltan glass is prepared. Then it is blown and stretched into long thin canes of hollow tubing to be cut and sized for various purposes.

Traditionally, Venetian glass beads were strung on iron rods of various weights and then the pliable rods were twisted into the requisite shapes. Although Marchesi uses the traditional iron rods, her book includes suggestions for other kinds of rods including various types of craft wire that can be found in hobby shops.

Marchesi suggests that a good deal of work goes into flower making, so one should use or buy the best materials, and care for the flowers. Glass flowers need to be cleaned periodically, a risky business as the flower stems are covered with silk and/or other fragile materials and the iron rods can rust. Marchesi shows the reader how to submerge the flowers in soapy water and rinse and dry them in the sun. She also includes photographs showing how to "dry" clean them with alcohol.

Whether or not you intend to make glass-bead flowers or buy them ready-made in Venice, this wonderful book is an invaluable resource.