Millefiore Glass Beads

History of Millefiori

Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware.
The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers) The beads were called mosaic beads before 1849. While the use of this technique long precedes the term millefiori, it is now frequently associated with Venetian glassware.

More recently, the millefiori technique has been applied to polymer clays and other materials. Because polymer clay is quite pliable and does not need to be heated and reheated in order to fuse it, it is much easier to produce millefiori patterns than with glass.

Here are some examples of Millefiori used in jewelry.

Above jewelry available at: www.fraidycatcreations.etsy.com