A Rose Gold Refresh for Venetian Wedding Cake Beads
How a father's gift found its way back into the world.
Some necklaces arrive carrying a story. This one came to me with a story of a trip to Europe, a father who brought home a piece of jewelry for each of his daughters, and a string that had given out with age.
My client, Tere, wanted to wear her necklace again and one of the largest beads, the weight of it, had broken the thread.
"No matter how far my dad traveled he always brought something home."
The necklace was made of Venetian wedding cake beads. I have handled a few of these through my work with reclaimed beads, but these were more beautiful, more elegant. The tubular beads were black glass with a swirl of pinkish copper and gold running through them, and the round wedding cake beads carried brushes of pink, baby blue, and yellow atop the black glass with that same pinkish copper threaded through the base glass. The original cord was a dark ash brown. I suspected it was chosen to situate well beside the bronze spacer beads (now dull with a patina). The bead caps looked like they had originally been gold-plated, but half of them had lost their glint due to the weathering of time.
Venetian Beads are Collected
Before I recommended any restyling to Tere, I validated my thinking. I recalled that some people collect vintage Venetian beads and though I am not in a position to opine on the value of the beads on the resale market, to preserve any value that Tere's beads might have, I wanted to be as respectful of the bead stringing order as possible and preserve as many of the original beads as I could.
Taking that advice, I resolved to keep the integrity of the order of the beads and the original bead caps, regardless of tarnish level. This necklace would remain recognizable to itself and to Tere, the original owner.
Still, the worn plating tended to dull down the piece, and the different metal colors—bronze, gold, tarnished gold, and copper gleaming from within the glass beads, bothered me. And I needed a fix before I engaged in the restringing. My theory was that, by adding some small elements—in the form of seed beads—I could add a bit more life to the beads. I could highlight the pinkish coppery color of the Venetian glass while also distracting the viewer's eye from the tarnished parts of the gold plating—two wins for the price of one.
I asked Tere whether she would be comfortable with a small addition of rose gold glass seed beads between the larger pieces to brighten up the piece, tidy the transitions, and give the necklace a more polished look without changing it's original styling.
Tere's Answer
"Use your best judgment," was her answer.
But I wanted to be sure. I showed her a photo of her necklace with yellow gold glass seed beads on one side and rose gold on the other. She quickly agreed—rose gold glass beads were the right choice.
I was happy because yellow gold would have drawn attention to the worn plating on the findings and competed with the copper in the tubular beads. Rose gold settled in with the copper and the pinks, and the beads were small enough that they really let the glass beads do the talking.
The Materials
For the stringing, I used a black nylon cord in size 8. I had hoped to go up to size 10 as Venetian beads can be quite heavy. But when I tested it, size 10 was too thick to pass through the seed beads; so size 8 it was. The rose gold seed beads are galvanized Toho beads, which will be tough to tarnish. As the original bronze barrel clasp was working just fine, it was retained. The only other new finding were new clamshell closures to reattach the string to both sides of the clasp.
The Restringing Work
The bead caps on the Venetian beads were paper thin, which made removing them slow, precise work. Each bead had to be released, laid out in its original sequence so that I could retain the order, even as I added the rose gold seed beads. I found that this demanded close attention and a steady hand. And I re-knotted the cord to preserve the beads just where they had been knotted before, on either side of the bronze spacer beads. The end result was worth it.
I truly fell in love with these beads. Though I had not had an affinity for Venetian beads before, I certainly view them differently now.
What moved me most was seeing the necklace feel like itself again, with the old beads sitting in their original order and the new seed beads quietly holding everything together. When I shared the image below with Tere, she made my day with this response:
"I'm so excited to wear this again."
Interested in Restringing a Piece?
If you have a piece in your own jewelry box that has been waiting for a fix, consider booking some time with me to discuss it. Let's see what we can do to refresh it so that you can take it back out into the world.
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A Note
I want to share my gratitude to Tere for permitting me to handle her treasured jewelry and gift from her father and for permitting me to share the results with you.
