A Taste of Venice: meet our partners Venetian Dreams

The Queen of Venice Beads: Venetian Dreams

ART VENICE GLASS JEWELLERY UNIQUE BY MARISA CONVENTO VENETIAN DREAM SHOP

The main objective of A Taste of Venice Blog tour and blog magazine is to bring to the attention of the general public the real Venice, made up of its people, its arts and its food and wine.

The person who, in my humble opinion, represents the most authentic Venice, the best side of Venice, the Venice which I sincerely wish for everyone to discover, is Marisa Convento of Venetian Dreams. Marisa is a jeweler maker, specialized in using original Venetian Murano beads, both modern and antique ones. She is the Queen of Beads of Venice.

Marisa Convento of Venetian Dreams

She is one of the most energetic, passionate and interesting people you will ever meet in your life. Her love for the city transpires from every word she speak, from every piece of jewelry she produces, from every gestures she makes.

ART VENETIAN 18TH CENTURY STYLE SILK BAG WITH SEEDBEADS EMBROIDERY HAND MADE UNIQUE ARTISANAL BY MARISA CONVENTO VENETIAN DREAMS ATELIER IN VENICE ITALY

If I have to picture Venice as a person, it will be Marisa: full of life, colorful, elegant without being snobbish, classy but at the same time down to earth. Yes, Venice at its best!

And on top of that, she is an endless source of information concerning Venice, artisans, food, art, politics and much more: she is a living Wikipedia of Venice!

As you can gather from my words above, I am in love with this woman who I can proudly call a dear Friend (yes, one of those with a capital letter!). I love the way she gives and gives to this city, not expecting anything in return, just because….she loves Venice!

Collection of beadwork by Venetian Dreams

But enough compliments, let’s allow Marisa to do the talking!

Introduce yourself to our readers: who is your company and what does it do?

My name is Marisa Convento, Art Glass Jewellery maker and owner of “Venetian Dreams”, in Venice.

My personal passion is the Venetian glass bead in all its forms, periods, styles and sizes: from the biggest and oldest collectible ones to the tiniest and colorful seed-beads: the “conterie”.

I felt in love with the variety and the beauty of the Venetian glass beads from a very young age. I started being curious of the many different ways of using them as self adorments and fashion or home accessories. I was fascinated by the diffusion of the glass beads made in Venice all over the world, in the far continents where they were used by merchants, missionaries and explorers to establish friendly approaches with native tribes or using them like money for precious goods, such as gold, silver, precious stones, ivory, spices, silks, rare woods, furs and unfortunately even slaves.

Jewelry by Venetian Dreams

I have been studying really a lot of the history, the culture and the tecniques of work related to the Venetian glass beads. When I felt ready, I started my own collection of unique pieces, artistic and collectable creations that are strictly and only hand made, using the best contemporary beads and original vintage Murano Glass seed-beads.

With these very rare, ancient, extremely small beads, I recreate intricate traditional or modern beadworks, stringing the beads on thread or on metal wire, using the old forgotten tecniques of the Venetian beadstringers: the “Impiraressa” ( in Venetian dialect the lady who strings the beads).

My production varies, going from the beaded flowers or beaded “coral branches” that I also create for high fashion shoes and bags collections, to a one of a kind glass bead necklaces and other glass jewellery pieces, to home accessories that sometimes combine the fine Venetian fabrics and the colourful beads.

How long have you been operating in Venice?Marisa at work

I opened my atelier “Venetian Dreams”, at the beginning of 2007, when I was 46 years old, after an experience of already 25 years working in the field of Venetian artistic workmanship and applied arts, including gold jewellery, Murano Glass and the world’s best hand woven silk Venetian fabrics.

The name of my boutique is significant of the dream of life that I wanted to become reality: create beautiful adorments with Venetian beads in order to preserve and promote the Art and the Culture of the Venetian Glass Beads.

What do you love the most about Venice?

I love everything about Venice!

From the differents lights and shadows depending on the season, the weather, the moment of the day or the night, to the tiny details like an ancient stone, or a white rose or a pomegranate branching out of a secret garden wall, to the sound of the bells in the still of the night.

There is a Venice for everyone, one can choose what to fall in love with : be it the food, or the Art, or just strolling around letting the city on water caress you! It’s impossible not to love Venice, and I hope to be loved in return…by Venice.

My mission is to deserve the honour of being a Venetian, I believe that each one of us Venetians, no matter what we do, in the way we do it, we can become good or bad ambassadors of our city.

What would you change in Venice?

Venice is “The Perfect City”, there is nothing to be changed, and hopefully nothing will be changed in favor of some fool projects of forced modernization or economical exploitation.

What is really needed is an improvement in the understanding of her history, beauty, fragility and best aspects, the only way of obtaining the due respect that will preserve her body and soul intact for the future generations, because Venice belongs to mankind.

For information contact:

Venetian Dreams of Marisa Convento