Beautiful Venetian Masks and Murano Glass pendants

Hi,

Its was a lovely day yesterday with the sun has shining most of the day, except for a little cloud about 4pm when we had a few spots of rain. but this morning its dull and miserable looking but the sun has just come out since I started writing this.

Today I wanted to show these beautiful Venetian masks. These were in a shop in Limone, I brought a piece of Murano glass pendant which you will see further down the page. These masks were on show and let me photo them. They were so beautiful against the stone wall, the back of the shop was cut into the rock making a wonderful backdrop for these masks.

Their is a very long history of the Venentian mask going back to the carnivals in 1268 but today the famous Venetian Carnival starts on February 2nd and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. Venetian Carnival re-creates the fantasy of the original event with food, costumes, Venetian masks music, Commedia Dell'Arte Theater, juggling and other spectacles. The Venetian masks and costumes are worn by people who often travel from all over the world to attend and perform (or parade) on renewed Carnival in magnificent city on the water, Venice. The elaborate costumes and masks are handmade by variety of Venetian artisans. Traditionally people were allowed to wear masks between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) at the start of the carnival season and midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were also allowed during Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large proportion of the year in disguise. Through the Carnival Venetian Mask-makers (or Mascherari in Italian) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and their own guild.

Murano Glass, I brought the heart last time we went to Limone, and this time I brought this beautiful blue pendant. Murano glass is a famous product of the Venetian island of Murano. In the lagoon of Venice Italy, Murano has been a commercial port as far back as the 7th century. By the 10th century, the city had become well-known for its glass makers, who created unique Murano glass. While Murano glass makers have settled and operate elsewhere, some say authentic Murano glass is fabricated only in Murano. It is only Murano glass if it has Murano stamp in the glass at the back.
Now what do you think of these, I brought the leaves in Malcesine, she even took the bottom leave off as they are very long for me, but over night I had an idea, I then brought the ones on the right in a shop called Melissa in Limone I have some ideas for them by taking them apart and making some tatted jewellery with them.
I had to take a picture of this, in this country we just shove things people buy in a bag, and these days you don't always get a bag either, when I brought the leaf earrings this is what she did with the wrapping, they were inexpensive earrings costing 10 euros and she spent 2 Min's wrapping them up and adding the stamp with the shops name and a red rose, the orange bag is not paper but a waterproof plastic type material.

I hope you have enjoyed today's post, I have had Bethany my grand daughter over the last two days learning tatting at least the art of tatting wont be lost and can continue with a new generation.

Have a nice day and until we meet again in blog land take care

Hugs

Margaret