Millefiori Beads

Millefiori literally means 1000 flowers in Italian. Its is really a type of mosaic glasswork that is characterized by its flowerlike patterns. The patterns found inside the beads are produced by first heating a bundle of thin glass rods of different colors until the rods fuse together. The bundle is then pulled thin, cooled, and sliced. This produce small disks with flowerlike designs, which are then incorporated into various styles of beads.