10/0 Black striped white opal 2-cut antique Murano glass seed beads vintage Italian Venetian

10 gram package. These are 1.5mm beads, the base is white opal and the stripes are dark gray. From a distance, they look like a mottled gray, creating an interesting texture. They're wonderful in peyote beading, for example.

In the early 20th century, these rare beads were painstakingly hand manufactured by master craftsmen in the fabled Societa Veneziana Conterie glass factories of Murano, Italy. The slight irregularities in size and shape are an expected and natural result of the production process, which is a lost art.