Some pieces by glass artisan Carlo Moretti.

You said little, here is little. Beautiful little cards with envelopes to attach to gifts and the most beautiful placecards I've ever owned--I keep them and when good friends repeatedly have dinner with us, out come my lovely Venetian placecards.

Posters on this thread have mentioned "murrine" which is a technique where glass flowers are melted together to form colorful mosaic patterns. In a paperweight, these do indeed make excellent gifts, and to have for yourself. I like to go over to the island of Murano and look over their murrine there, (although you can find lovely murrine paperweights all over Venice) and one shop I like for that is SERGIO TIOZZO, on Fondamenta Manin, vaporetto: Faro.

Someone also mentioned glass beads-I love these, have some, and they also make good gifts, however, there is a shop in Castello that carries rare and antique beads, in addition to lovely new creations-it's called ANTICLEA ANTIQUARIATO, on Campo San Provolo, at San Zaccaria. Really lovely and interesting looking beads, and I have purchased a couple of bracelets from this shop.

Posters have mentioned hand-made papers, another great buy in Venice-there are a number of "Byblos" shops that sell lovely marbled paper, boxes, and picture frames made from these papers.

But the oldest hand-made paper shop in Italy (they say) is at vaporetto stop Santa Maria del Giglio (this area is my favorite in San Marco) called LEGATORIA PIAZZESI-papers here are sold by the piece, and they have address books, boxes, albums, and other items that are lovely, but expensive.

Another thing I've gotten to like are the wooden miniatures of the city that a few artisan shops around town do-they are not inexpensive, but they are very well done, particularly those I've seen of the Rialto bridge-something like 12 inches long-it was really beautiful. There's a shop just off the San Stae vaporetto stop that I have seen that does really lovely miniatures, around 35-50 Euro for certain pieces, also, a shop in Dorsoduro, called "Il Mondo in Miniatura" (the world in miniature) has lovely recreations of Venice in miniature.

Leather is a good buy in Venice, but much of it comes from Tuscany/Florence-however there are a number of shops in San Polo/Santa Croce, behind the fruit and vegetable markets, and towards Piazzale Roma that have excellent, hand-made leather goods. One is at Pze. Roma-IL GRIFONE-all the leather here is hand-made, and it is a local shop, as opposed to the leather goods shops around Venice that just sell leather goods from Florence or other places. Another popular local shop is in the Campiello San Toma, vaporetto, San Toma-very near the Frari, MAZZON LE BORSE-its known for its high-quality leather goods.

And finally, if you are interested in having a real work of art replica of a Venetian gondola, or other Venetian sailing vessel, you need to visit Gilberto Penzo's shop in Campo San Toma, vaporetto, San Toma. He is a real artist, but these boats and model kits do not come cheap.

You can look at his creations on his website:

www.veniceboats.com/eng-models.htm

glass mezuzahs in a shop in the ghetto

Years and years ago, we bought a wood inlaid table/cart and a wood inlaid picture. They are beautiful. Actually, they come to Venice from the south of Italy. The table and picture we at a vendor in the market across the Rialto bridge. The could table came apart and fit in the suitcase. We also purchased a lace table cloth and 12 napkins.

I have a handmade sun/moon mask made at a mask workshop we toured, a small glass/gold perfume bottle and glass winebottle plug from the artisan at a small shop behind Piazza San Marco, a pair of leather slippers I bought at a small shop on the Rialto Bridge for about 9 Euro, and a beautiful scrolled ring with sapphire blue (colour not the gem) insets, unfortunately lost after I returned home :( - I plan to return to buy another.

Have fun shiopping in Venice - it is like no other place in the world!