The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

A mile north of Venice, Italy, is a series of islands called Murano. Linked by bridges within the Venetian Lagoon, Murano is renowned for its glassmaking, a process its artisans have perfected over centuries.

Richly colored and with distinctive and unique patterns, Murano glass -- in the right hands -- transforms into one of a kind beads, which are then set into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

A pair of those right hands belongs to Veneta Simpson, a jewelry artist from Richland who uses a torch to melt the glass at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, then shapes it with tools and hand sculpting into...