Make sure you have all the tools and materials you will be using arranged in front of you.

Clean your glass rods, and prepare stringer.

Put on your didymium glasses.

• Hold the tip of the glass rod in the flame until it starts to really glow and droop - that's when you know it's hot enough to start making your bead.

• Touch the tip of the hot glass rod to the mandrel at a perpendicular angle, and turn the mandrel with your fingers slowly away from yourself along your thumb.
• Let the glass flow from the rod to the mandrel, and wind onto itself - this is the footprint, and becomes the foundation for the round bead.

• Continue winding the hot glass onto the mandrel, layering the glass on top of itself, until all the hot glass on the rod has moved over onto the mandrel.
• Make sure to keep turning the mandrel, rolling it between your fingers and along your thumb.

• Continue turning the mandrel, and burn off the tip of the glass rod in the flame in order to separate the glass rod from the glass bead on the mandrel.
• You now have the basic foundation for a round bead!

• Now warm up more glass on the tip of the rod, and add more glass on top of the bead base until your bead is the desired size.
• Adding glass to the left side of the bead, then the right side of the bead, and then in the centre, will ensure that you have nice dimples on the bead ends where the hole will be...

• Once you have enough glass wound onto the mandrel, put the entire bead directly in the flame and keep turning the mandrel (consider that the bead is like a rotisserie chicken!).
• Let the glass melt down until the bead surface is completely smooth and round, still continuously turning the mandrel.

• Continue to turn the bead on the mandrel, and slowly take it just outside the flame in order to let it solidify.
• Check to make sure the bead is properly balanced, and that it has nice dimples on the ends (rather than thin, sharp, or pointy ends).
• Add more glass to the edges if required, and reheat the bead to melt it smooth again.

• Now comes to fun part - decorating!
• Heat the bead surface slightly to make sure the bead is warm all over, but still solid (not molten or glowing).
• Use a very thin rod of amethyst glass, called a "stringer", to decorate the bead with a smooth swirl design.

• Slowly "draw" the swirls on the bead surface with the stringer, staying near the flame, but not overheating the bead or decoration.

• Finish your decorating design and flame-polish the bead (bring it in and out of the flame for a few seconds) to make sure that the stringer is well attached to the bead surface.

STEP 13:

• Either place the bead directly in the kiln for annealing, or place it in a ceramic fiber blanket to cool it slowly, and anneal in the kiln later.

~ I do currently accept custom orders, so feel free to contact me with either:

a) lampwork bead/bead set requests, or

b) custom jewelry design requests.

Thanks very much for visiting my site, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my work!

~ Ania :)

Please feel free to contact me by email at: beadcave@hotmail.com      

Thanks for visiting!

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