Glass beads are made of silica and other minerals melted at a high temperature to form a thick, viscous liquid. The liquid is melded into the desired shape and hardens as it cools.
What sort of glass beads are period?
Glass beads are significant because the presence of glass beads often indicates that there was trade and that the bead making technology was being spread. Glass beads can be found 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, and eventually throughout most major cultures and times until the present.
How are glass beads made?
Precautions
Everything is hot! Limit your burns! Wear clothes that will protect you, don’t touch the torch, or the heated glass, or anything that will melt your skin. If tired, or distracted, don’t play with fire. Literally. Also, eye protection is highly recommended, as well as proper ventilation.
Where to shop in Australia?
Forums
Books
Equipment needed to start
Equipment needed in the future
Basic Technique
To make lampwork beads, you will need to melt down a narrow rod of glass over a torch. When the glass is molten, you can easily wind it around your mandrel using gravity as you twist the mandrel. The hole in the bead is formed by the space taken up by the mandrel. You may choose to marver or embellish your glass using various tools.
Basic Beads
Here is a link to my Pinterest board which has many different beads to look at. https://pin.it/UQCHS6G
More Info
Here is a link to my blog which has more information, including upcoming classes and flameworking sessions at my studio in Canberra.
https://gydahrafnsdottir.blogspot.com/ .
Everything is hot! Limit your burns! Wear clothes that will protect you, don’t touch the torch, or the heated glass, or anything that will melt your skin. If tired, or distracted, don’t play with fire. Literally. Also, eye protection is highly recommended, as well as proper ventilation.
Where to shop in Australia?
- Bead glass: http://www.beadglass.com.au/
- Chockadoo: https://www.chockadoo.com.au/
- Kilns and tools: https://www.glassfusing.com.au/
Forums
- Lampwork Etc : http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/
- Talk Glass: http://www.talkglass.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?4-The-Melting-Pot-Discussion-Forums
Books
- Glass Beads: Tips, Tools, & Techniques for Learning the Craft by Louise Mehaffey
- Making Glass Beads by Cindy Jenkins.
- Passing the Flame by Corina Tettinger
Equipment needed to start
- Bead release
- Didymium glasses
- Fibre blanket or vermiculite, plus some form of annealing later if you intend to sell your beads
- First Aid Kit
- Gas hose
- Glass: Start with COE 104 and use a sampler pack or pick out a mix of colours you like.
- Graphite paddle or piece of graphite to marver beads on
- Hothead torch
- Mandrels in various thicknesses to make different sized bead holes.
- Materials for cleaning your beads – either a bead reamer, or a Dremel.
- Materials to mount torch, e.g., wood block, screws, clamps
- Propane tank
- Something to hold your mandrels up while the bead release dries – a tray full of sand is one option
- Something to rest hot rods on
- Tools such as tweezers, pliers, rakes, razor blades
- Water bowl
Equipment needed in the future
- A Kiln to anneal beads. When you heat glass in your torch, you are creating a lot of stress in it at a molecular level. What you need to do is eliminate that stress, because if you don’t, the bead will crack.
Basic Technique
To make lampwork beads, you will need to melt down a narrow rod of glass over a torch. When the glass is molten, you can easily wind it around your mandrel using gravity as you twist the mandrel. The hole in the bead is formed by the space taken up by the mandrel. You may choose to marver or embellish your glass using various tools.
Basic Beads
Here is a link to my Pinterest board which has many different beads to look at. https://pin.it/UQCHS6G
More Info
Here is a link to my blog which has more information, including upcoming classes and flameworking sessions at my studio in Canberra.
https://gydahrafnsdottir.blogspot.com/ .
An Intro PPT: Beginner's Glass Beads.pptx
My Set Up
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My current set up. In my garage, with windows for ventilation. |
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Working with recycled glass. |
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My initial Set up- I built the desk so I had a custom height and space. |
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Right at the begining. Take a photo of your initial work space, because trust be when I say it does not last! |
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