People often ask how I make my beads. So today I thought I’d share a few photos of some of the steps I take when Making Glass Lampwork Beads.
First I dip the mandrels in bead release…
This ensures that the glass doesn’t stick to the mandrel and makes it easy to take the bead off once it has been annealed.
Then On goes the Kiln, which needs to heat to over 500 degrees C.
Whilst the bead release is drying and the kiln warming up I choose my glass for the day. Today I was inspired by autumnal colours.
I also set out any tools that I might need to use.
One day I will ask some kind person to take shots of me making the beads – this is the limit of my multitasking abilities. I draw the line at trying to hold a camera whilst winding molten glass around a mandrel next to an extremely hot flame…
As soon as each bead is made it goes straight into the kiln where it is annealed over many hours (usually over night).
First thing the next morning I head straight to the kiln to see how my creations look.
They are then carefully taken off the mandrels. At this point they look something like this…
As you can see there’s lots of bead release in the bead hole which has to be meticulously cleaned by hand using my trusty diamond bead reamer.
Finally the beads are ready to use.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by!
Hilary
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