I have been busy trying lamp working techniques this summer. Striped beads are made differently than I would have thought. Instead of drawing stripes on the bead with a stringer you lay down dots, put on a layer of clear glass and melt it slowly. This serves to magnify the dots underneath which appear as stripes! How cool is that? Here are the basic steps:
Make a base bead
Add some dots. Don’t melt in.
Add dots on top of dots. Don’t melt in.
Add a couple layers of clear over the dots only. Think of a shape like the planet Saturn with its rings.
Begin to heat the clear glass. Slowly so the glass doesn’t pop or crack.
Bring up the heat to melt the clear glass. This magnifies the dots underneath
Pick it up a bit and keep the mandrel turning.
Why?
Because you don’t want your bead to sag.
Let the bead cool slowly and keep it turning to maintain the shape
Almost finished.
And here are the finished beads. This could get addicting!
Don’t forget Bead Fest this weekend!
Ornamento 