it all started 'coz alex gave me a bead making book for my birthday ...he knew i liked trying my best at stained glass, so it would follow i would enjoy beads, right? and who doesn't like to play with a strong flame and and a can of mapp gas? nobody here, that's for sure. so i thought about it ("man wouldn't it be cool to take a class?") and the next day i received an email from the local stained glass place that they suddenly had an opening in their beadmaking class on wednesdays. i took it as a sign and enrolled (why else would they send me an email?).
the class was only four weeks, but you can see how my skills progressed ...the first week i burnt my beads. they were still beautiful, but burnt. the second week we played with tweezers on our molten beads and learned how to make stringers (long skinny glass rods). i stopped burning my beads. the third week we made cats-eyes looking beads that were more round, and the fourth week...the fourth week we learned little variations on the themes... oh so cool. i went online and bought my own supplies (including the purple glasses to filter out the reds in the flame so i can see my work!).
it's a pretty straightforward type craft: put some bead release (clay stuff) on a stainless steel "mandrel" (apx 1/8" dia), dry it in the flame of mapp gas, gently heat up a glass rod (apx 1/4" dia) until it's molten at the tip, and wind it around the mandrel... there's technique involved (keep turning the mandrel continuously, evenly distribute the glass, pop all air bubbles, how to build it up
for different shapes, etc...) but i'm liking it overall.
this provided fodder for 2004's ornaments as well. excellent, i said. |
