You can make Glass Beads!
On this page, we will give you the quick lesson.
Just follow these instructions.
Dip your metal mandrel rod into the mandrel release
coating. Dry overnight.
Put on your safety glasses. Secure and turn on
your torch to it's highest setting.
Place the coated end of the metal mandrel in the
torch flame a few seconds, just long enough to turn the coating
to a lighter shade. DONT over heat it. Take the mandrel out of
the flame.
Heat the end of a glass rod until a molten ball
is formed.
Hold the mandrel 1/2" below the flame and
heat the ball hot enough so it falls down onto the mandrel. The
metal mandrel needs to be a bit hot too.
Keep adding glass by heating the glass rod and
dripping the molten glass to build up the bead. Aim the flame
mostly toward the glass rod, less at the built up glass already
applied on the mandrel.
After you have built up a volume of glass on the
mandrel, dont worry about how uneven it is, To shape the rough
bead, rotate the glass in the flame to make the bead round. Making
the bead symmetrical takes practice.
Take the bead out of the flame and place it between the fiber pads to cool slowly.
How simple. But there is always
a lot to learn. Now you need to learn the many methods of decorating
your bead with dots, drags, raking, adding flowers and other
objects, adding gold leaf, encasing objects with clear, etc...
See
our beadmaking kits!