Yesterday I decided to make stacked dot beads. They're a lot of fun to make, mixing and matching colours.  I can get the stacking bit going ok, but still need practice placing the dots evenly around the bead.


Here's a picture of my summer workspace, nothing fancy, and I really want to get a better fan for the window.  There's a door at the far end of the porch that I keep open when I'm torching for a through draught, but since I broke the box fan I've had to use the one in the pic and it just doesn't quite cut it.

The hardest thing about lampwork is staying focussed!

Too many colours, too many shapes, too much wonderful inspiration out there, I don't think I'll ever be able to make a set of beads for a necklace I'm having way too much fun flitting from bead to bead.

Here are three barrels I made yesterday - I even named them! - Christmas in July (because it's got red and green but not Christmas red and green and it sparkles but it feels like a summer bead), Dreamtime and Codex. Dreamtime is my thinnest and longest barrel to date, I love the length and want to get 'em longer and tapered. I know, I'm naming them, that's a bad thing, that means they are becoming family members and you can't sell family members!!

I recently got two Jim Kervin books, the Sharon Peters one and the Jim Smircich one, both have given me new insights. Jim Smircich has made me think and understand a little more about the different working temps of the glass and how to achieve different shapes, and Sharon has got me wanting to do more animal beads.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the latest - my little rat has since lost his tail - darn! I thought I'd been really careful about heating it up well, but something went wrong somewhere -- oh for a kiln!

I'll be getting more beads annealed very soon, which means there will be a huge new assortment that will go up for sale!

There are different types of glass used in beadmaking. Each glass has a different melting temperature. The most commonly used is soft/soda glass bought under the name of Moretti. Other brands are available too, but Moretti is the one with the most colours and most common.



Hard/Pyrex/Borocilicate glass has a higher melting temperature and requires special eye protection for artists who work with it. The rewards are many including the colours that are visible within the glass.


The difference between the two types has led many users of Moretti to try and emulate the look of borocilicate glass. To acheive the beauty without the extra equipment and knowledge.


This is what I was attempting with the beads below. When Iris Gold is combined with Straw Yellow, very pretty things happen! These beads are the result, I layed a twisty over different colours of transparent Moretti and then encased the beads to give the full effect.


I had several crack on me sadly, I was trying to figure out why, and it turns out that the Iris Gold is a different type of Glass to Moretti. It has a different COE (Co-efficient Of Expansion), and this is what the problem is -- too bad because they are quite beautiful when the light shines through them. There's an unwritten law that says don't add more than 5% of a different COE to your bead, so perhaps if the twisty was used very sparingly the beads wouldn't be so prone to cracking. Who'd-a-thunk making pretty things required all this Science????

Med blue transparent (I think) base

Dark amber base

Red transparent base
Uranium Yellow base

So, I'm not sure if I'll pursue these beads - the iris gold is quite expensive - too expensive to go into the cracked bead pot anyway! I did learn good things though and I'm starting to understand how to encase a bead. Previous attempts have been pretty futile, but I'm starting to get a feel for how the hot glass goes onto the bead to give a nice clear layer without disturbing the decorated layer below.

The glass is unwrapped, sorted and labelled and the fun has begun! I'm experimenting with reactions between the different colours or 'families' of glass. Some pretty cool things can happen if you know what you are doing - and sometimes even if you don't.



Here's the latest!

These use a twisty made of edp and turquoise laid down next to an opal yellow stripe on the bead, the twisty smooshes into the yellow and all kinds of cool colours happen. Then I tried encasing same twisty - a very different looking thing happens.

Bead Soup anyone? There are a couple in here with copper in them, my favourites are the big blue hollow and a surprising reaction I got with the transparent uranium yellow bead (see close up 'Today's Pick' in the right hand column).

Introducing South Sea Mary and Porcinea Ham (don't you think she looks a little pig-like??)

.. note the nifty knew tip for taking photos - regular table salt acts as a great background, it's easy to position beads at the angle you want -- Just make sure they're dry before you plop them in there!!