Happy Saturday folks! I waited for my kids to go back to school before I tried out the new toy I got for Christmas: A Fireworks Beginner Bead Making Kit! I’m glad I did because once I fired that puppy up I didn’t stop until I had made beads on all of my available mandrels (metal sticks.) Look at what I made!
The only trouble I had with the process was removing the beads from the mandrels. They are sitting in the freezer right now in hopes that they might loosen up a bit otherwise I have a snazzy new set of plant stakes! 😀 Or I have to go after them with the hammer and I really don’t want to do that. After making 2 beads, it was easy you see, I decided to make a video about it, it is not sped up anywhere so you can see the full process and how long they take. I explain the materials how to light the torch and the supplies, have a look:
After I shot the video I decided to do some experimenting because I thought it would be swell to be able to use the major amount of scrap glass I have accumulated for my bead kiln (boy, I really like to melt things!) so I grabbed so longer scraps and started melting. It worked! I soon figured out that I could not mix my stained glass and Italian rods but I suspected that was the case as it is with fusing glass in my kiln. I did not try dichro glass because that would be asking for trouble in my novice hands. I found a great you tube channel by Kate Drew Wilkinson on using scrap glass and I really recommend checking it out. She is a classy lady with a soothing British accent, she is like the Bob Ross of beadmaking LOL!
The bumpy turquoise brown bead and the funny orange cylinder were done with stained glass scraps. After watching some of Kate’s videos I can’t wait to try again because her designs were classy and gorgeous! I wonder how long my tank of gas will last? I am surprised at how loud the torch is, I don’t think I would try and use it if my kids were home and I was the only adult around because I would not want to get distracted and it is hard to hear over. I wonder if the big refillable tank kits are as loud because in watching other videos it did not seem so noisy, hence the close-captioning during the flame work (I know how you love my witty comments LOL}
So, there you have it! It is fun to make lampwork beads, now I just need to figure out how to get those suckers off the mandrels. I’m not sure if I used too much bead release (because it wanted to flake off) of if I just did not clean my mandrels well enough before I coated them. Oh well, if I have to break them I can use them for fused glass elements or smash them into frit, no biggie-hey, I even sound like I know what I am talking about, nice! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
