Project 206-3
Glass Beads: Art through the ages.
By Doreen Stephens
For product supplies visit Fire
Mountain Gems and Beads.
Glass beads are one of the most popular and diverse beads on the market, they all have different names and production methods. Here are how a few styles are created.
Lampwork
Beads : (hand wound) Photo AThis is one of the only processes that can be made by a home artisan
Here are some basic tools. The torch (or lamp) flame, runs on propane. The rods are made of steel and coated with a kaolin (clay-like) substance called bead release. This enables you to take the bead off the rod after it’s formed. Sometimes when you buy lampwork glass beads, you’ll find a powdery substance in the bag or on the bead. That’s the bead release. Here are the glass rods that are used.
How it starts: The glass is heated to be made molten and wound onto a coated wire and heat-worked with hand tools into the desired shape. While the bead is steadily turned over the flame, fine filaments of glass are used to "paint" the glass bead with designs and textures. After cooling slowly in a kiln, the bead is removed from the wire rod forming the bead hole.
Drawn
Hollow: (cane beads) Photo B
A difficult to make bead, a hollow pipe is used to collect a "gather"
(molten ball) of glass. The bead maker blows down the pipe to form a bubble
in the ball of molten glass. The colors or patterns are added to the glass
and the hot glass is stretched (or drawn out). The bubble inside is elongated
and forms a long tube with a hole running throughout its length. The softened
glass tube is drawn out to the desired thickness and then cut into sections.
The rough edges of the cuts are hand ground or smoothed by tumbling in
sand.
Pressed
Beads: (molded beads) Photo C
This type of bead has been made famous by the Czech Republic, and lesser
quality made in other countries by using old Czech Moulds. They are made
by using hinged steel moulds mounted on machinery or tongs. The mould
has a prong or wire in it to form the bead hole. The mould is squeezed
over the hot glass, and when released, the excess glass from the edges
is ground away. This process is used for creating complex shapes such
as leaves, flowers and animals. either by hand or by tumbling.