Process

Process of glass bead making

The art of glass bead making is thousands of years old, but the craft was reimagined in modern times in Venice, Italy about 500 years ago.  They called it “lampworking”, as the means to melt the glass rods was using oil lamps.  Today it is also known as flame working.

Modern day lampworkers use a torch, and mine is fueled by oxygen and propane, producing a flame hot enough to melt glass within a few seconds.  The glass comes in long, thin rods in a wide variety of transparent and opaque colors.  I make my beads on a long steel mandrel, which I have dipped in a chalky grey substance called bead release.  First I heat the rod, then the mandrel, and once they are both glowing hot, I touch the end of the rod to the mandrel and the winding of molten glass begins.  By turning the mandrel in one hand, and heating the glass rod in the flame with the other, I build up the core of the bead.

All glass beads are a series of layers, using a wide palette of colors and different materials like gold leaf, silver foil, enamel powders, pulverized bits of glass called frit and dichroic glass.  Together, they combine to make beautiful miniature works of glass art.  When I turn the mandrel carefully and evenly in the flame, a bead will become round.  I can shape the round bead into a cylinder by rolling it on a graphite paddle.  From this shape, the paddle can be used to make cones, bi-cones, and disc shapes as well. 

After the bead is created, I start the regulated cooling process to ensure its durability.  The flame of the torch is lowered and the bead is brought in and out of the flame several times to cool it down evenly.  This process is called annealing and it must be done properly or the bead might later crack and break.  After the flame annealing process, the bead goes into a kiln set at 970 degrees to be further annealed for several hours.  Once the bead is completely cool, the last three steps are to wash the bead release off, pull it off the mandrel and clean out the hole.  Now the finished bead is ready to be made into jewelry!