For the toggle/bar part of the clasp, we either cut rods into small sections & melted them to small spacer beads or we heated them to bend into V's and attached those to small spacers. My favorite is the shape of the V that I made with the red glass.
Here is a pic of the big hole beads on the mandrel, although I used three separate mandrels to make them....one for each bead. These beads take up much more surface area on the mandrel and are often very difficult to remove after being annealed.
My secret for easily removing beads from mandrels is to cut up these Scotch-Brite pads into 2x4" rectangles to hold onto the beads and twist them back & forth while I hold the other end of a mandrel still with a pair of pliers. The beads twist off like a piece of cake (normally!).
2 comments:
Yep, Scotch-brite is a necessity in my studio too.
Hmm, like the toggles/clasps. Are they pretty sturdy?
I haven't put them into any jewelry yet as the only ones I have made so far are from Amy's class pictured above. I'd like to practice more before incorporating them into jewelry so they turn out pretty(-ier).
But they seem very solid to me. Normal glass rules apply...don't drop em from the second story, back over them with your pick-up or use for snacking purposes to test their strength. Due to their size, they will definitely be more of a focal of the design and probably a bit more weighty than any other part in the necklace.
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