Bead Preparations

When I opened up my blog to questions about anything, Erin left this comment: I think it is always fascinating to see what goes into making a bead. It makes me appreciate it so much more. I would be interested about the basics of how a bead is made, but also how you choose your color palette. Do you have a preconceived notion of what you want the bead to be like, or is it more organic, growing out of the flame with a mind and direction all its own?

Erin, I LOVE to know how anything and everything is made.  I enjoy watching documentaries on companies that make actual products or factory/assembly lines.  About six years ago, one of my customers that was a major carpet manufacturer gave me a tour of their factories in North Georgia.  I was captivated by the dozens of people it took to operate all the different machines and how different the materials looked at the start of the process before they were turned into carpet.  Likewise, with art or jewelry, I love knowing how each piece is made to appreciate all of the work that went into it, as well as have a better understanding of the value set on it in an Etsy shop or on eBay.

I have a tank of chemolene (similar to propane, but it burns hotter/cleaner) hooked up to my torch, as well as an oxygen concentrator.  I first turn the red knob on top to the left to let a little of the gas seep out so I can flip my lighter and get a flame out of the torch.  Then I roll the silver knob forward that is on the side of the torch to release the oxygen into the flame.  The oxygen mixes with the gas on the surface of the torch and turns the orangish-yellow flame to one that is filled with blue.  The oxygen jacks up the temperature of the flame to very hot temperatures.

I fiddle with both knobs to get even amounts of gas and oxygen to create a neutral flame.  If there is more gas coming out, the flame is more bushy and yellow and called a reducing flame.  A reducing flame brings the metals out of the glass to the surface which turn into different colors or turn into a metallic finish.  A flame that has less gas and more oxygen is called an oxidizing flame, but I don't remember why a lampworker would want that kind of flame.  Obviously I haven't used that much in the last five years! :)

Here is a video my friend Wendy made a few years ago to show you how I make the bead once the torch is fired up.  I need to get her to do it again for me so the setting is my pretty bead studio and not the garage with junk piled up all around.





After the flame is set up, I hold a mandrel in my left hand to heat it up (it needs to be hot for the glass to stick) and a rod of glass in my right hand to dance in and out of the flame so it heats up slowly.  Then I can start making the bead by melting the glass on the mandrel while constantly turning the mandrel to keep a round bead.  If I stop turning, gravity will pull the hot glass downward and then I will have a majorly wonky bead to contend with in getting it back into shape. 

As for my color palette of choices, I have a few hundred colors to choose from in my glass cabinet.  I had to do inventory of my glass a few weeks ago for my taxes and found I had close to 150 pounds of glass in my cabinet.  HOLY SHMOLY!  That's alotta glass!  Probably a little more than half of the glass is opaque.  I'm not good at choosing four plus colors of glass to mix on one bead.  I like to keep things simple, so I normally choose two colors or sometimes three if I'm feeling a little crazy (although may have to pull out my color wheel to see what three colors line up in the spinning triangle...I think the art term for those three colors is trident, but I could be mixed up).

Most of the time when I sit down at the torch, I have some orders to make and those are first on my list to get in the kiln.  I pull out the necessary colors and get to work on my orders.  Sometimes working on those orders will spark new ideas of variations on those same beads in color/shape or completely new beads.  A lot of times, I already have ideas floating in my head during the week of what I want to make when I do get to sit down at the torch on weekends.  If my mind is blank and no inspiration is in me when I look in my glass cabinet for colors to pull out, I'll ask my kids what colors they would like for me to use in a bead for them.  That's enough to get me started and then I easily flow in other directions with new beads.

I do try to have the colors out ahead of time and know what kind of bead I want to make because it is difficult to keep a bead warm enough and in the shape by continuously turning the mandrel while I back away from the torch, open my glass cabinet, turn on the little light inside and lean over to search for the specific color, pull it out, turn off the light, shut the cabinet and go back to the torch.  All of my glass is organized by manufacturer on each shelf and then by color, so I've got a good idea ahead of time where to look.  But still.  I try to avoid those hassles by knowing what I want to do before I even heat the mandrel for the bead.