Lampwork Tutorial: Faux Aqua Terra Jasper!

Waaaay back in the beginning of 2009, I saw a photo of a jasper called aqua terra!  I loved it.  I had to make it into lampwork beads!  This is a photo of the first set of Silvered Aqua Terra beads I sold on etsy in January 2009!

My first Aqua Terra beads on Etsy, Jan. 2009

I thought today I'd give you a tutorial of how to make your own, if you're a lampworker!

Materials Needed:

Rod of Light Ivory (Effetre)
Rod of Light Teal (Effetre)
Sheet of Silver Foil
Marver of your choice
Bead Press of your choice

First, cut your silver foil.  I cut the sheet in eighths.  This gives a nice portion of silver foil for an 18mm size bead.

Cut your silver sheet into eighths.

Next, get your bead press ready.  In this example, I am using a Zoozii's straight-sided lentil press, the middle 18mm size.

Get your bead press tool ready!

First, wind your footprint onto your coated mandrel.  Wind it on and hold it above your press, to make sure you are slightly smaller than the diameter of the well you are using.

Gather your glass on your prepared mandrel.

Check the fit of the glass in the well.

I usually roll the gather of glass in the well to make sure there's enough/not too much glass and to get the general shape of an olive. If you need to, add or take away glass.

Add more glass if needed.

Once you have enough glass, leaving enough room to add a little bit more, make your initial press.  Don't do it so hard that you break your bead release.

Check your glass in the well again.

You do not have to press your glass into the lentil shape if you think you have enough glass - if you aren't sure you can press the shape.

Press into your shape to make sure you have enough/not too much glass.

At this point, you can take your glass blob back to an olive shape, As you can see, I have my silver foil all ready and waiting for me!  Next, you want to slightly heat your glass and roll it in the silver foil, making sure to go all the way around the glass.

 Wrap your glass with a piece of silver foil.

Next, burnish in the foil.  Burnishing is rubbing the foil into the glass so it sticks very well.  You can do this with a tile, a marver, or your torch mounted marver.

Burnish the silver foil into the glass.

Then, you want to put your blob back in the flame, and you slightly melt off the silver foil.  This is what it looks like after you burnish and put the glass back in the flame.

Melt the silver foil into the glass at the top end of the flame.

Now, you want to add some squiggles of light teal.  As much or as little as you want, keeping in mind you are going to have to press the glass again and don't want to have too much.  You can always add more teal, it's harder at this point to take it away!

Add teal glass to silvered glass.

Melt in the teal and press the bead again in the bead press.  You can see from the photo below that you will have some chill marks (chill marks are the marks you get on your bead when you press it, and as the bead cools very quickly in the press, you get marks from the press).

Press your bead, check for chill marks.

Flame polish your bead to get rid of the chill marks.  If you flame polish too heavily and lose definition on your bead, you may want to heat, press again, and then flame polish again.

Flame polish bead, put in the kiln!

This is the finished bead!  Of course you can do these beads in many shapes, as I show below.

 Bicone-shaped aqua terra beads

 Lentil-shaped aqua terra beads

 Ribbed round-shaped aqua terra beads

If you aren't a lampworker but love these beads, I have them available in my etsy store, and I'll be happy to make you some if they sell out!

Thanks for checking out my tutorial today!

Susan Kennedy
SueBeads Etsy Store
SueBeads Web Store
SueBeads Blogspot

Twisted Flower Bead Tutorial - ReRun

This is a rerun of my tutorial for making twisted flowers on lampwork beads.  I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful holiday!

Bead Tutorial: Twisted Flowers

Materials:
1 rod light turquoise
1 rod light ivory
Tweezers

Remember to occasionally flash your bead in the flame so it doesn't crack!

Step 1: Gather your materials. With your tweezers, pull a few stringers of light ivory. Also, pull a short (1 1/2") stringer of ivory with a larger base, so you can hold onto it to twist.
		Step 2: Make a basic bead of light turquoise. Make sure you are happy with the shape - you won't really be able to adjust it after you add your dots.
Step 3: Add 3 dots of ivory in thirds around the bead. Make sure they are evenly spaced and about the same size.
		Step 4: Melt the dots in. Be careful not to let them get too molten, or they will misshape.
Step 5: Heat the space in the middle of one set of three dots. With your little handmade twisting tool, twist the space in the middle of the three dots, turning only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn. The more you twist, the more your circles will distort. After you twist the dots, wiggle the tool a little bit. If it's cool enough, it should pop right off. If not, blow on it slightly then wiggle - the tool will come right off and you'll be ready to twist the next set of dots.
Finished bead!		Step 6: Continue with the other two sets of dots. When you are done, put the bead back in the flame to flame polish and shape it up!

© 2007 SueBeads.com

Of course, you can do other things with this basic tutorial, just use your imagination!  Make 5 petals; make the petals two-toned; leave the petals raised!

Susan Kennedy 
SueBeads Etsy Store
SueBeads Website 

Guest Post: Lampwork Tutorial - Make a Father Christmas Bead

Today we have a lampwork tutorial written by guest blogger Laney Mead, the creative mastermind behind Izzy Beads. She's helping us prepare for Christmas gift giving. In August. Enjoy! -Jen

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Don’t shoot the messenger but…just 126 days left until the 25^th December. That’s not many weekends to get your shopping done, so why not make fabulous Santa’s to hang on the tree instead? Make two little ones and have earrings, a pendant, a bookmark?  

Here's a tutorial on how to make Santa beads using lampwork glass and lots of fire.  Make them and sell them at craft fairs or give them as gifts, or if you get the chance a few for Beads of Courage, the arts in medicine charity that supports the families and children. Please visit their website for more info.  

Glass needed

One rod of red – I used Effetre Deep Red
One rod of pink – I used Effetre Light Pink
One thick stringer in pink
One thick stringer in black – I used Effetre Black 
One stringer in clear
One stringer in white
One Filigrana stringer in white and clear – I pull my own,. or you can buy them from your glass supplier

To make a filigrana stringer for this project, just wrap a small amount of white glass onto a mandrel, without bead release, marver into a small barrel shape, allow to harden slightly, encase in clear glass, melt in and pull into a stringer, you might need to pull several of these to make sure you have enough.

Remember that red glass goes very black during the heating process, so all these pictures show the red glass as being black.

Step 1. Wrap a small base bead in pink. I make a nice sized spacer bead size. This is the head. 

Step 2. Wind on the red glass above the pink head. This will be for the hat, which we will shape in a minute, look at my photo, I don't wind the red glass onto the pink head, but leave a small gap, this is so I get a neat cone shape adjoining the head.

Step 3. Heat up the red glass, try to keep the pink glass as stiff as possible, gently marver the red glass into a cone shape. This may take several heat and marver steps to get a nice join to the head, without squishing the pink glass.

Step 4. Add another wrap of glass to the other side of the pink bead. I add just a bit more of the red than the pink at this stage, this is for the body so you will want a slightly larger shape. Gently marver the red body glass, into a longer round shape, a cross between a round and a barrel, a Santa shape!

Step 5. Now you have your basic Father Christmas shape, its time to decorate! Add the eyes next. Using your black stringer melt in two dots, melt flat. Add white dots on top of the black, melt flat, add clear on top of the white and melt nearly flat, then add a small dot in the middle and melt flat.

Step 6. Using your filigrana rod, start to give Father Christmas his beard, using simple dots, melt gently to stick them fast, but not enough to flatten them.

Step 7. He is looking Santa like now! Using the pink stringer, give Santa his nose. Melt to stick fast, but not to flatten.

Step 8. Finish the hat. Still using the filigrana rod, add two dots and a nice white brim. Again melt to stick, but not to flatten.

Step 9. Using the black stringer, add two nice sized dots to the bottom of the body, heat gently and press onto either a hand held marver or torch marver. He now has feet!

Step 10. Nearly done. Using the thick red stringer add two swipes, one either side of the body for his arms. Heat to stick. 

Step 11. The last step I forgot to photograph! Using the thick pink stringer, add two dots, one on each arm end for his hands. Heat thoroughly, check all joins are secure and pop into the kiln to anneal.
  
Additional ideas: 

- Add a stringer line of black glass all around his middle with a dot of yellow/gold, for a belt. 
- Add more white filigrana to his head for hair. 
- You don't have to use filigrana, you could just use regular white, I like filigrana for this bead I think its looks more Christmassy.

- Make little ones and use as earrings. 

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You can read more by Laney on her Blog, shop for her beads on Etsy and on Ebay under the ID izzy-beads, and find her on Facebook.

BOC Funny Face Bead Tutorial

As you may know, Beads of Courage is a country-wide organization that provides fun beads to children who have life-threatening medical conditions as a way to hallmark their successful foray through the multitude of procedures they have to face.  Here's a fun tutorial for a bead you could make to send to these brave children!

Tools needed:  Zoozii straight-sided lentil press, tweezers, marver or magic wand, 3/32" mandrel

Note:  Mandrel size does matter in this tutorial.  In order for the kids to be able to string the bead on their necklace, the hole needs to be large enough.  Since most necklaces are made using thicker cord, a 3/32" mandrel is needed.

Note:  Remember to flash your bead in the flame from time to time, to avoid cracking or the face additions from popping off!

This is what the Zoozii press looks like.  You do NOT have to have a press - you can make this bead free-form, too!  You can flatten it with a marver or magic wand on your graphite pad, too.

 Glass colors for this bead - white commercially pulled stringer (or your own pulled stringer), olive green rod, black rod, red pulled stringer, black pulled stringer.  To pull a stringer, simply melt the end of a rod in the flame, take out of the flame and pull with tweezers.

 First, wind a blob of black on your mandrel, checking against the size of the press to make sure you are getting the right amount of glass.  Since it's a solid color, you can add more glass without ruining the effect of the bead!
 This photo shows the black glass still very hot, which is why it looks red!

 This photo shows the bead pressed into the lentil shape - if you need to add more glass, don't worry, just heat the glass up enough to re-press!  Make sure you have very nice dimples with no sharp edges.
Fire polish your lentil bead so it is nice and shiny with no press marks!

I add the eyes first, because they become part of the bead and most likely will not pop off if you don't flash the bead in the flame enough. First, add two blobs of white stringer in the place where the eyes would be!  Use your marver or magic wand to flatten them.  Fire polish the dots.  Then add blobs of olive green over the white, either covering it entirely or leaving some white showing around the edges, it's up to you!  Again, flatten and fire polish.  Then take your black stringer, and add two dots.  Flatten in slightly or leave elevated!

 Next, I add the ears (or horns, or whatever appendages you want to add!).  This will take a couple of dabs of black glass.  Heat the end of the glass, dab on the bead, and pull up slightly.  If you want the ears bigger, do this a couple of times.  You can get a few different effects by doing this, but make sure there are no sharp edges.

 Finally, I add the mouth.  I use the red stringer.  Turn down your flame, slightly melt the end of the red stringer, place it on the bead, and using the heat from the flame, draw your mouth.  You can make it smily, or wiggly, or however you want!

Below you can see some other variations - use a murrini for an eye, or both!  Use different colors, make the mouth different, whatever you want!  I'd love to see what you come up with!

On November 15th, the benefit auction portion of the charm swap Jen Cameron hosted will begin. 100% of the amount bid will go to Beads of Courage. Save your pennies, bid high and bid often. These little art charms will make perfect gifts. 

-Sue Kennedy

Sue Beads