beads.page

BEADS!!!
at the moment i dont have much to put on here cause all i had to take pics with was a crappy disposable camora from
rite-aid.
right now im just gonna have a short thing on here on how to make a simple bead.

here is the basic stuff you need. if you are planning on making bigger beads you will need to get a kiln instead of the crockpot filled with virmiculite or they will crack.
basic suplies left to right: crockpot filled with virmiculite, rods dipped in bead release, a tile to place hot glass and tools on, hot head torch, UV and IR glasses to protect your eyes, glass of water to dip hot tools in so the glass wont stick to them, needle nose pliers, small vise, any other little tools you want for doing textures and stuff, and glass. duh lol

now you need to start.
choose your color and start warming the tip. if its a new rod warm it slowly or the tip could crack off. trust me... its not fun having a hot peice of glass land in your lap while your wearing shorts. lol
to get the glass the hottest keep it right in the tip of the blue flame

once the glass is nice and guey heat up the rod and start wraping the glass around it however you want.

ok heres the fun part. decorating! hehehe
this is just a simple bead so all we did was add a little texture. get the bead really hot and roll it or press it on something metal that has an interesting parrern on it.

once you bead is done let it cool for 5-10 sec then gently tep it on your tile to make shure its solid then put in in the hot crockpot in the virmiculite for about 30 min then raise it to the serface to finish cooling. when its cool you should be able to tuch it. once thats done place the bead on the rod into a glass of water, wipe off the bead release, use the vise to hold on to the rod and gently rock the bead off the rod.
TA-DA! a finished bead! have fun!