Frit-Happens !

Lampwork => Other COE Glass => Topic started by: senge on January 13, 2013, 04:48:52 PM

Title: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: senge on January 13, 2013, 04:48:52 PM
I have been looking at Kate Drew Wilkinsons YouTube  vidios and she talks about making beads with scrap stained glass, I tried to find annealing schedule for this , but could not .Has anyone tried it.
Senge
Title: Re: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: Shirley on January 13, 2013, 04:57:27 PM
Pat from Canvey is your expert on this one :)
Title: Re: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: Pat from Canvey on January 13, 2013, 05:56:05 PM
I just anneal on the usual 104 COE schedule. Most of the Spectrum glass is Coe 96 as is the Gaffer glass and quite a lot of frit. Putting frit on COE 96 means that you can put on a huge amount if you want with no compatibility problems. I had lots of stained glass sheet left over from when I made stained glass windows so that's why I started using it, cutting into 1/4 inch strips and using as a rod. You can also use odd shaped scrap by just taking a bit more care when applying to the mandrel. Since you have to do this anyway when using say Bombay Sapphire Gin bottle glass, it isn't a problem. I just hold short pieces of scrap with a pair of pliers. Quick tip, make a base bead from white opaque Spectrum and cover with any of the transparent Spectrum waterglasses to get beautifully coloured beads.
Title: Re: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: senge on January 13, 2013, 06:25:04 PM
Thanks Pat, I have a little stained class from a short course I did over 20 years ago. It was because I was looking at YouTube for lampworking and then wandered to other links that I found that you could use it , but goodness knows what type of glass I have is .
Senge
Title: Re: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: ♥♥Tan♥♥ on January 13, 2013, 07:00:14 PM
Be careful because some of them reduce very easily, if you start to see dirty streaks appear in your glass just work a little further out in the frame, I seem to remember greens reduced to copper quickly if I worked too low in the flame
Title: Re: Stained glass remnant beads
Post by: Dietmar on March 22, 2020, 10:47:00 PM
Stained glass remnants are a great source of colors and striations. You can make a lot of different styles just from one kind of streaky glass.

It is a difference to apply streaky glass with the flat side or with the edge on the mandrel. Some brands (Armstrong...) have different ways of striation on both sides.

A very interesting way to make a bead is the dotting technique. Make a small starter bead on the mandrel and add the majority of the volume by adding the glass in large dots. Reshaping the bead into a cylinder will stretch the striations in the axis of the bead.

To get more accurate longitudal stripes start with a small bead on the mandrel as before. Gut the strips into short sections of about 7*15mm or what ever is conveniant to add with a pair of tweezers to the starter bead. Melt the added pieces slowly and let the air escape before they melt togeather. This technique makes onion like patterns.

For petal beads you have to cut V-shaped pieces of glass, about 15mm wide and 50-70mm long. Look for interesting striations or patterns on the glass to use them on the front side of the bead. Attach them with the narrow end to a rod of compatible glass before using them. Preheat the mandrel and the wider end of the V. Once the glass starts to ball up start winding a small bead. Stop winding when the bead is about 10mm in diameter, turn the mandrel 1/4 turn back and let it cool while warming up the other parts of the V. Keep the mandrel perpendicular to the axis of the V-shape and firepolish the edges. You can give it an elegant bend before heating the connection to the handle. Now decide if the tail of the petal should end with a tear drop or just slightly rounded. Give the bead a nice and eaven final warming before putting it into vermiculite or the oven. It's no problem with working into vermiculite and batch annealing. I broke two of hundred with the batch annealing methode.