Adding glass (making bigger beads!)

[amber0307]

A very newbie question, but I am allowed since I've only been at my torch once myself

I'm getting better at making a pretty rounded bead, but my beads are still very tiny.  The problem comes when I try to add glass to make my bead bigger, I end up with something resembling a dog poo.  I never seem to heat enough glass and end up tugging away at cold glass mixing with the hot bead on my mandrel......agh.

Any advice/tips?

I'm also trying to practice making an olive shaped bead so that I can use Sam's lentil press once it arrives tomorrow, along with my package of glass from Martin

Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Not had any time at the studio this week but hoping Sunday I'll get a few hours.  TIme passes so quickly at the torch, managed to spend almost 5 hours there on the holiday Monday!  If only time would pass that fast at the office 

[Kaz]

Hi Amber

As a relative newbie myself I understand the frustration you are going through - but rest assured it is just a phase on your beadmaking journey.

You need to let the glass that is already on the mandrel cool slightly before adding more otherwise you will just end up squidging it on the mandrel rather than winding it.

I will tell you how I do it (and I have made some whopping sized beads!) though it may be different to how others do it

Once you have got the first wrap or 2 on, pretend that you are going to make a small bead and use the heat to get that moving and then take out of the flame and even it up to a nice little donut. Then let it cool off slightly at the same time as you are melting some more glass on the rod ready to start to build it up. Then you start to wrap the glass on to the base bead - I tend to do this quite thinly and build up a saucer shape (thin) (think Saturn!) around the middle of the base bead. You need to position the glass in the flame so it sort of had an elbow where the heat continues to get the next bit ready for wrapping as you go along. When you have the saucer shape around your bead then start melting it in by holding it slightly under the flame so it passes in and out as you twirl it - ensuring it does not get too runny in one place. This should give you nice puckered ends too.  The thing that I forgot when I started all this was that you actually have to take the bead OUT of the flame in order to shape and balance it - if you try to do it in the flame it becomes all runny and goes all over the place. Also, on my second lesson I learned that you don't have to just twirl in one direction (this was a revelation to me as my first teacher insisted that you constantly twirl the mandrel and you must do it backwards!)

Sandy who sells the lentil presses has an instruction sheet for how to make the base bead in the best shape for putting in the press - more like a fat cylinder.

Hope this helps!
Kaz

[Les]

I'd just take it nice and slowly...... keep the base bead warm but not hot in the back of the flame while you melt plenty more glass on the rod. Then just touch the rod to the bead and turn.... slowly... the trick is to make sure you have plenty of nice hot glass on your rod. When I first started out, I felt that I had to rush it in order to keep everything warm enough, but these days I tend to work nice n slow.

Maybe just try adding extra wraps of fresh glass around the bead, close to the mandrel holes and around the belly of your bead and then slowly melt in ?? That way you should be able to increase the size of your bead, whilst keeping the whole thing in proportion ?

Hope I'm not rambling too much and that this helps you out a little bit ??

Les xxx

Edited to say : LOL... we crossed in the post there Kaz .... but I do agree on the whole mandrel twirling thing....  any direction works for me... so long as it's steady and consistent

xx

[Soo]

Good advice from both there, I've not been at it very long myself - I was always breaking my bead release by tugging away at glass that wasn't melted!

If you use Kaz's method and the disc starts leaning too much to one side, you can take it out of the head and straighten it up a bit using tweezers and then reheat. That method does make very nicely dimpled beads - I always make small and medium spacers like this.

For a larger (12-15mm) bead, I heat the glass put one wind of glass on the mandrel. Heat some more glass, keeping the bead warm in a cooler part of the flame to cool down, put another wind on one side of it, keep it in the cooler part of the flame again whilst heating some more glass, put a thinner wind of glass on the extreme left hand side of the bead, heat some more glass, do the same to the extreme right hand side of the bead. Then heat the lot up whilst slowly twirling.

I've read that you should always shape the bead out of the flame. It's not that Kaz is wrong when she says to do that - it's just that I find it hasn't worked for me;  I think I don't twirl at the right rate to get a round bead if I do that with my Hot head - I always end up with a lopsided bead. So I gradually move it out to the cooler part of the flame, twirling all the time and I find I get a better result when I do that way.  It's whatever you find that works for you. The more you do, the more you experiment, you'll find a system that works.

[Redhotsal]

DON'T wind the bead in the flame.
Keep the bead itself out of the flame - close to it and just off to the side, and just have the rod in the flame. Keep a short "bridge" between the bead and the rod.

[Soo]

That might be easier for me, instead of twirling whilst holding it so far away ... I'll give it a go!

ADDED:
I think I misread Sal's posting, I thought she meant hold it at the side for shaping, not winding - der! It's perfectly clear when I read it properly. Sorry!

[amber0307]

Had another couple of hours at the torch today, taking my time - will post some pics once I pick up my beads, they're cooling in the vermiculite.

The problem I have with adding glass is this, when I watched some videos on You Tube of lampworking, it looks like after laying the footprint people don't add whole wraps of glass.  They seem to add a bit, turn the bead a bit, add a bit more. 

Once I've made my first wrap for my footprint, do I actually need to add glass in full wraps (ie all the way around the bead) or can I just add it little bit by little bit?

Still struggling a bit with 'round'.  Seems to be hit and miss, made a couple of little lovelies, and a few weird shaped ones today.

Oh and I started experimenting with dots!

[Bumpy Beads]

Ideally you would add glass evenly, with full wraps, as this avoids a whole lot of shaping. However, you can also add glass any which way you like, and still end up with a round bead, provided you keep your footprint neat. Just use the heat and gravity to shape the bead. If you're having difficulty shaping it could be that you're getting the glass too drippy, and its uncontrollable, or that you're not getting it hot all the way through the bead, so the glass can't flow to where it needs to be. Just keep turning and turning, shaping the bead out of the flame and eventually your bead will be round.

[Sherry Bellamy]

I have my own (slightly weird) way of making big beads;  I make a gather on the rod that's about as big as I want the base bead to be, for me, (for a focal),  that's typically at least the size of a walnut....close to an inch in diameter. I get it really glowing-molten, heat the mandrel, and just drop it onto the mandrel, then immediately slowly spin the mandrel out of the flame.

The trick, as others have said, is to pay attention to the footprint. I don't push the gather onto the mandrel, I drop it on. So I'm not creating a footprint that's longer than I would wish.

It was a revelation to me when I started out how easy it is to make an even bead. If the glass is molten, and you take it out of the flame and slowly spin it in one direction, (which for me requires two hands), it will become even. It wants to be even. It's important to keep the mandrel horizontal for this to work, I use the back angle of my bench as a guide. It's not the easiest thing to describe, but trust me, it will come to you!

[Sherry Bellamy]

Another thing, (I've been thinking about this a lot!), when you practice, try using effetre white.  It's useful as a practice glass, because of the way that it shifts back and forth between transparency and opacity as it heats and cools.  So you can easily judge the heat of the glass by eye, if it's clear, it's really hot and should move/shift readily. As it cools and stiffens it will become more opaque.