Spherical beads

[beadammed]

Hi,
Anyone have any pointers on making spherical beads without a mould?  I've been trying starting off with a spool-shape and heating in the middle with a bit of success.   I'm looking for the type Dora often makes
Geraldine

[julieHB]

Glass (or any liquid) strives to get spherical if it can! If you shape it with gravity it will end up spherical. Then you can decorate it as you want. If you start with a doughnut bead, heat up a part of the bead until it starts to droop - keep spinning it evenly until the footprint has widened and it has become a sphere. If you let it drop too much, or do not control the spinning the footprint may become too wide, in which case you have to add glass until it become spherical. It's very much down to practise. If you have achieved a sphere and want to add patterns, make sure you add glass all over the bead, otherwise you might loose the shape again.

NB: I am not an expert - there might be someone on here later who can explain it a lot better than me 

[Sarah]

Hi Geraldine

I make my round beads by starting off with a spool and heating in the middle. It works well for me - I use a doming block to keep the beads in a set the same size.

Sarah
xxx

[Dee Dee]

I use a doming block to keep the beads in a set the same size.

Sarah
xxx

That's a really good idea Sarah, I had considered buying a round press to get rounds the same size, but I have a doming block on my shelf that I haven't used yet.  Thanks for the tip!

Steph x

[Bumpy Beads]

The footprint of the bead needs to be as wide as you want the finished bead's diameter to be. I make a barrel the length of the diameter of the bead I want to make. Then I add glass to each end, heat in the middle and the glass pulls towards itself and once it's all heated through you end up with a round bead. It's more difficult to get deep puckers with super-round beads.