Bead Presses

Started by mummydude, July 11, 2010, 08:35:32 PM

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mummydude

Hi all,

Can I ask a question? do you all use bead presses?
I am a newbie and finally saved up to get a couple of presses so I bought a lentil / pillow and the itty bitty press from tuffnells. I tried making a lentil which seemed to take FOREVER (I'm on a HH btw) and ended up squashing glass out of the edges, so I tried the itty bitty press as I obviously am far too impatient to make big beads and ended up chipping off the bead release when I placed the mandrel in the press (is this normal?)

Anyway... I stuck with it and made a load of spacer beads but they are so small I cant really decorate them so I feel its quicker to make round spacer beads without using a press  :-\

So back to my question....

Does everyone uses presses? should I stick with it or maybe try a different press? or does it just take practise?

Vix
x   

julieHB

It just takes practise...  :D :D
Julie xx

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Mand

#2
Yup, Julie's right, pratise practise practise!  Pillow presses are a bit tricky I found.  I have a few lentils and a kalera which I adore.  I recently purchased a cattwalk standard crunch press which is fab to use as you can be a bit "random with your glass sizing.  Try marking the size of your intended lentil with a pencil on your mandrel measuring against the press before you start to make a bead, if that makes sense?   Things do take longer on a HH .... ;)

Good luck.

sarah t

i use them and love em ...but thats just me ......they do take a fair bit of practise ...and after while you get a feel for how much glass each one uses ..(the squishy sides is usually to much glass )


DellaUK

I recommend plasticine.  Roll a rugby ball shaped piece and press.  Add and take away plasticine until you have just the right amount.  Then remove this and roll back into the right sized rugby ball again.  Keep as a visual reference in front of you.  It's not perfect, but I rarely use too much glass since trying this.

Cattwalk have some very helpfull tutorials too.

Della

ebay: goodturnlampworkdella  web: www.goodturnlampwork.co.uk

sea-thistle

I love my presses and have about 10 of them :)

Pat from Canvey

If glass is squishing out at the sides, there's too much glass. You can improve the bead by heating the excess and pulling off with tweezers. Keep reshaping and pulling off until you are happy with the shape. Alternatively start off with a smaller amount of glass and press. Then add glass to whichever edge needs more and repress until you get the shape you want. I make a small cylinder that's just shorter than the width of the lentil, then add glass to build up the shape.

chipperpottery

I am a relative newbee and ghave up on presses......then I had a session with a more experienced lampworker, and she showed me how to use them

Rita

ScarletLeonard

I don't have my own presses yet but I had my first go with one at Colette's and was told to add a footprint then measure it against the press, make another footprint near the other edge of the press to give you a size idea then start adding glass keep measuring against the press to make sure you don't over fill.

I borrowed a friends press for a week and litterally only made beads with the presses and by the end of the week I had the rough measure of how much glass I needed to add. If you keep the footprints looking nice it helps with the pucker on the bead holes.

PPP everything gets there in the end.

And yes it can take ages on a HH, I made a gravity pillow tab and I should have really filled the press more before I started the gravity work I was there for 40 mins adding and rotating all those different layers. But they do get faster once your used to the press.

Scarlet xx



 

lemon kitten

I went through a press obsession for a while and I have about 8 different ones!  My favorite is the SS lentil or Cattwalk press, which is basically a straight sided lentil.  I find the holes are much neater with this press than the normal lentil press.  I do beleive though, that presses are'nt the answer to everyones shaping problems.  I bought my presses because I thought they would be.  It does take loads of practice to use them and as I said they are'nt aways the answer.  But.......I still love them and you can find loads of Tut's on how to use them.

Janey x
Never stand up in a canoe!

Princess Peggy (Priscilla McGirr)

I find I get problems with the bead release coming off too....one of the things I discovered was that a thinner mandrel worked better, and also once you think you have it in the right place, if you just let go of the mandrel as you do the final press it sort of finds it's own way into the indentation, and you don't force the bead release off on the sharp edges.  Pris
Pris
My Website http://www.dancingwithglass.co.uk  My Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/princesspeggy01
My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DancingwithglassLampwork

Redhotsal

I only have four - and really two of these I have because I teach and people want to know how to use them.
I like the lentil presses - which I suppose are probably amongst the easiest to use.

I was a little "against" presses for a long time - as I think it is better if you can learn to do your own shaping. Especially when presses to make "cylinder" shapes and the like started coming out. Seemed ridiculous to me that you would need a cylinder shaping press. I was also fairly aghast to see beads which had been really badly pressed up for sale - beads with very obvious "seams" up the sides and where no attempt had been made to fire polish out the marks made by the presses - and so on.

Having said that it is quite time consuming to hand shape a lentil, and if you want a set of beads which have all the same approximate size then presses are the way to go. If you sell your beads to jewellery designers they are also very keen on flatter shapes - like tabs and lentils - as they sit flatter against the skin.

Presses are easy to use badly but do require a fair degree of practice to get a good result - so don't see them as
an easy option. They're also quite a costly investment - look at an average of £40 a press - that would buy an awful lot of glass if you're just starting out.

Many people borrow presses on here to see if they like them before buying - that's probably the way to go if you'd like to try on but are not sure about the investment.

bavarianbeads

#12
I hope I can help you with this PDF: ;)

http://www.bavarianbeads.com/ext/pressentipps_eng.pdf

Manu

mummydude

wow, thanks everyone, I knew I could count on you all..... so practice practice practice it is then!  ;)

Thank you for all the tips on measuring too, I'm having a day on the torch tomorrow so will stick with it.. watch this space...

Vix
x