I am going round in circles, my beads are not!! HELP

[turquoise]

Hi there. I am after any tips for making the perfect spacer bead. I have been very careful but they are still more like a pear drop shape. What am I doing wrong?

Any advice very welcome as it is getting to me now.

Thanks 

[afina]

The "secret" is to turn the mandrel very very evenly. once the glass is hot enough so it starts to move, take the bead out of the flame and keep turning the mandrel until the bead gets hard again.  Then take a look at the bead. If there is a part with too much glass, heat it and turn it so that the excess glass is on top of the mandrel - it will "flow" down due to gravity. It helps if you fire from below, too - glass always goes towards the heat and towards the floor :-)
And don't forget - it takes a lot of PPP!
Good luck, I hope this will help a little bit!
Verena

[turquoise]

thanks for that, should I turn quick or slow as I have been wizzing the around. Any help in the way you apply the glass to the mandrel make a difference as I always and up with a blob where I finish malting glass on?

[beady-kat]

I think if you whizz round too quickly you actually throw the glass off centre. Heat the bead to the core, then take it out of the flame and watch and turn slowly. If there is a heavy side, let it rest on top so that it can settle down, then watch and turn again and so on. Sometimes you have to put it back in the flame and repeat the process untill you are happy with the shape (so just what V said really!!) If you can apply the glass evenly then all the better, but it doesn't really matter, if the glass is heated to the core you can correct it anyway.
HTH.
Kath

[turquoise]

thanks for that, I think I am wizzing the bead around way too fast, will try again tomorrow and keep slow. thanks

[Josephine]

the glass needs to be glowing a nice warm orange when you take it out of the flame. I turn it both ways, away from me for a few turns and then back. Then I hold the mandrel up so that it lines up with something horizontal like a window sill and turn again, you will soon see if the glass is as it should be, if not the uneveness will show up. If its not right reheat and do it again. Don't go to fast or as Kat says you will distort the shape. A good footprint to start with is important. I always apply the glass with a sort of push pull movement which helps get the edges of the hole even. If the bead is leaning a bit you can use a marver to straighten it up and then go through the above to get the bead balanced. Really it is practice, I used to read the sort of advice I've just given but it never seemed to work. i think it is easy to heat the bead too much so it flops into a pear shape. It does need  to be hot but not too hot, as I said glowing a really warm orange rather than really red.

[LesleyMac]

What Josephine said, especially the bit about going one way and then back the other.

[Billie]

What Josephine said, especially the bit about going one way and then back the other.

Definitely.  I just hold the mandrel with my thumb and forefinger, and using my forefinger rotate the mandrel back and forth the length of my thumb pad (if you know what I mean) otherwise I find my beads get a "belly" on them. 

[Paula]

I'm a novice too,what I found helped me, was reading the tutorials on here, and looking at some of the youtube videos of how to make glass beads. It gave me an idea as to what I should be doing.

[Shirley]

The trick is not how to turn, but knowing when not to.

[Amber]

The trick is not how to turn, but knowing when not to.

And then knowing when to start turning again...

[turquoise]

YIPPIEE

I followed everyone's advice and had much better results, not perfect but much closer now. The turning with thumb and index finger is much better.  Thanks everyone, I feel way more positive now.