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Her's a video I made that shows you how to make some pretty nice beads from a couple of shards of blue glass.
If you want to learn more about this kind of art, it's called "lampworking". There are scores more tutorials out there!
VERY IMPORTANT!
In order to clear up the whole eye protection confusion:
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THIS WITHOUT SAFETY GLASSES! Chips of glass can actually shoot out when you heat glass!
Whether or not you want to wear didium lenses is up to you! Personally, I do not wear them!
The torch I used is a Propane fueled Plumber's torch from Ace Hardware...nothing special!
Safety tips:
-Heat glass slowly, or it may fracture.
-Make sure your torch is not near anything flammable.
-WEAR SAFETY GLASS
-I have a fire extinguisher within arms reach, I recommend the same for you.
-Don't make large beads. They might break while they cool, or worse, while you wear them!
-Do some research! :D
Her's a video I made that shows you how to make some pretty nice beads from a couple of shards of blue glass.
If you want to learn more about this kind of art, it's called "lampworking". There are scores more tutorials out there!
VERY IMPORTANT!
In order to clear up the whole eye protection confusion:
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING THIS WITHOUT SAFETY GLASSES! Chips of glass can actually shoot out when you heat glass!
Whether or not you want to wear didium lenses is up to you! Personally, I do not wear them!
The torch I used is a Propane fueled Plumber's torch from Ace Hardware...nothing special!
Safety tips:
-Heat glass slowly, or it may fracture.
-Make sure your torch is not near anything flammable.
-WEAR SAFETY GLASS
-I have a fire extinguisher within arms reach, I recommend the same for you.
-Don't make large beads. They might break while they cool, or worse, while you wear them!
-Do some research! :D
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Signing UpStep 1: Part 1
I had to break up the video into 3 segments because YouTube doesn't like to upload things longer than 4 minutes.
When you make beads for the first time, they should be pretty small. When glass cools in the air, it builds up stress and may break (if the bead is too big)! Professional bead makers immediately put there hot beads into kilns where they are slowly cooled over several hours. You probably will not have access to such a kiln, so your first beads will have to cool in air. If you really like making beads and you want to make larger ones, get some vermiculate from any gardening store. The vermiculite is in a fine pellet form, so put your still hot beads in a dish of it such that it cools slower (the vermiculate insulates the beads, so it cool slower and introduces less stress into the bead)
Ok, the basic steps are:
-Take 2 shards of glass, and melt them together at the tips.
-Stretch out the melted part into a thin rod of glass.
-Get a bicycle spoke, cover one end of it with bead release/plaster.
-Heat the spoke until it glows red hot
-Wrap the spoke with the thin glass rod you just made.
-Heat the new bead such that it gets smooth and rounded.
-Let it cool
-Pull it off the spoke and wash the clay off of it.
The torch in this video is just a plain old propane plumbers torch.
The glass is from a busted vodka bottle.
The clay is from a specialty store, but you can use plaster of paris instead.
When you make beads for the first time, they should be pretty small. When glass cools in the air, it builds up stress and may break (if the bead is too big)! Professional bead makers immediately put there hot beads into kilns where they are slowly cooled over several hours. You probably will not have access to such a kiln, so your first beads will have to cool in air. If you really like making beads and you want to make larger ones, get some vermiculate from any gardening store. The vermiculite is in a fine pellet form, so put your still hot beads in a dish of it such that it cools slower (the vermiculate insulates the beads, so it cool slower and introduces less stress into the bead)
Ok, the basic steps are:
-Take 2 shards of glass, and melt them together at the tips.
-Stretch out the melted part into a thin rod of glass.
-Get a bicycle spoke, cover one end of it with bead release/plaster.
-Heat the spoke until it glows red hot
-Wrap the spoke with the thin glass rod you just made.
-Heat the new bead such that it gets smooth and rounded.
-Let it cool
-Pull it off the spoke and wash the clay off of it.
The torch in this video is just a plain old propane plumbers torch.
The glass is from a busted vodka bottle.
The clay is from a specialty store, but you can use plaster of paris instead.
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Not only do you get a nice finished product, but this enables you to get cheap - read: free - glass on which to practice. A MAPP gas torch will speed things up a bit and a propane/oxygen torch will shift it to overdrive, but I'm cheap and not willing to spend the bucks on one. If you want to learn more about beadmaking/flamework just do a search.
I've been a full time lampworker for around 30 years, in the late 70's & early 80's, I was just that 'strange lady' who played with fire! LOL...
At that time, I could count on both hands the amount of people in Canada & the US doing this professionally.
(Italy, Germany, a whole other story, and the most beautiful pieces oft came from there)
The influx of mass produced glass beads from China & India did cause some ruckus in the early 90's, however, collectors of fine glass & jewellery makers have come to the conclusion that many pieces of "Artisan" glass are tiny pieces of art, and have value.
Thank you nepheron for posting this little instructable, it's often the way that someone's in-road into glass is something very basic, making bottle ashtrays in a campfire, bending glass over a brazing torch, and your bare bones approach is great! I hope I'm not complicating this approach too much by suggesting a way of making larger beads without cracking.
Once your larger beads are made, an immediate immersion in a jar of vermiculate will allow the glass to cool at a much slower rate. While it is not a way to properly anneal the glass, it will go a long way to help insure the integrity of a larger mass of glass. Vermiculite is generally available at hydroponics and gardening stores.
Happy beadmaking! :)
Nice instructable for recycling the colored glass, Thanks!!
Please explain the whole bail wire thing. It sounds fascinating! I've never in my life heard of that before!!!
How did you stretch the wire? Did you have to stretch it far?
It is very important to keep methods from dying.
Certain glassworking skills have been forgotten over the eons, and this may be one of them. I like collect these methods and keep them alive. Pass on the knowledge!
Thank you!!!!!!!!
-Nepheron
When it's red hot, you can pull on the ends to stretch it.
Think it could work?
btw, how whould i go about cutting a circle in glass? should i make a rotating jig with a glass cutter?
Search "18 cut circle" on YouTube. My browser (chrome) doesn't support copy/paste, or I'd paste the link... LOL
Draw a circle, and score it slowly with any glass cutter (and cut curfs), like this:
Thanks for all the glasswork tutorials, they are very helpful.
Use a dremel or emery stone to clean up the edges. But beware of this --
DO NOT BREATHE THE DUST. It can kill you. Keep it wet wet wet and wear a face mask and eye protection.
Alternately find a stained glass shop and pay the guy a couple bucks to cut it for you, they have wet grinding tools. Never hurts to support a local small business.
I don't think I could have last more then a couple seconds after the heat started to come through.
if the glass breaks as your heating the glass, then your getting it hot too suddenly.
you could try heating it a little slower by holding at the colder part of the flame and gradually moving it to the hotter part of the flame. it may take practice to know the limitations of different types of glass your using.
it breaks because one part of the glass is expanding really fast before the section near it gets a chance to heat up and get soft. so as it expands the colder part near it isn't warm enough to allow for stretching so it breaks.
i once saw a glass artist in Hawai make some really neat stuff, and he had to order special stuff to get the colors he wanted in his art pieces.
Oh...how do I explain this...!
If you hold they glass like a ramp, it will direct the heat to your hand...hold it so your hand is below the tip of the glass shard, and put the thinnest part in the flame.
Here is a drawing. The blue triangle is the torch flame, and the dark blue rectangle is the glass shard.