How to Do Lampwork Beads
- 1). Put on your didymium safety glasses and switch on your ventilation system. These tools protect your eyes and lungs from the sodium glare and the fumes emitted when working the glass.
- 2). Light your torch and rotate the coated end of your mandrel in the back of the flame until it glows a light pink. At the same time, use your other hand to hold the tip of a glass rod in the flame to allow it to slowly heat up. The rod glows a light orange/pink when it is properly warmed.
- 3). Position the heated, coated portion of your mandrel underneath the flame and closer to the torch head. Touch the glass rod to the mandrel and begin circling the mandrel so the glass melts around it.
- 4). Continue to rotate the mandrel with one hand while holding the glass rod stationary with your other hand. Stop winding the mandrel when the bead is as large as you like.
- 5). Detach the glass rod from the mandrel by holding it in the fire until the flame cuts through it. Circle the mandrel with the glass in the fire to melt out the ridges and obtain the finished tire shape of the bead.
- 6). Put your bead in a bucket of vermiculite to slowly cool your glass (anneal), which prevents cracking. Beads typically anneal for eight hours.
- 7). Remove your bead from the vermiculite and hold it under running water to loosen it. Grasp the bead with your hand and wiggle it loose, or hold the glass with a pair of pliers to detach stuck beads.
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