There are different types of glass used in beadmaking. Each glass has a different melting temperature. The most commonly used is soft/soda glass bought under the name of Moretti. Other brands are available too, but Moretti is the one with the most colours and most common.



Hard/Pyrex/Borocilicate glass has a higher melting temperature and requires special eye protection for artists who work with it. The rewards are many including the colours that are visible within the glass.


The difference between the two types has led many users of Moretti to try and emulate the look of borocilicate glass. To acheive the beauty without the extra equipment and knowledge.


This is what I was attempting with the beads below. When Iris Gold is combined with Straw Yellow, very pretty things happen! These beads are the result, I layed a twisty over different colours of transparent Moretti and then encased the beads to give the full effect.


I had several crack on me sadly, I was trying to figure out why, and it turns out that the Iris Gold is a different type of Glass to Moretti. It has a different COE (Co-efficient Of Expansion), and this is what the problem is -- too bad because they are quite beautiful when the light shines through them. There's an unwritten law that says don't add more than 5% of a different COE to your bead, so perhaps if the twisty was used very sparingly the beads wouldn't be so prone to cracking. Who'd-a-thunk making pretty things required all this Science????

Med blue transparent (I think) base

Dark amber base

Red transparent base
Uranium Yellow base

So, I'm not sure if I'll pursue these beads - the iris gold is quite expensive - too expensive to go into the cracked bead pot anyway! I did learn good things though and I'm starting to understand how to encase a bead. Previous attempts have been pretty futile, but I'm starting to get a feel for how the hot glass goes onto the bead to give a nice clear layer without disturbing the decorated layer below.

The glass is unwrapped, sorted and labelled and the fun has begun! I'm experimenting with reactions between the different colours or 'families' of glass. Some pretty cool things can happen if you know what you are doing - and sometimes even if you don't.



Here's the latest!

These use a twisty made of edp and turquoise laid down next to an opal yellow stripe on the bead, the twisty smooshes into the yellow and all kinds of cool colours happen. Then I tried encasing same twisty - a very different looking thing happens.

Bead Soup anyone? There are a couple in here with copper in them, my favourites are the big blue hollow and a surprising reaction I got with the transparent uranium yellow bead (see close up 'Today's Pick' in the right hand column).

Introducing South Sea Mary and Porcinea Ham (don't you think she looks a little pig-like??)

.. note the nifty knew tip for taking photos - regular table salt acts as a great background, it's easy to position beads at the angle you want -- Just make sure they're dry before you plop them in there!!

I finally spent my contest winnings! I had a big order of glass arrive on Friday, along with some silver leaf and dichroic glass. Lots of colours I haven't tried before, I'm excited to use it and get new combos and reactions.

Isn't it PRETTY! - You can click on this one for a bigger image.


I've been working with dark ivory and seeing what reactions happen with different colours. The little 'blue and white' bead came about from laying a twisty of copper green, intense black and white on an ivory base bead. The blue must be from the copper, it's very pretty, I'm calling it IO

These are some others, playing about with dots and stringers. I found the really sweet spot in the flame on Friday where I could lay the stringer just how I wanted it.

I've been busy making beads and wigwags for a sale in August. I want to have something that is affordable to everyone and am trying to think of the best way to string single beads.

Twisties and wigwag twisties.


These are the beads I've made using the twisties -

I have to say having a bulk tank is wonderful - what a difference to the little cannisters. I have no idea how much I'm using or how soon it's going to run out, but I do like it. One thing I've noticed is that my moretti black is getting some smearing on the surface, not sure if that is due to the excess heat or what. I'd like to try some Vetrofond next as I hear it's better. In the meantime I think I'll try etching some of the black beads, I'm sure they'll look quite nice.

Today I had a breakthrough! I read a tutorial on how to make twisties that helped me no end. Until now my twisties have been about four or five inches long, I can now make them 12+ inches in length! And also I've been trying the wigwag twisties that seem very popular at the minute, here's a picture of a regular and a wigwag. I think if you click on the picture you'll see a bigger version.

Busy work week so not much time at the torch so far. I have been trying some Russian doll beads without much success, certainly not good enough to post. I like the idea but need to work on the process and figure a good way of doing their faces because they are pretty tiny. Elly in Etobicoke shipped me some of her Satake glass - thank you Elly!! I tried some of the pink, I love the way it melts, but price would be a big consideration as it's quite a bit more expensive than the Moretti I am using. Maybe when I get really good I can consider making some with Satake.

Yesterday I discovered Bigger Is Better! I upgraded to a bigger gas tank and can't believe the heat I'm getting from my torch even with the tank barely opened. It's like the difference between night and day, or a toaster oven and a pizza oven!! I'm even finding the flame is bushier too which is good because it keeps bigger beads warmer easier.

Here are yesterday's barrel beads, if I was a martini drinker I'd be wanting the 'olive' one ;o)

I'm feeling inspired with the lovely Spring weather, green grass, budding trees and spring flowers! My favourite time of the year. You'll notice a few changes here as I try my hand at customising this blog to match my website, hopefully I won't do anything too dastardly.

Watch this space for new beads!

Here are a couple to whet your appetite -


I don't do florals, but was pretty pleased when I tried and this was the result.


This is a little hollow bead with millefiore

Finally, finally!!! Spring (or Summer) has arrived - what a relief after a cold, damp, snowy April so far. It's going up above 20c today.

I got my hose for a bulk tank yesterday and have everything moved into the sunporch, now I just need to get the gas and I'll be away. My goal is to really try and spend as much time as possible torching to improve on my techniques and hopefully start to get an inventory of saleable beads.

In March I won second place in a contest that Artistry In Glass was running, I entered my very first bead in a bead, and won a $50 gift certificate. I'm not sure whether to put it toward 'Passing The Flame', tools or glass... Too many things to choose from.

Beadwise I've been working on hollows mostly, trying to get them bigger. Every now and then I feel like I'm in some sweet spot where the glass flows like honey just where I want it, so I know it can be done.

Pictures? Ummm, let me see what I have I can post..

A new cat design which makes them look like they are hanging over whatever they're threaded on


This is a hollow, squashed with suneye on it, for my daughter Jess' birthday


A charm for her to hang in her house.

We are well into March and I've been busy getting my website online. It's done for now, more pictures to add and I'm sure I'll be reworking it as I go - www.fireseed.ca

Earlier in the month I attended a symposium for artists/craftspersons wanting to sell their wares. It was fun, I made a couple of contacts and learned some new things too.

When I went to pick up my last batch of annealed beads, the store owner told me I had some pretty neat stuff and that if I could make them a bit bigger he'd be willing to have some in his store on consignment. That was quite exciting as he's a glassblower and has been in business for quite a long time I believe. So.... my goal is BIGGER beads!

What I really need is for the weather to warm up, I find often the wind is in the wrong direction and blowing right in the window I'm trying to exhaust fumes out of, let me tell you it just doesn't work! The heat is lost too quickly and I have a job to get the glass melting consistantly. I am in envy of folks with decent places to torch, mixed fuel torches and kilns - yep that's it, I just want it all!!

What's new for beads? I've been trying some hollows and had a really good day when by some fluke of the stars I managed to make a bead inside a bead. That has become my proudest accomplishment, especially as I haven't achieved another since.

I've also been doing more faces, dots and cats. I get a lot of comments about the faces, I think because they are colourful and a bit different. They are fun to do too, and I want to make these bigger also.

My bead inside a bead!!





Funny Faces


The grey and white one is our cat Raffi.

ooops I forgot my cats, these make cute little beads, but I'm finding with not having a kiln I'm loosing some things like bits of tails. I try to make sure they are well heated when I make the bead, but I think its the stresses that are causing things to pop off before they're annealed.

I have been reminded by a certain friend ;o) that I need to update my posts, so here goes..

We are half way through February and I'm almost ready to get my second batch annealed, I have been working on my faces, some cats and variations on the Warring States beads.

I've registered a domain name -fireseed.ca and hope to have a website up as soon as my hosting company get their act together and fix my account utilities, I feel like we are going round in circles at the minute. I keep getting emails that say 'try to set the account up now, it should work' and I keep replying 'tried to set the account up -- it doesn't work!'. Hopefully things will get sorted today.

I'm getting great responses from people about my beads which is really exciting, I have one lady who wants to buy some as soon as they are annealed and another asked for my website address as soon as it's available. It's very exciting to have something to feel positive and good about.

David and I worked on a logo and we came up with this, my idea was to have a 'flame' pod with seeds inside it, I was experimenting and liked what happened so it stayed.



I've noticed over the last few weeks that my little hothead torch is bothering me. It's partly the fact of using the small cannisters of gas - I did switch to the camping type, but it's still a problem - they run out too quickly and loose pressure too quickly and I find I'm always wondering what type of bead I can make before the gas runs out, and how much gas is left anyway. I feel like it is stifling me a bit because I tend to think 'better not try a big one..'. I've looked into all kinds of angles of switching to bulk propane in the spring. I'll be in our sunporch then so it is do-able, but the more I read the more problems seem to present themselves. What I **really** want is a proper propane/oxy set up, it would mean more heat, which means I could work faster and not feel so inhibited. Of course the big downside is $$$, they are much cheaper in the long run but require a fairly hefty outlay to get going (according to my bank account anyway ;o| )

Enough blabbing, time to post some beadies, I visited Tank Studios site - they're in Toronto http://www.ehmeglass.com/page.php and saw some beautiful beads there, and also discovered Dustin Tabor http://www.dustintabor.com, along with Larry Brickman http://www.brickmanartglass.com/ - what inspiration! Here are my attempts at their styles of beads -









what fun!! I feel like my dots are getting a little more uniform, but still have a long way to go until I'm in control of them.

January has gone by pretty quickly! I had to put away my lampwork over Christmas as my daughter Rebeka and boyfriend James came to visit from Newfoundland for three weeks. So... what have I been up to? I found some very interesting beads called 'warring states' that date back to approx 300bc China, here's one that is in the Museum of Bristol in England.


I want to be able to make these beads, but oh boy! It's hard to control all those dots!! These are my best attempts so far -




Here are a few pictures of my latest stuff, I'm getting a bit more control of the glass sometimes and I'm really having fun with my faces.

My first batch of annealed beads!! I was surprised and pleased with just how many I ended up with.

I had bought some jewellery findings and string to put some of them together for gifts for family and friends for Christmas, so here is my first attempt at jewellery making, I don't have the right tools so my wire bending leaves a lot to be desired, but I was happy to have some finished pieces. I used the black silk thread for some because that way the recipients could pull the beads off quite easily and do what they wanted with them.


Bracelet and earrings


I hung some of my early beads on a bracelet that I had for years, also in this picture is my cat bead and two rats.


Keychains.


Simple Necklaces



And here's the necklace I strung together for my mum using some white glass beads from an older necklace along with the lampwork ones I had made.

A lady at a local bead shop made me feel really good when she saw my spirally worm guys, she went crazy over them and wanted to show them to a co-worker. I've promised I'll go back in the New Year and take some to show her, so now I have a mission, I have to get good at doing the eyes and making tidy tails. A worm with wonky eyes just does not look good!

I got some glass stuff for Christmas (yeeha!), a nice selection of coloured rods and stringers, a pair of glass shears and two marvers for adding more shapes to my beads. Unfortunately it's too cold at the minute to work in the sunporch, once the holidays are over and Rebeka and James have gone back to Newfoundland I'll set up in her old bedroom again and get back to work.

Here's the latest round of pictures and hopefully some helpful words to go with them. This first one is a disc bead, I forget what it's real name is so I'll call it a wonky disc. I used tweezers to grab and twist little kinks around the edge or the bead. I also used my mashers to get a more even disc shape to start with, something I hadn't tried before and it worked quite well - not that you'd know it from the finished bead!


I'm also trying to learn how to control stringer better. This is a very hard thing to do. You have to find just the right spot in the flame, or to the side of the flame so that everything is hot enough and the stringer softens, but not melts in a big blob. I think I need thinner stringer to wrap beads with, that means it will be even harder to control probably!



Bubbles bubbles, I'm managing to get bubbles in beads and keep trying different melted in dot methods. It's hard to place dots equally around the bead, well I find it hard, that affects the way the dots melt - if they are not spaced equally they will melt and move around in ways that you don't necessarily want them to.



I like the way the blue/black bead turned out, it was supposed to be triangles and diamonds but the dots weren't equal so I got a big mishmash, but I like it anyway. Here to is my (tadadada) very first real encased flower bead!!! Don't laugh - its the one with the blue blob with a bubble in the middle. I started with a base bead in green, put some clear on top, then added some pea green stringer, more clear and then tried to make two flowers, one each side, both with three petals. The petals all kind of melted in to one another, so it looks like some kind of trumpet flower if you have a really good imagination ;o)


I learned a good tip to help with spacing of dots. Put a tiny flag of glass on your mandrel, that way you put your first dot parallel with the flag, turn the bead 180 and you can see where to put the next dot because the flag will be at the back of the mandrel, then it's easy to place one or two dots in between each of the first two, making them much more evenly spaced.

Look at the bead on the right, I did this one with a flag on the mandrel and managed much better spacing than the other beads in the row.

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