Lampglass Bead making

Well here is my newest hobby. A lady came out to get some wood cut and showed me her hobby of making lampglass beads. It looked like a lot of fun and something else to do on those days you want something different. So I ordered up the supplies and started into it.

I learned by watching U-Tube at first. Then she came out for a few hours and gave me a little more instruction on how to make the beads. I have went to a studio of another lady that makes beads and she is now trying to talk me into taking a class. Need to think about that for awhile and see what I can get done on my own. Don't want to look like a dummy at the first class.

I shot this video of Karin, my bead trainer, while she made this squirrel. This took about 40 minutes to make. Now if you ever price anything like this you may understand a little better why the price may seem so high for such a small peice. Of course I had to cut a lot of the heating melting, shaping and working the glass out to make this short video. But you will get an idea of the work involved.

Anyway here is my setup for beadmaking.

And here are some of the projects i have made so far.

As you can see I had a few break. Now they tell me I let them cool too much before putting them in the blanket to cool. But I think I have that figured out now.

My original thought was I wanted to make finials for my turned boxes. Here are some of my first trys. The beads are just sitting on the boxes here but I am now starting to epoxy the beads in place on the boxes. I think it adds a whole new look to the turned wood boxes. I haven't seen too many other turneres doing this yet.

These are the things Karin, my instructor, made on the day she came out to give me my first lesson. She just makes it look so easy.

And now I am working on doing some plain beads and other types of stuff.

Then today I finally mounted the finals on some boxes I made for them.