How to Decorate Glass Beads

A bead can be embellished in a variety of ways. Here’s how to make two pieces for your bead: dots and lines, which you may use separately or combined to embellish it. After you’ve finished step 13 of the Related eHow “How to Make Glass Beads,” move on to this eHow.

Connecting the Dots

Steps:

1. Begin with a molten bead, shaped or not, on a mandrel. If you’re right-handed, hold the mandrel in your left hand.

2. In your right hand, hold a glass rod.

3. Place the bead just beyond the torch’s flame, so that the flame is between you and the bead.

4. Heat the glass rod’s tip until it is just glowing.

5. Make a dot on the bead by putting the molten tip of the glass rod to it and then drawing it back to stretch it through the flame. The flame will cut through the rod’s stretched section.

6. Return the bead to the flame for a few seconds to melt the remaining glass point in the dot.

7. Make as many dots as you want by repeating the method.

8. Once you’ve put as many dots to the bead as you want, you can return it to the flame to slightly melt the dots down, or to make them flush with the bead’s surface.

9. Use a fiber blanket or heated vermiculite to slowly cool the bead. If you have a kiln, you can skip straight to the annealing step.

Tips:

With different colored rods, you may construct dots on top of dots. As each dot melts, the one before it forms an outline around it. You can do this as many times as you want, but you’ll need to melt the dots to keep them from bursting off the bead.

Making Trails or Lines

Steps:

1. Begin with a molten bead, shaped or not, on a mandrel. If you’re right-handed, hold the mandrel in your left hand.

2. In your right hand, hold a glass rod.

3. Place the bead just beyond the torch’s flame, so that the flame is between you and the bead.

4. Heat the final 3/8 inch or so of the glass rod until it glows.

5. Pull the molten tip of the rod back slightly from the hot (but not molten) bead to stretch the glass from the rod and make it thinner.

6. To form a lengthwise line or trail, gently lay the stretched glass down the bead parallel to the mandrel.

7. Push the rod down toward the end of the bead, then swiftly pull it back and cut it off with the flame. If you rotate the bead on its mandrel, you can use the same procedure to form a spiral line around it.

8. Return the bead to the flame for a few seconds to melt the last bit of glass at the end of the line.

9. You can make as many lines as you like by repeating the technique.

10. After you’ve finished decorating your bead, you can return it to the flame to melt the dots flush with the surface – but only if that’s the effect you desire.

11. Use a fiber blanket or heated vermiculite to slowly cool the bead. If you have a kiln, you can skip straight to the annealing step.

Tips:

If you use a stringer instead of a rod, you can make smaller dots or thinner lines, but keep in mind that you’ll be working farther away from the flame because the thin stringer melts more easily.

After you’ve decorated the bead, you can shape it to create more intriguing patterns.

Overall Caution:

When using a torch, a lot of heat and carbon monoxide is produced. By working outside or using an exhaust fan to ventilate your work area, you can avoid a buildup of both of these.

Keep all combustible materials away from your heatproof work surface.

Molten glass has a temperature of over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and can inflict severe burns if it comes into touch with it. Even though the glass does not appear to be hot, it can nevertheless be hundreds of degrees.

Always keep an eye out for the heated end of your glass rod.

Long hair should be tied back, and loose-fitting sleeves should be avoided.

Glass that has been improperly heated or cooled can explode and shatter, sending glass fragments flying. In your job environment, always wear safety glasses and shoes.