WHAT IS LAMPWORK ?

Lampworking is a skill that take a great deal of practice and patience.  A lampwork beads artist understands the glass and the torch, and must learn how much heat it take for glass to flow, how much heat can be applied to a bead that's already shaped before it becomes molten again and loses shape, when to add decorative elements and how different colours of glass interact with each other.

Here is a short demonstration on how I make a simple bead.

1.  I prepare my mandrels coating them with bead release ready for the flame.  The bead release stops the bead sticking to the mandrel.

2.  The glass rod is then warmed in the flame until it is glowing and becomes molten forming a ball at the end of the glass rod.  The mandrels is then gently heated ready for the glass rod, if the mandrel is not hot enough the glass will not stick to it.

3.  The hot glass is then rolled onto the mandrel to the size required and then shaped into a bead.  A round bead can be made by using gravity to get a good shape.

4.  The bead is then removed from the flame and gently turned ensuring you do not lose the shape of the bead while it cools.  Once the colour of the bead returns and it is cool enough to put down without marking, it is then ready to be placed in the kiln for annealling.  ( I always anneal my beads straight from the flame)

What is annealling?

Annealing is a process of holding and cooling the glass at the proper temperatures.  Different types of glass have different temperature requirements.  If the glass is cooled too quickly, the glass has stress.  The stress can cause the glass item to break immediately or months or years later.  All my beads are professionally annealled in my digital kiln and then carefully cleaned.

This is my kiln, I use to have a fibre blanket on the top and it marked the paintwork!!  nevermind it still works brilliantly.

I hope you have found this interesting.

Helen

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