applegreenmachine.co.uk

I have always loved beads and the endless variety of shapes, sizes and colours they come in.
During the years that I was lucky enough to travel the world, I collected as many beads (stone, glass, or metal) that I could fit into my luggage…never once did I consider how glass beads came into being.
One day, while trawling the Internet for information on polymer clay beads, I discovered that ‘ordinary’ people actually set up the equipment to make glass beads, often in their garden sheds…
I became a woman possessed; I just had to make glass beads myself, but that dream took almost six years to fulfil, requiring one international house move and another within the UK. During those years I continued silk painting, making beaded embroidery and Fimo jewellery.
Eventually the time was right and I took a glass bead class with Diana East, and when I finally I had the money, and space, I ordered my own equipment. Had it been available in the country I had been living in, I would have started much sooner, but it wasn’t. I never begrudged the fact that I couldn’t follow my dream while overseas, but I very determinedly trod the path toward my ultimate goal and having reached it, I feel that I have found the medium that will fulfil my creative needs for the rest of my life.

Creating a bead is a delight, however, there are some downsides…one is being hit by flying glass which can burn and even scar, hence the flattering leather apron, long sleeves and burn treatment at close hand; the other is having to wear didymium glasses which have purple lenses and alter the way the colour of glass appears, for instance I have to remove the glasses in order to differentiate between red and orange glass rods. However, they are essential because they make it possible to see what one is doing as they filter out the orange sodium flare that is generated when putting glass into the flame (see the photo above right, the top image is taken through didymium lenses, the lower picture is without).Without the glasses one could not attempt detailed work very successfully.

Creating a Bead

A mixture of oxygen and propane gas is used to melt the glass; you can see the lit torch in the picture. I have bottled gas, but use an oxygen converter to make the oxygen, rather than buy it in. My oxycon is a reconditioned ex-medical machine. Torches come in various sizes, mine is a Nortel Minor. Most glass bead making equipment comes from America.
Glass comes in a wide variety of colours, in rods approximately the diameter of a pencil you can see some behind me in the picture above. There are different types of glass available; I mainly use ‘Effetre’, an Italian soft glass, another by a company called ‘CiM’ (Creation is Messy) and another called ‘Northstar’, the latter two brands originating in America. Not all glass is compatible.
Another type of glass is ‘borosilicate’, it is a ‘hard’ glass, which requires a much bigger torch flame to melt it than the one I use. Some varieties of glass are inexpensive, some quite the opposite. This will be reflected in the cost of a bead.

When a blob (known as a ‘gather’) of glass has melted sufficiently to be runny, but before it is totally melted, it is wound onto a steel rod known as a mandrel.
To keep the glass separate from the metal, the mandrel must be dipped into a solution called ‘bead release’ or ‘bead separator’, this prevents the hot glass from bonding with the metal and makes it possible to remove the glass bead when it has cooled. The mandrel must be spun as the glass is applied to it; this helps to shape the bead and prevents the hot glass from sliding off the mandrel. Gradually the glass will be built up to the desired size, shaped and decorated with different colours until the bead maker is finished with the piece, at which point the bead will be placed into a kiln.

The kiln process, known as ‘annealing’, is crucial to the durability of a bead; a slow cooling programme is designed to remove the stress points in the glass and prevent it from shattering at a later date. While annealing greatly improves the strength of a bead, it is still made of glass and should be treated as such, no bouncing it off brick walls to test its strength…
When the bead has cooled completely it can be removed from the mandrel, this is done while submerging it in water, as the bead release is powdery and toxic when inhaled. Finally the inside of the bead is cleaned out with a reamer, and the bead is ready to be used.

Glass bead making is known as ‘lampworking’ or ‘flameworking’, referring to the ancient origins of bead making, when oil lamps were used to melt the glass. This must have been a laborious process; but times and technology have progressed, now there are quite a few flamework obsessed people in the UK happily creating beads in their sheds. There is a pleasure in knowing that a bead one has made has the potential last for a thousand years, and more.

Glass beads can be found at extremely low prices on the Internet and in bead shops; most of them are mass-produced in foreign countries (usually China and India) in sweatshop conditions with little consideration for safety. Flameworkers like me have the privilege of being able to experiment and evolve as glass bead artists, and we have a choice over the conditions in which we work. We also set the standards for well made products; since learning to make beads myself I have a particular appreciation for beads with smooth edged holes, whether the bead is perfectly balanced in shape, or of a more organic nature.

When you own one of my beads you will have a unique piece made with a passion for quality, and joy in creative expression. Whether you wear it or just keep it to look at, I hope you enjoy your bead as much as I enjoyed making it.