Take Two

The date: the 2^nd of November. The task: to push our beading boundaries.

As novices to the world of bead manufacture, finding ways to challenge ourselves was not particularly difficult, despite having made glass beads once before. Looking to our library books for examples of Viking-styled glass beads, we once again attempted to recreate their colours, shapes, and designs to the best of our abilities. Taking note of our previous experiences of unusual blob shapes and exploding flat glass rods, we strove to better our technique, sharpen our lines, develop our dots, and most importantly, work on our patience! Needless to say, in a world where practice supposedly makes perfect, we’re going to need a fair bit more practice.

As our experiment comes to a close, a breakdown of our frets and frustrations is deemed necessary for the benefit of those who so choose to take on the creative task of beading making. Consider this fair warning.

The following headings outline the degree of difficulty observed throughout various aspects of the beading process:

Application of molten glass. 

Level- Easy-ish

•         Application of molten glass onto mandrel
•     Shaping of a melon bead
•         Shaping of a ring bead
•         Layering of various glass colours (e.g. green with coating of clear glass)

Here is a video of a melon bead being made:

Level- More Difficult

•        The formation of a dotted pattern (easy to produce, hard to keep uniform)
•        The formation of stringer lines (producing intentionally straight or spiralled lines requires a steady hand; hard to keep evenly spaced and uniform)
•         Working with lighter coloured glass, specifically white and yellow (More prone to burning due to light nature of glass. In addition, the dirty nature of burning propane can add to this affect. Oxygen burns hotter and cleaner, making the overall process more efficient.)

Failed stringer attempt (one glass rod cracked)

     

Successful stringer attempt. 

  Production of single/multi-coloured stringers (timing and patience is key! One has the tendency to either move too slow or too fast when pulling the glass, easily causing breakage).

    Making a multicoloured stringer: 

      

Level- Getting Harder…

•         Shaping of conical bead (construction process is relatively simple, but uneven distribution of glass onto mandrel makes it fragile and subject to breaking during the cooling process) 
•        Shaping of quadratic beads, or beads with a straight edges (molten glass resists sharp edges, typically rounding off as it is heated)
•        Shaping of collared bead (keeping the bead symmetrical proves challenging. An additional difficulty is keeping colours of the main bead and the collared portions of the bead distinct, as they want to fuse).
•        Shaping spiralling beads (consistent thickness and evenness of spiral proves challenging. This shaping technique also has the tendency to extend beyond the length of the mandrel, sealing off one end of the bead).

Level- Maybe Reconsider What You’re Doing-

•        Checkerboard pattern (incredibly difficult, requiring the ability to control, with accuracy, the amount of glass placed onto the molten bead).
•         Creation of chevron pattern (the combination of needing straight lines, a steady hand, and even temperature often causes this pattern to misshapen the bead’s design beyond repair).

Attempt at chevron. While not successful, it is still very pretty. 

The two outside beads illustrate an ideal chevron pattern.
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikbeads.shtml

Overall, it’s notable to mention that the exact replication of Viking styled beads is a task in and of itself. We found that recreating a basic pattern (such as dotting) was simplistic in that it gave us the freedom to place the designs where we desired, but mimicking exact placement of lines, dots, and waves was virtually impossible. Learning how the glass reacts to heat and movement is key to predicting and controlling what will happen throughout the process of creating a bead. Knowledge of the properties of glass is of paramount importance to becoming a successful craftsperson in this field.

Keep calm and bead on.

Here is a video of a bead being removed from the mandrel (this was an easy one!):


Here are some photos from this session:

All ready to start making beads!

Clamping tool. We did not have this in our last session. 

Oxygen torch. Burnt much hotter and cleaner. Probably more akin to Viking fire-working. 

Another beautiful stringer by Krista!

Taking the bead of the mandrel. Delicate process. 

Success!