How to make a lampwork kid bead pendant, photo tutorial

This really fun tutorial was made by loribeads and posted on lampworketc.com.  Click here to check out her Etsy store.

Kidlet Tutorial

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Tips for head: 
in Step 2 - Try cased or striped stringer for hair - it looks great!

Step 4 - Poke tilting upward in the corner of each mouth to create a cute, cheeky grin.

Step 6 - Poke downward with a tungsten pick and it will give the kidlet a nose, almost.

Step 7 - After adding black dots for eyes, slightly flatten with a tool

Tips for body:
Step 2 - alternately, you can squish it into a lentil shape or even a cube for more variety.

Step 4 - add one large dot for each hand and two smaller stacked dots for each foot

Step 5 - make sure everything is melted in sufficiently because there is nothing sadder than a kidlet with one foot missing. Trust me on this one. )

Congrats! You're done! You now have your very own kidlet! Wire them up on a headpin and you've got yourself a nifty little pendant!

Finished Kidlet:
 

Also Loribeads says: If you make them to sell, please be kind and let them know where you learned it! And don't forget to tip your waitress!

How to apply copper cut-outs to lampwork beads, tutorial.

I had someone on Etsy last week ask if I had a tutorial
for applying my Copper Cut-outs. I didn't, but I do now.

I decided it might be cool to share it with everyone on LE,
so here it is . . . . . . . hope you like it !! 




~If you are able, pre-heat your
Copper Cut-outs on top of your
Kiln. * I keep several on top of my
kiln, along with murrini and shards,
at all times.

~ Form your bead as you usually
would.

~ Lightly heat the area of the bead
that you want to place the copper
(just like you would for attaching
murrini or shards). Meanwhile heat
your Copper Cut-out in the very back
of your flame with a pair of tweezers.
Example #1





~ Attach the warmed Copper Cut-out
to the prepared area of your bead.
Immediately marver it down into place.
Your Copper Cut-out is going to be looking
more like pewter at this point - this is
normal. Example #2 & Example #3


 


~ Now, encase your bead with a trans-
parent glass. Example #4
Embellish your encased bead any way
you wish. You can even use mashers to
flatten the bead. * I do.





~ The Copper will be showing the bright
red coloring after it comes out of your kiln.
Example #5





The red will show through the best with clear
encasing, but you can use any transparent
you like.

That's it - super simple !!

This excellent tutorial was found on the lampworketc. forum and we included the author's information below!  Be sure to check out her Etsy and Ebay pages!  She also sells copper cut-outs in addition to  other lampwork supplies!

__________________
~Kathy

 
My Etsy Shop: Handmade Twisties, Murrini, & more
 My Ebay Store: Handmade Lampwork Beads, Czech Pressed Glass Beads, and Miyuki Beads

Moretti Glass Color Properties Chart

# - Color - Name - Properties and comments

Transparent

T-008 Very pale amber Looks very nice etched
T-012 Light Amber (topaz) All three topaz colors are great for animal prints
T-014 Med. Amber (topaz) same as above
T-016 Root Beer (dk. Topaz) same as above
T-018 Light Brown
T-019 Sage green Seems to be a darker version of dark grass green at 3X the $
T-020 Lt. Grass Green
T-022 Med. Grass green
T-024 Dk. Grass green
T-026 Light teal reduces if overheated
T-027 Dk. Teal reduces if overheated
T-028 Lt. Emerald green
T-030 Dk. Emerald green
T-031 Pale emerald green very stiff, color very pale
T-034 Lt. Aquamarine reduces and bubbles if overheated, very pretty over dk. Ivory
T-036 Dk. Aquamarine reduces and bubbles if overheated, very pretty over dk. Ivory
T-040 Light Amethyst nice color to encase with
T-042 Med. Amethyst looks nice over coral, periwinkle
T-044 Dk. Amethyst looks nice over coral, periwinkle
T-046 Pale Amethyst too pale for me
T-048 Pale Blue Gray don’t see the point to this one, very pale
T-049 Straw Yellow Very light soft pale yellow
T-052 Light Blue often very pale
T-054 Md. Blue often very little difference between these 3 colors
T-056 Dk. Blue sometimes hard to tell from the med blue
T-058 Ink Blue gorgeous blue-violet color, but often looks like cobalt
T-060 Cobalt very stiff, gorgeous color
T-064 black in reality a very dark purple if cased over white
T-066 Super d. black darker than T-064, great lace effect when overheated 
T-068 pale rose often very pale
T-069 yellow bright neon yellow, strikes
T-070 uranium yellow light yellow-green
T-071 yellow green
T-072 orange bright orange, strikes
T-076 red dark red, strikes, browns if overheated, turns blueish with silver
T-080 pale lavender very pretty etched
T-081 dark lavender lavender in daylight, blue under fluorescent lights
T-082 lavender blue pink a.k.a. rosato or rose, very pretty etched
T-084 light grey very nice over dk. Ivory
T-088 dk. Grey very nice over dk. Ivory

Pastel

P-204 white very soft, seeps out from underneath clear
P-208 light white a.k.a. anise white, stiffer than 204, slightly translucent
P-210 avocado green more like taupe or putty in color, can be shocky
P-211 sage green more like taupe or khaki, but slightly greener than 210
P-212 pea green very soft, spreads a lot, reacts with EDP
P-214 nile green slightly stiffer than 212, spreads a lot
P-216 lt. Grass green spreads a lot
P-218 petroleum gr. Reduces if over heated, mottles too, reacts with EDP
P-219 copper green reacts with many colors, reduces if overheated, stiff for green
P-220 periwinkle very soft, versatile color
P-221 lavender semi transluscent
P-223 mosaic green very variable in color from batch to batch
P-224 lt. Sky blue reduces if overheated, likes oxy, reacts with ivory
P-228 dk. Sky blue reduces if overheated, likes oxy, looks very similar to 236
P-232 lt. Turquoise reduces if overheated, likes oxy, reacts with ivory
P-236 dk. Turquoise reduces if overheated, likes oxy, reacts with ivory
P-240 lt. Cobalt a.k.a. lapis, color very variable
P-242 md. Cobalt a.k.a. lapis, color very variable
P-246 dk. Cobalt a.k.a. lapis, color very variable
P-248 lt. Gray
P-252 dk. Gray
P-254 purple more like orchid, a.k.a. EDP (evil devitrifying purple), reacts with many colors, great with silver, reduces easily, likes oxy, devitrifies easily, strikes darker
P-255 silver pink very hard to strike, rods look yellowish before striking
P-256 dk. Pink most batches very pale
P-258 tongue pink hard to strike, but lovely when struck
P-260 lt. Pink practically white, most batches very light
P-262 powder pink strikes to tera cotta, very pretty, good with silver 
P-264 ivory not as reactive as dk. Ivory
P-265 uranium pale yellow-green, very pretty
P-266 opal yellow difficult to strike, comes in yellow & caramel brown forms, reacts w/ silver
P-268 pearl grey
P-272 violet more like light mauve
P-273 soft violet has an interesting metallic sheen
P-274 bright violet more like aubergine
P-276 dark ivory “caramelizes” when overheated, reacts with many colors and with silver


Special Colors

S-404 lt. Lemon yellow a.k.a. acid yellow, bright yellow
S-408 md. Lemon yellow a little darker than 404
S-409 translucent yel. An odd batch, semi-translucent, very pretty, reacts with silver
S-412 Dk. Yellow school bus yellow
S-416 bright yellow also school bus yellow
S-418 butter yellow not! School bus yellow
S-420 coral color very variable, reacts with silver and many colors
S-422 orange color very variable, browns if overheated
S-424 carrot red dark orange, browns if overheated
S-428 lt. Red. Orange red-orange, browns if overheated 
S-432 med. Red more like light red, browns if overheated
S-436 dark red more like med. Red, browns if overheated
S-438 dark purple red more like Christmas red, very pretty, browns if overheated
S-444 light brown darkens after heating
S-448 dark brown darkens after heating
S-452 dk. Red brown chocolate brown after heating
S-456 rubino a.k.a. gold cranberry, reduces easily, likes oxy, fades if overheated, reacts with many colors and with silver, blackish reaction with dk. Ivory, work on the cool side
S-460 mustard color very variable


The information above was found on the WetCanvas site, and posted by AlexM.  The post is old but it has some colors and information that can still be quite viable to lampwork and fused glass artists.

Click on the image above to see it enlarged.  This sample chart came from Arrow Springs.

Glass bead making video (which is called lampworking)

Kristina Logan

We ran across this wonderful lampwork video on You Tube.

In this video, Kristina demonstrates her process of beadmaking at the torch, finishing the glass by cold working, and incorporating both her glass and silverwork into completed pieces of jewelry. She also discusses the history of glass beads and shares the philosophy of her work.

Click here to see video  Kristina Logan

Lampworking video by Kimberly Jae

Have you ever wondered what lampworking looks like?  This is an excellent video showing Kimberly Jae making a glass flower bead. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhe0gaALHE


The description on the video states:  This demonstration / tutorial shows how one of my signature Funky Flower beads is created. I'm using Moretti (Effetre) glass in this demo on a Bobcat torch. Please visit my sites for more photos and online purchases.
www.kimberlyjae.com

Making dots and lines on lampwork beads

Ok, today I'm back to lampworking info. So I thought I'd write a little bit about how to make dots and lines on lampwork beads. It is actually very easy to do and it makes your beads look unique. There are a lot of presses available but if you only press one color of glass in those presses, you get beads that are plain and basically just like any one else's! Of course it is always nice to make plain glass beads too for certain types of jewelry. 

One color glass beads are wonderful accents in jewelry. It just depends on what kind of lampwork beads an artist wants to use; are they to be the focal in a necklace, bracelet or earrings, OR are they to be used as fillers or accents in a jewelry piece? Anyway, there are always buyers for whatever type of bead you make, if it is made well and properly annealed and cleaned.

So to make either dots or lines I do the same basic thing. I use stringer (which will make small dots and/or lines) or I use a glass rod. Stringer is a smaller piece of glass, like a glass rod but it is usually pulled from a glass rod. You can buy already made stringer but it is easier to make your own.  If you use a glass rod, just heat up the tip of the rod and apply that molten glass right on to the bead you are working on.  Always keep in mind that you have to keep the bead you are working on, warm.  If it cools down while you are getting ready to apply the dots and lines, it will break.  (Some times you can actually save a broken bead by re-heating it in the flame but it doesn't always work.)

Heat the tip of a glass rod in the flame of your torch. When you get the tip of the rod molten, and about 1/4 inch long or more, take a pair of tweezers (I use tweezers made for lampwork because they are long enough that my fingers don't get hot while using them) and after removing the rod from the flame, grab a tiny bit of glass on the tip of the molten part of the glass rod and slowly pull. Now if you want the stringer to be very thin, which looks really nice when used on pressed beads, you pull the molten glass, fast. If you want to make a thicker stringer pull slowly. As you pull you will notice that the new piece of stringer that you are creating will kind of sag between the tweezers and the glass rod itself. Don't worry if that happens, as you pull, it will straighten out. And if it doesn't do that, hold the tweezers and the glass rod in a vertical position and that will help it to straighten out. I don't make incredibly long stringers, they usually end up about 6 to 8 inches long. And I try to pull enough stringer to make as many beads as I plan to make, all at one time.  Once pulled, use the torch flame to cut the stringer from the glass rod.)

Another fun thing to do is make "twisties". To do that you will need to lightly warm up one glass rod while at the same time you need to melt another glass rod so that the tip becomes molten. Then take the molten rod and "paint" it on to one side of the rod you just warmed up. If you want to make more than a two color twistie, you should then keep the rod you just worked on, warm while heating up another rod so that the tip becomes molten. Do not heat up the two color rod enough to make it molten, just warm it up. Also when you added that second color to the original rod, you should have only painted on about 2 inches of glass. Once the third rod is molten, add another line of glass, along the length of the glass rod, the same 2 inches in length as the first color, to the original glass rod.

Then when you have added as much glass as desired to the glass rod that you've been working and adding glass to, you carefully warm it all up so that it becomes molten and with your tweezers, grab the tip of the molten rod and begin to pull and twist. You can also just heat the very tip of the glass rod that you are working on and then smoosh a different glass rod on to that end. Once cooled you can then heat the whole thing up, and then pull and twist the rods. Now you have made a twistie. When using tweezers, once done, dip them in a glass jar of cold water and the glass that will stick on the tip of the tweezers will pop off.

Once you make a twistie or a stringer, you can make dots or lines quite easily. You don't need to keep the twisties or stringers warm, they won't break like beads can. So you can lay them directly on your work surface after you make them. Then go ahead and make your round bead, or pressed bead, and when ready you can gently heat the twistie or stringer in the side of the flame and add your dots and lines directly to your bead!

The picture above shows what twisties look like.

The three pictures above shows a lampworker (not me) pulling stringer. 

I found an excellent video on You Tube.  It was made by beadmanglass.  And it shows how to make twisties and stringer!