Yes, you can make lampwork beads from glass bottles!

The other day I found this thread on the site, Lampwork Etc., discussing how glass artists are making lampwork beads with recycled bottle glass, click here to view the thread.  It is full of interesting information, pictures and other links.  You might have to become a member of the forum to read the thread, but it is highly recommended since Lampwork Etc. is excellent for all glass artists.

I see that some people use chunks of broken bottles to create their beads by using them as glass rod.  You need to hold the piece of glass with something like a punty or other tool.  I also think that people with access to a tile saw can slice bottles lengthwise and then into thin strips and use those strips just like glass rod.

There is still a compatibility issue when using recycled glass bottles, sometimes bottles used by one company may still have different COE's.  For that reason it is best not to mix the glass with other glass, although if used sparingly, it is possible to add dots and decorations to the beads without them breaking.  A small amount of frit and powders can also be used to color the bottle glass beads as well, but keep in mind the fact that you will be mixing COE's and the beads may break.  It would be easier to make single color beads when using recycled glass from one bottle when lampworking (or fusing), but it is always fun to experiment.  You might discover that you can do some mixing without any breakage.

Lampwork beads, purple glass tips!

We found this excellent post in the Chestnut Ridge Designs blog.  It is full of valuable information for lampworkers who use, or want to use, purple glass in their beads!  You should check out their blog,  they have stunning beads, photos and paintings for sale!

Purples are the second-most frustrating colors to find in the glassy world.  At first, you buy all the “mainstream” brands of purple, only to end up with pounds and pounds of glass that is too grey, too red, too blue or just plain ugly.    So after years of frustration and wanting to incorporate this color into my sets, I decided to pursue the dream of finding the perfect purple.  I’m going to share what I found so you can be judicious in choosing your glass! (And from spending your hard earned money on glass you won’t use.)

I am still somewhat frustrated with the opaques and seldom use them, so we’ll get these out of the way quickly.  The contenders are (from left to right):

 

Effetre Violet Pastel 591272, Effetre Soft Violet 591273, Effetre Dark Violet Pastel (handmade) 591274, , ASK  #006 Lavender Fields, ASK #008 Berry Creamy, Effetre Lavender Premium 591221, Effetre Prem. Dark Periwinkle 591222, and Effetre Handmade Premium Violet 591254 (Evil Devitirying Purple, or EDP).  I pulled out two canes of EDP- the left one is more purple, the right one is more pink.   You can see the resulting beads are distinctly different.

I put the Dark Periwinkle in there so you can see the lack of color saturation in the opaques to the left.  Most of them  have a grayish cast that looks out of place and these will wash out your color if you use them as cores to your encased beads.  althought I have to admit  I was really (really!) excited about the Handmade Violet 591274 (third from the left) that was oh so beautiful in rod form, but alas, the resulting bead is almost the same color as the first two.  My hopes were dashed!

Now onto the fun stuff- the transparents- I didn’t bother with the Vetrofond colors- I find them to be too much on the red side (more like the CIM Simply Berry), so I’ve listed the best I’ve found.  I made some paddles so you could compare them side by side:

CIM Crocus Unique 3 511660-3, Lauscha Dark Purple #255, Effetre Ink Blue 591058, Effetre Light Premium Violet 591041, Effetre Dark Violet (Glycine) Premium 591039 (this is a really dark color- almost black in rod form) and CIM Simply Berry 511618

Now I have to say that Crocus Unique 3 is my hands-down favorite purple.  Here I put some EDP beads in the picture- perfect match!

Its color is like nothing else out there- a saturated purple-lavender-fuschia that adds a shock of color to everything and it can be added as a second layer of encasing that really brings up the red tones.   Now the bad news- it is no longer being made.  As of October 2011 it might still be available at some retailers, and I hope that CIM decides to bring it back.

To create a saturated purple, you will need to layer your colors, much like a watercolor painting, like I did with the pinks.  On the plus side, the purples don’t soot up and oxidize the way the pinks do, so this process is much faster and easier.  One thing I have noticed is that they are harder to photograph, as the digital seems to pick up the base color- if it is periwinkle, the beads will look bluer in the picture, whereas the pink cores seem to photograph truer to life.  I made a few different combos for you to look at (left to right):

For these three pairs of spacers,the first is just Crocus Unique 3, the second pair is light periwinkle encased with the Crocus 3, (Notice the blue tone?).  The last pair is light periwinkle encased with the Lauscha purple transparent topped with Crocus.

It’s easier to create dramatic rich color with the transparent purples, but you have to watch or they can get too dark.  On encased beads I use light periwinkle, light pink or white as bases, because these allow the most light to be reflected back up through the bead.  I use a stringer to make a small donut bead, flatten to a thin barrel and encase it with thin wraps of transparent purple.   Then you can add clear encasing or use Crocus as the outer layer.  Some examples:

From left to right: Effetre light pink core/Crocus 3, periwinkle core/Crocus 3, periwinkle core/Lasucha purple/Crocus 3, EDP core/Effetre dark purple/clear  and periwinkle core/thick layer of Effetre Ink Blue.   

You can see how the thick layer of Ink Blue on the last bead makes it really dark.  It is beautiful in person, but so hard to photograph.  That being said, after comparing all of my experiments, one of the best results was simply ink blue over periwinkle encased in clear- it is a little on the blue side, but a very nice purple with little fussJ

Because florals have such a thin layer of transparent, I switch to the darkest most saturated transparent and pair these with darker versions of the opaque bases- dark periwinkle and EDP make good bases for petals.  Pictures coming soon!

Light periwinkle as a base for the Dark Violet Premium (039) also works well, as seen in this picture:

It contrasts nicely with the olive bead to the right- those dots are EDP topped with Effetre Light Violet.

So play around with these- I would say to start, purchase Effetre Periwinkle and Ink Blue and then expand into the other colors- layer, experiment and above all- have fun!

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

Learn how to make a round lampwork bead, video

We found another really nice video by Rio Grande on YouTube that we wanted to share with our readers.  It teaches new lampworkers how to create a round shaped bead, every time!

Click here to view this video!

Complex twisted cane tutorial

This tutorial was made by Corina Tettinger and can be found on her web page, Corinabeads.  This was one of the first tutorials we followed when learning how to make lampwork beads!  You can use these twisted canes to decorate lampwork beads and a variety of fused glass pieces.

 Today I wanted to show you something I learned from my friend Liane Jaehde, who was my teaching assistant in Germany this May. Her boyfriend is a glass-blower, and he showed her this method - it's nothing NEW, just a different way of making a complex twisted cane. I am still confident you will enjoy this, it's actually so much easier and cleaner than the "usual" method of building a complex cane, it might take your interest in cane-making to a different level. Every beadmaker I have met so far builds can more or less from a pancake, the way I have shown in Passing The Flame, which means that you build it the way it's twisted later on - with the punty more or less in case. This method requires a little shift in thinking, instead of building from the center out, you start with the glass that is on one SIDE of the cane. Just look at the pictures (which I took myself WHILE making this cane....holding the glass in my left hand and the camera in my right...they turned out pretty well, actually...)

1. Make a big blob in the color you want to be on one outside of the cane (I used transparent teal)

2. Flatten this blob with a graphite marver
 

3. Add a contrasting color (white)

4. Flatten this color, so there are no holes or dimples in the surface

   

5. Add more glass, flatten again (you can repeat these steps as often as you like, the more layers, the more complex the twist will be). The LAST layer will be the other outside of the cane (transparent grass green).

6. Melt this gather lightly, so the layers bond with each other.

   

If you want to, you can now add some stringer or filigrana around the CENTER of this gather (where the white and pea green meet, in this case).

7. Attach a punty to the SIDE of this gather!!! THis is the COOL moment!

8. Now melt OFF the initial rod of glass and attach it as a second punty opposite to the first punty. Get the idea where this is going? The most difficult part here is to move the entire thing in a way that the flame heats the part where the teal rod is still attached to the gather. It's a little like moving a wrench, you'll get the hang of this quickly.

   

9. Now all you have to do is melt the gather, pull it out slightly, twist and pull, just like a regular twisted cane. But I promise it will be a lot prettier than what you're used to!!!

Types of glass and their applications

Sheet glass

Sheet glass is used for the construction of stained glass windows, mosaics and fused glass art. When cut into thin strips it can be used for lampworking and when crushed it can be used as frit.

Glass rods

Glass rods are used for lampworking and kiln fusing (if used with compatable glass).

Frit

Frit is crushed glass; fine, med, or coarse sizes.  It can be used in lampworking and fusing to add color to other glass used in an art glass piece.  By filling a glass mold with frit,  you can make cast glass art.  Fine frit can be used for freeze and fuse applications as well as glass clay.

Stringer

Stringers are thin and round spaghetti-like looking pieces of glass used in hot glass applications such as lampworking and firing in a kiln.

Noodles

Noodles are a lot like stringers except that they are flat and a little larger than stringers.  They can be used in the same applications as stringers.

Casting billet chunks

Casting billet chunks are used for casting glass in a mold and other kiln applications.

Jewels

Jewels can be faceted or cast glass.  They are used in stained glass windows.

Nuggets

Nuggets, or glass globs can be used in stained glass windows (when foiled), fusing and mosaics.

Rondels

Rondels can be used in the construction of stained glass windows.

Glass Powder

Glass Powder can be used in lampworking, fusing, glass painting (that would be fired in a kiln) and glass clay.

Dalles

Dalles are slabs of glass that are used in Dalle de verre art.

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!

Lampworking, in the beginning....

, oxygen concentrator, propane, safety, stringer, torch

So today I thought I'd post a picture of my lampworking area - for fun.  As you can see, it is pretty messy.  I usually keep the glass rods that I am currently using, right in front of me on my work bench.  This isn't always the best thing to do, occasionally a piece of hot glass will pop off a glass rod that I'm using and "stick" on a cold rod sitting in front of me.   

My torch is a Nortel Minor Burner, as you can see in the picture.  I use propane and an oxygen concentrator for fuel.  There are many different types of torches and a few different types of fuels.  Next week I'll blog about some torches available for lampworkers.  

I also like to use frit (ground up chunks of glass) and I keep it close to me on my bench.  I don't have a graphite torch marver attached to my torch, something a lot of glass artists use.  But I do have a piece of graphite next to my torch.  And I use it for a lot of things, like putting frit on it.  

I have a metal work surface laying on my workbench for safety.  I have a lot of small burns around my workbench where hot glass has scorched the work surface.  The metal work surface is laying in the area where most of my hot glass flies when it "pops" off a rod,  which occasionally happens to me.

Also for anyone reading this blog that has no idea how people make glass beads, the glass rod is what most lampworkers use to make beads.  Some people do use thin strips of other glass, like stained glass to make beads.  I haven't ever tried doing it that way even though I have a lot of stained glass.  Glass rod can be purchased in various sizes, the larger diameter rod is the hardest for me to use.  Also very thin glass pieces, which we call stringer can be pulled from the tip of a molten glass rod by using tweezers or pliers--or stringer can be bought.  Stringer is then used by lampworkers to decorate glass beads with dots and lines.  Some glass rods melt easier than others too, but easier melting glass isn't always good!  It can be difficult to work with.  Plus, I have found that certain colors melt easier than other colors!   

Basically a lampworker gradually heats up the glass rod in the flame of the torch, until it is molten, and from there they begin to create a bead by wrapping the glass around a mandrel (something else I will explain later)!  P.S.  I am totally self taught.  I have learned all I know about making beads from reading books and researching online.

This wonderful video is showing how to make lampwork glass door knobs and a ring.  The artist used boro glass to make these.

Adventures in COE's???

I took this picture to show  how I keep my glass rod organized.  The glass rod is what I use to make my lampwork beads.  The round white things you see in this picture are pieces of PVC pipe.  It works great for holding glass rods!  I used a hacksaw and cut the pipes into lengths long enough to hold the rods.  I also pull the glass out of the pipe a little bit so that I can see the color of the rod easily.

I try to keep my glass organized.  It doesn't always work.  I use a few different types of glass, including glass that has different COE's.   COE is very a very important part of working with hot glass.  It means,  Coefficient of Expansion.  The lower the COE, the harder the glass and the higher the temperature is needed for it to begin melting.  

When melting glasses together, either when fusing or lampworking, it is very important to make sure that the glasses used are compatible.  That means that the glasses should have the same COE.  The term COE basically means, how fast or how slow the glass heats up and cools down. That means, if you accidentally used glasses with different COE's it is very possible that when the piece cools down in a kiln, it will develop stress cracks which will inevitably break the finished piece.  That happens because the pieces are not cooling down at the same rate!  And unfortunately, that will produce cracks.  

When buying sheet glass,  many companies will put labels on their glass stating the COE.  When buying sheet glass that is not marked, a sample fuse is very important to test compatibility before creating a project.  Usually sheets of glass made by the same manufacturer are not even compatible!   Many manufacturers make sheet glass specifically for fusing, and it is these sheets of glass that are marked with COE's.  COE's are shown as numbers, just keep the numbers together and you'll be ok!

There are also a few different types of glass rod for lampworking.  It is important to use compatible glass rod too!   There are also two distinct types of glass rod, soft glass and (borosilicate) boro glass. Never mix soft glass and boro glass.  Soft glass rod comes in a few different COE's and they should not be mixed either!  Although,  it is possible to mix small amounts of soft glass that doesn't have the same COE's but it should not be too much, or there is the usual possibility of the piece breaking!

Below is a sample of a Bullseye COE label that you'd find on a sheet of their fusing glass.