Giant Bead Project, WOW!

     I’ve been having a lot fun lately. I’ve been tying to make the biggest bead in the world. I did a series of five beads. The first measured 3-1/4 x 9/16 inch. The fifth bead, see photo above, was 4-3/8 x 4/ inch!

     I propose a challenge project to the readers. I would like you to attempt the longest bead you’ve ever attempted. Try to make this long bead using the same moves you use making your regular long beads. Granted, I’m speaking to artists of vastly varying degrees of skill. I suggest that you simply push the envelope of your skills by trying to achieve a bigger bead. This project will cause you to confront the road map you use to make long beads. You will fail many times in this project but each disaster will show you the road to improvement. I truly believe that our mistakes are our best teachers.

     The key to this project is KNOWING where the heat ISN’T, so you can apply appropriate INSURANCE heat. When making even regular long beads, we all have a few bead ends BLOW UP! Have you ever had a long bead crack up in the middle? With a few exceptions, this doesn’t happen because the radiating heat from one or both of the ends will INSURE the middle from cracking. Not so with the giant bead! You must INSURE the entire length of the giant bead throughout the entire project. Solving the insurance heat factor in this project will lead to greater self-assurance in all your glasswork! To apply proper insurance heat to any part of your bead in progress you must remember to TAKE THE TIME TO DO THE WORK OF GOOD INSURANCE. To simply skim over a cool part of a bead will only double the cracking problem instead of assuring a safe procedure forward. It is very important to understand that you need to apply INSURANCE HEAT DEEPLY! Simply to apply heat to the surface will not do any thing for coolness of the glass at the mandrel level and will lead to a crack-up when you return to that area. To apply correct insurance heat, bath the area with heat until you see a LOW RED GLOW of heat on the surface. When you first see this glow, move the bead outward in the flame so the glow doesn’t rise to a middle red glow. Continue this bath of heat until you come to believe that the glass is sustaining the low red glow all the way down to mandrel level. If the heat factor is middle red, you are heating to rapidly and will collapse the marvered shape. Here is a line to remember: DON’T BUY CHEAP INSURANCE! Try this project and be a winner by learning from your mistakes!

     Bye for now and stay on center. James Smircich

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