Getting perfect lines between colors. Black (or any color) ends and color in middle.

     In my last posting there is a photo of a bead with very neat ends. The bead has marvered black ends. The lines that separate the center color are very sharp and straight. Well, the question is, how the hell does he do that!

     So here is what you need to know. First I decide what the length of the bead will be. I then mark the bead release with a drawing compass, in which I have placed two pencil leads. The normal arrangement is a steel point and a lead. I can set the compass open to any length from a ruler. I mark the release LIGHTLY so as not to break the clay. These marks will burn off quickly when the flame hits them, so they are only a guide. These lines are helpful when you want to make a run of beads the same size. Now here is the first part of the secret. Make a small bead on each mark. Each bead MUST be the same size! The diameter AND the foot print (width of glass contacting clay). Here is a major hint on getting these two beads the exact size. Use a caliper (an adjustable machine tool. Ask at your local BIG hardware store for a six inch one. These are under ten dollars) to check the diameter of each bead. Select the one bead you want to remain the size it is and set the jaws around the bead and then bring this setting to the other bead and see if the second bead is too small or two big. If it is too small add a dot or two and melt and set the bead again. If the second bead is too big, put a SPOT of heat on one side of the bead and pluck out some glass with your tweezers. The spot of heat will allow you to pluck without pulling the entire bead off center!

     Now you have two small narrow round beads with maybe one inch of open space in between. Soak both beads and the open area with good heat as insurance. Now, select the color for the center of the bead.

     Heat the end of the rod well without getting too much of a ball. Now pick a bead to start on and PAINT HOT GLASS ON THE INSIDE CHEEK OF THE BEAD. To do this, you arrive at the mandrel with the feed rod at a 45% angle to the mandrel. You touch the cheek AND the mandrel at the same time and rotate the MANDREL until you get all the way around. If you wiggle or don’t have enough hot glass to get around, you will not have a good line later. If you have too much of a ball you will have a bad line due to the uneven flow on to the mandrel. If you burned the bead release clay you may have it come lose.

     Next, do the other end. One of the ends will be harder than the other because of the right-left hand-brain-eye thing. Once you have the cheeks painted fill in the center. Now I understand that we are trying to make a bead like mine, however I want to also show you something else along the way. When you fill in the center, only fill the area to a small diameter (about half the diameter of the end beads. Now melt in the CENTER ONLY. You must maintain the end beads as bead like (i.e. don’t lose the pucker on the outside of the end beads. The melted center glass will pull the inside cheek of the end beads out and into a gentle curve along with itself. This is a most beautiful expression of surface tension doing what it must do as you keep it on center. The name of this shape is knucklebone or apple core. You might want to make earring parts with this shape.

     Now, back to the bead at hand. Fill in the center area to a point that will give you the final diameter you want but don’t over run onto the black ends. Note, you can measure this size with your caliper and note the setting on a ruler and save this setting for another bead of the same size. Once you have enough glass you need to melt it in until all the center glass is hot enough to pull itself on center while you rotate everything on CENTER. If you can melt the center glass AND NOT CHANGE THE SHAPE of the end beads (i.e. you still have a pucker on the outside) you are to be congratulated. This takes a lot of practiceThis can be a complete form and many design ideas can be worked onto this form. Also, this bead is never touched with any tool, it relies on surface tension to form into a bead, given that you can keep it on center while nature takes it's course.

     Now the final moves to get a marvered shape from the above shape. The next move is simply to heat an end and marver it from a bead like shape to a tapered shape that joins the middle glass in a nice curve. If your end bead still has a pucker when you begin to marver the end, things go smoothly. If your ends have pulled back (do to over heating the center glass) you will have to fight the ends outward and hope all goes well. Remember to heat your paddle (see earlier posting) so that when you paddle the black glass you won’t scorch the surface when you return to the flame.

     GO FOURTH AND MAKE BEADS! James Smircich

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