Glass bead technology goes back many centuries, and the craft was perfected in Venice during the middle ages. Today’s studio glass bead-makers still use traditional techniques and tools, but we have many modern advantages — the most important being safe, powerful and clean-burning gas torches.
When working in glass, the artist doesn’t drill holes into finished beads — the holes come first. Artists melt glass rods at the torch and wind them around steel rods called mandrels. The mandrels are first coated with bead release, a clay-like compound, to prevent the glass from sticking to the steel. Ornamentation is added with thinner glass rods called stringers and ground glass flakes known as frit.
After annealing for several hours in a temperature-controlled kiln, these glass beads are ready to be removed from their steel mandrels. Cool mandrels are soaked in water to soften and loosen the bead release coating.
After the beads have been carefully removed from the mandrels, the holes must be cleaned to remove the silt-like bead release compound. Broken or cracked beads are discarded or saved to use as surface ornamentation on projects like mosaics.
The clean beads are examined for cracks. Uneven or sharp holes are smoothed with special tools. Now the beads may be turned into jewelry — or simply enjoyed as tiny works of art.
