It's hard to imagine a time when glass wasn't a part of everyday life, but for centuries glassmaking techniques were a carefully guarded secret. Fathers passed the craft of glassmaking to their sons, but rarely to anyone else.

How Lampwork Beads are Made

To create these beads, lampworkers melt narrow rods of glass with the flame of a torch. The molten glass is wound around a mandrel which is a thin length of stainless steel. The space occupied by the mandrel becomes a hole through the bead when the bed is slipped away.

Turning the mandrel and holding it in different positions allows gravity to help the bead take form, but tools are also used to push and pull glass beads into shape.

What Lampwork Beads Look Like

Hand crafted glass beads can be as plain or as decorative as the artist likes. Multiple layers of glass are often used, switching colors to create the desired look. Small dots of color can be left as bumps on the bead's surface or plunged into the center where they form floral-like designs.

How Lampwork Beads Are Stabilized

Glass shrinks as it cools. Bringing a bead out of the flame and leaving it in the open air allows the outside of the bead to cool rapidly, but its inside is still burning hot. The stress point between the cool, shrinking glass and the hot center begins to grow and often causes the bead to crack.

To prevent stress and cracks, beads are cooled a kiln, where temperatures can be closely regulated. The beadmaker "soaks" the beads at a high temperature to make sure that all glass within them is evenly heated, then takes several hours to slowly reduce the heat to bring beads to room temperature. The process is called kiln annealing. and it's important to make sure that the handcrafted glass beads you buy are kiln annealed.

All lampwork beads in my designs are hand made by lampwork designers and kiln annealed. I guarantee all my lampwork beads to be free of defects so you can enjoy them for years to come.

Earrings can be found on the Art for Your Ears page

Necklace can be found on the Art For Your Neckline