After a few false starts and a bout of weather that made it to cold to go into the room that hosts my torch set up tonight I finally got to have a go at attempting to make a lampwork bead.


The excitment was mounting as I tried to light the torch, so much that I nearly couldn't get it lit properly. Eventually though I had a lovely flame going and I could get my hands on the glass.


I chose to start with a pale green, one of my favourite colours, got it heated and had a lovely blob ready to go onto the mandrel. Carefully wrapping it round and turning there was a big grin on my face as I cut the glass away from the rod.


I got the bead into it's rough shape and thought I didn't want to stop there so I took a stringer of a translucent green and wrapped that around the center of the bead. After I had turned the translucent green into the bead I brought the mandrel up vertically to make the teardrop shape. Once I was happy with that I brought it back up the flame to start cooling.


The hour that the bead spent in the vermiculite was the hardest I really wanted to look at the bead and touch it. (Just keep telling yourself you can look soon.)


Success I finally got to look at my bead and I am so happy with it. The shape isn't perfect but I wasn't expecting anything truly amazing to come yet.


So here's to many more. It's a fantastic craft and now I am looking at ideas to wrap this bead into a pendant.


The bead measures 15x10mm approx. got to start small and work your way up :)