Lampwork Bead Pet Bracelet

Steps 1-5

Steps:

1. Dip a stainless steel mandrel in bead release and set it upright to dry.

2. Wearing protective glasses light the torch and adjust it to the correct height. Heat the mandrel in the flame.

3. To make the mouse, pick up a light gray glass rod and heat it in the flame until it becomes molten. Wind it around the mandrel making the base bead.

4. Rotate the mandrel to balance out the glass. Create a nice even round bead and keep it rotating in the flame.

5. Pick up the glass rod again and add the head, legs, tail, nose and ears to the base bead. Use tweezers and a graphite paddle for shaping.

Step 6

6. Switch the glass color to pink and add dots to the inner part of ears. Smash the dots with tweezers and create a little dot for the tip of the nose. Switch the glass color to white and add tiny dots for eyes. Smash the eye dots down with tweezers.

Steps 7-9

7. Switch the glass color to black and add tiny dots for the pupil of the eyes. Press the black tiny dots down with the tweezers.

8. Rotate bead in flame a few times to cool it down a little bit. Place the bead and mandrel into heated vermiculite in the crock-pot.

9. Repeat the steps to make a total of three mouse beads.

Step 10

10. To make the fish bead, coat a mandrel with bead release and heat it in the flame. Pick up an amber glass rod and heat it in the flame at the same time. When the glass becomes molten, start to wind it around the mandrel making the base bead. Rotate the mandrel to balance out the glass. Create a nice even round bead and keep it rotating in the flame.

Steps 11-12

11. Pick up the glass rod again and add the head, tail and fins to the base bead. Use tweezers and a graphite paddle as needed. Pinch and shape the head with tweezers. Form a mouth with a needle tool.

12. Switch the glass color to white and add tiny dots for eyes. Smash the eye dots down with tweezers.

Steps 13-15

13. Switch the glass color to black and add tiny dots for the pupil of the eyes. Smash the black tiny dots down with the tweezers.

14. Rotate the bead in the flame a few times to cool it down a little bit. Place the bead and mandrel into heated vermiculite in the crock-pot.

15. Make another fish bead as described above.

Steps 16-19

16. To make the cat bead, apply bead release to a mandrel and heat it in the flame. Pick up a dark gray glass rod and heat it in the flame at the same time. When the glass becomes molten, start to wind it around the mandrel making the base bead. Rotate the mandrel to balance out the glass.

17. Create a nice even round bead and keep it rotating in the flame. With the tweezers, smash the glass between the tweezers plates to create a flat oval bead of even thickness.

18. Melt the ivory glass rod in the flame and add a blob at the center of the flat oval bead. Smash the ivory down and melt it into the gray.

19. Melt the dark gray glass again and add two thin lines of glass down the front of the base bead for the front legs and shape them with tweezers.

Steps 20-21

20. Add a blob of glass to the upper left middle of the base bead on the top portion of the leg lines of glass. This will be the cat’s head. Smash it down flat.

21. With the gray glass continue to add body parts to the cat, the back legs on either side of body and ears. Shape them with tweezers.

Steps 22-27

22. Pick up the ivory glass and add paws to the front and back legs. Add two small dots for the cat’s cheeks. Smash them down with tweezers.

23. Pick up a tiny white rod and put two tiny dots for eyes above the cheeks and smash them down with tweezers.

24. Pick up a tiny black rod and put two tiny dots on the white dots and smash them down with tweezers for the pupils.

25. Pick up a tiny gray glass rod and add a tiny dot for a nose where the two cheeks meet.

26. Turn the cat bead around and pick up gray glass rod. Melt it on to add a tail in the middle of the back of the bead. Add some ivory glass to the tip of the gray tail. Flatten the tail with a graphite paddle and shape it with tweezers. Note: Reshape any body part as necessary in case any melted down while working on other sections of the cat.

27. Rotate the bead in the flame a few times to cool it down a little bit. Place bead and mandrel into vermiculite in a heated crock-pot. Turn off the crock-pot and let cool.

Steps 28-31

28. Remove the beads and check them for cracks or breaks. Put the beads and mandrels on a rack in kiln and heat the kiln. Place a pyrometer into the kiln hole and turn it on. Monitor the kiln temperature until it reaches the correct temperature for glass annealing. Hold the temperature for 30 minutes and turn off the kiln. Let the kiln cool for approximately 12 hours. Remove the beads and mandrels from the kiln.

29. Remove the beads from the mandrels by using pliers to hold the mandrel and twist the beads off with your hand.

30. Rinse the beads in water. Clean the bead holes with a drill bit on a rotary tool. Rinse as needed. Dry the beads and check for cracks or imperfections.

31. Apply etching cream to the fish beads and let them stand for a few minutes. Rinse the fish beads and dry them.

Steps 32-33

32. Assemble the bracelet by stringing the glass beads, silver beads and crystal beads onto beading wire alternating them in the desired design and length. Add a clasp and loop it the wire around the clasp ring and back in through a crimp bead. Close it with needle-nose pliers or crimping pliers.

33. Cut the other end of the wire off the wire spool; add a crimp bead and the other end of the clasp.

Step 34

34. To make the dangling cat charm, pick up a head pin, add a silver spacer to the head pin and the cat bead on top of that. Add a silver ball on top of the cat’s head on the head pin. Bend the head pin at a 45-degree angle with pliers. Make a loop on the head pin.

Step 35

35. Slide the loop onto the loop of the clasp on the lampwork bead pet bracelet. Twist the head pin around the loop to secure. Snip off any extra metal head pin with the wire cutters.

Web site: www.winecountrybeads.com