Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Easy Peasy Tutorial - Making Lampwork Popcorn Beads

I haven't written a lampwork bead tutorial in ages,
but at the request of someone on Lampworketc, 
I decided it was time to write a tutorial on making
Popcorn Lampwork Beads.
These beads are very easy to make.
What do you need?
You need glass rods and stringers.
I use white rods and stringers and whatever color of yellow I have on hand.
I pull a stringer from the yellow rod.  It should be about the size of a 3/32" mandrel.
Sorry for the poor quality of photos.
It's hard to make beads and take photos at the same time.
You will also need mandrels dipped in bead release.

I use 3/32" for these beads because whatever I don't use or sell can then be donated to 
for the children who participate in the program.

Begin by making a white spacer bead on the mandrel.
See, so far, so good.

Using your yellow stringer, add a good sized dot to your white spacer bead.
Continue to flash your bead in the flame, but do NOT melt the dot.
Using your white stringer, now add 5-6 dots around the yellow dot.
Do not melt into the white bead.
Place your new bead in the kiln and anneal.
Pop!
You've made a popcorn bead.

WoooHooo!
Lampwork popcorn beads = no calories!
You can find them

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The poprcorn beads are ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS!!! I love them. I'm going to save your tutorial in my Lampwork Tutorials and Info. folder I have on my desktop.

Thank you, Mallory for my totally calorie-free popcorn. Ummm Yummy!!!

Neomi
(Cinnamon on LE.com)

Anonymous said...

I hope this works. It's my second try and I do want it to work.

Mallory, I just read your Popcorn Tutorial...and I love it...simple and sweet. Your popcorn beads are ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS!!!And...they're calorie free-UMMM yummy!

I'm going to save it in my Lampwork Tutorial and Info. folder on my desktop.

Thank for sharing...so sweet of you, Mallory!

Neomi (Cinnamon on LE.com)

Maggie said...

Mallory, Thanks for sharing how you make these. They are yummy looking!