The Vessel that wanted to be a Lily

In the most recent issue of "The Glass Bead," which is a quarterly publication of the International Society of Glass Bead Makers, or ISGB, there is a wonderful tutorial written by Margie Shanahan on how to make a Calla Lily Bead. The tutorial is well written and illustrated.

I decided that this project, a calla lily bead, would be my next challenge on the torch. For whatever reason, I didn't take the magazine downstairs with me as I began to torch. I had read the tutorial and looked at all the pictures, right? Taking the magazine down would not be necessary, right?

Wrong. I did visualize and follow the steps in the tutorial. The problem was two fold, 1) I used a hollow mandrel and 2) I skipped steps 3 & 4. Ooops! Luckily, since I used a hollow mandrel, when my flower collapsed because I had skipped steps 3 & 4, I was able to save the bead and blow a simple vessel from the molten glass. Cool!
I do like the vessel, but it wasn't a calla lily.

All right, next day, take the magazine down and refer to it as I torched. This time, I still used the wrong type of mandrel. I used a hollow mandrel with a small hole in it for blowing hollow beads. oooops! One quick save with a dot of glass over the hole, just in case I missed a step again, but this time, it formed. I made a calla lily bead. Take a look at it! It's in my Etsy shop now. I added some crystals and seed beads and strung it on a choker. Love it! Thank you, Margie Shanahan for sharing this bead!

At last, my vessel became a bead!