I have seen it happen.

Someone casually walks by, and takes a look. As they are still moving forward, they look at me, and say~nice... wait, you made those beads?

How do you do that?

I am past the point where the fact that I get to stick things into an open flame and watch them get all melty stops me in my tracks. Now it's more of an overwhelming desire to get to the torch. To see what I can make happen in concert with the glass. What will it teach me today?

It is more of a dance with the glass leading, and me following along. It whispers~ it calls.

I work on a torch that runs with oxygen and propane. I use soft glass primarily from Italy and America. For the beads I most often make, much of the work is done before I ever start a bead.

I make thin glass "stringers" which are sized from threads to about 3mm, from all the colors of glass I have at my disposal. Tree trunks and flowers, stones and lizards all need custom coloring made to complete the designs.Once I have all the components ready, I start to make a bead.

The base is built up on a metal rod called a mandrel which has had a coating of a liquid applied called bead release to prevent the glass from adhearing to the metal. The bead is actually built from the hole out !      Once I am satisfied with the shape, color and design of my base bead, I carefully work with my premade stringers and "paint" my designs with the tiny bits of molten glass. As the designs are applied, the rest of the  bead must be kept warm in the flame or it will crack, so there is a dance we do painting, then rolling the bead back in the flame, then back to the painting. Never too hot, never too cool. Like anything you pratice for a long time it becomes second nature, but to most, it's akin to rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time .

When I am lucky, everything just clicks, and it is a very meditative focused event. There is nothing but me and the glass. When I am lucky...

Once I am satisified with my bead, it goes into a digitally controlled kiln and it slowly cools down overnight. With the proper making and cooling cycle a glass bead can last lifetimes.

The bead is then removed from the mandrel and the bead release is cleaned out .