It's hard to imagine a time when glass wasn't a part of everyday life, but for centuries glassmaking techniques were a carefully guarded secret. Fathers passed the craft of glassmaking to their sons, but rarely to anyone else. Glass objects were reserved for royalty in some cultures. In others, ownership was regulated by price--if you could afford the luxury of glass, it was yours.
Glass is an artisan's dream. It can be poured into molds. It can be cut and polished into faux gemstones. It can be stretched and pulled into any shape imaginable. So it's no wonder that creative people throughout the world choose to express their artistic talents with glass. Lampwork beads are just one form of the varied glassmaking craft.
What are Lampwork Beads?
To create beads, lampworkers melt narrow rods of glass with the flame of a torch. The molten glass is wound around a mandrel, a thin length of stainless steel. The space occupied by the mandrel becomes the hole through the bead. Turning the mandrel and holding it in different positions allows gravity to help the bead take form, but tools are also used to push and pull it into shape.
A lampwork artist understands the glass and the torch, knowing how much heat it takes for glass to flow, how much heat can be applied to a bead that's already shaped before it becomes molten again and loses shape, when to add decorative effects, and how different colors of glass interact with each other. Lampworking is a skill that takes a great deal of practice.
Beads can be as plain or as decorative as the artist likes. Multiple layers of glass can be added, switching colors to create the desired effects. Small dots of color can be left as bumps on the bead's surface, or plunged into the center of the bead for a totally different look.
Dots of colors can be manipulated to form designs. Fine lines are possible when craftspeople work with tiny rods of glass, called stringers--kind of like painting with a glass paintbrush.
Beads Must Be Carefully Annealed
Glass shrinks as it cools. Bringing a bead out of the flame and leaving it in the open air allows the outside of the bead to cool rapidly, while the inside is still burning hot. The stress point between the cool, shrinking glass and the hot center begins to grow, often causing the bead to crack.
The best way to cool beads is in a kiln, where temperatures can be closely regulated. The beadmaker "soaks" the beads to make sure that all glass within them is the same temperature, then slowly steps-down the heat to bring them to room temperature. All glass beads offered for sale should be kiln annealed.
Very small glass beads are sometimes cooled between layers of insulation. This is not the same as annealing, but the process is usually successful because the small amount of glass in tiny beads tends to cool at the same rate.
Hollow Beads
A hollow bead is made by trapping a bubble of air within glass. As the bead is turned on the mandrel to make it round, the air inside expands, leaving a hollow center.
Hollow Vessels
Beadmakers sometimes make hollow vessels by forming a steel wool shape around the end of a mandrel. Glass is wound around the shape, then gaps are pinched shut to make a seal. The artist continues to add glass to build the vessel and make it conform to desired shape. The steel wool is removed after the vessel is annealed.