Making a heart shaped glass bead
Here are a number of pictures demonstrating the way I make a glass bead in a heart shape.
Moving it through the flame softens the glass allowing me to work it into the shape I am looking for.
To get the swirl on the heart I take a glass stringer and while the area is super heated I insert the stringer and twist into the glass heart shape.
I wait for a second to allow a slight cooling and then snap off the glass stringer leaving the twist in the bead.
It takes around thirty minutes to make a heart shaped bead of this size.
Once the lamp work is finished I put the bead in my kiln overnight for annealing.
If I am happy with the quality of the bead when I take it out of the kiln I'll finished it off with the sterling silver and a necklace!
