glass bead making

yesterday i took a glass bead making class with becca & april. we were all looking for something new & creative to do, and we had a great time. everyone in the class walked away with 5 beads. from left to right...

the plain bead: the first bead we made. mine looks a little more creative than it actually was because of the gray streaking. it was made with just a red glass rod, but the red glass struck to gray as it was heated. so it gave it a cool swirl effect. i did my plain bead with four flat sides. i think she suggested that because i may have put too much pressure on the bead when i rolled it on the marver to smooth it out.

the spotted/striped bead: i had just watched becca do a spotted bead, so i decided i wanted to do a striped one. but i had the process of spotting in my head, so mine ended up as a mixture of the two. the spots/stripes stand out on mine, but i could have kept turning it in the flame & rolled the bead to get the yellow glass to lay flat with the black.

the two color bead: the last bead we made. we took two different rods, taped them together and used them as one rod to make the bead. i had a transparent green and an opaque green. i really like how this one came out, even if the hole isn't exactly centered.

the squished bead with frit: we all did one bead that we pressed in frit (crushed glass) and then squished flat. since my beads were all sort of barrel shaped (instead of spheres) my squished bead is a rectangle instead of a disk. but i like it. the frit was black, which looks neat on the opaque green, i think.

the millefiori bead: millefiori is kinda fun. they're these little glass disks with intricate designs in them. and you make a bead & then press the millefiori into it, then heat and smooth to smash it in there & get rid of the edges. you can still feel the edges around mine a little, but i'm okay with how it came out.

it was a good time. we're thinking we should split the cost of some supplies & have our own bead making saturday some weekend. i don't know what i'll do with the beads, but they're fun to make. a blow torch and molten glass... good times.