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Using Lampwork Beads In Making Beatiful Jewelry
Have you considered using lampwork beads as part of your jewelry making efforts. Are you considering buying jewelry containing these beautiful, handcrafted glass beads?
Exactly What Is Lampwork?
Lampwork beads originated from the 17 th century glassblowers of Italy and France. Working with blowpipes and oil lamps they had just the right amount of heat to make this type of glass, using techniques which were passed down from 1500 BC Eqypt.
Today oxygen torches are mostly used, but many of the technical aspects of glass formation, and of decoration, have been unchanged for many hundreds of years, producing unique, beautiful, and classic designs.
Lampwork Beads – How To Know The Best
Handcrafted beads will always be as good, or as bad, as the quality of the work going into the craftsmanship.
Style is important, but quality is more important. Visible air bubbles should be avoided, unless the bubbles are used as a design element, and are in specific, logical places, and are round.
The bead hole should have no nicks, rough edges, or jagged edges, all of which can readily cut or fray the wire. An imperfect shape is usual in handmade beads, but the shape should be nice to look at.
Avoid buying flexible beads as they result when beads were not correctly heated.
How Are Lampwork Beads Made?
Lampworkers heat the end of a glass rod with a torch until it melts. Then then use a thin metal rod, a mandel, and wind the the glass around the rod. The mandel leaves a small hole in the glass, the same hole as the bead hole.
Beads removed from the flame and too rapidly cooled can crack. The open air causes the outside glass to cool more rapidly than the inside, causing this. Thus kilns are used to allow gradual cooling, and uniform cooling through the entire bead.
Unskilled, uninformed workers taking shortcuts may not use kilns, but why take chances.
Making Jewelry From Lampwork
Lampwork beads, which usually are sold by the strand, can be used in any form of beaded jewelry. Along with silver spacers they make strikingly beautiful jewelry, with a perfect look being very possible to achieve as long as you don’t expect these beads to ever match one another exactly.
You will find both new and old lampwork beads. Look for quality, and then age.
Of course, you can also buy fabulous jewelry made with lampwork beads.
Becoming quite expert at choosing lampwork beads is difficult, but the best way is to learn as you go,
About the Author
Ms Truelove is a beadworker, specializing in necklaces made with very expensive, antique African trading beads. These necklaces are highly regarded, but actually quite easily made beautiful because of the stunningly exotic beads used in making the jewelry. The trick to making beautiful jewelry is to have excellent taste and to buy beautiful beads.
Ms Truelove’s birth name is Margaret, but she adopted the name of her paternal great aunt, actually named Precious Jewel.
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