Master Class - Razor Cut Floral Bead
Learn step by step how to make an encased floral lampwork glass bead.
This tutorial shows a round bead but experiment with different shapes, twisties and colours to find a style you like. Before you make your bead you will need to make yourself a twisted cane. There are a number of ways of doing this but this method, using a thick mandrel, will give you quite a thin cane which I prefer for this particular bead.
The Artist
Beverley Hicklin
Beverley Hicklin is a lampwork artist whose work always reflects her love of colour and texture. As well as selling her beads and jewellery kits, she also teaches classes in lampwork bead making at her studio near Horsham in West Sussex. www.beverleyhicklin.co.uk
Tools & Materials
- Lampwork torch
- Pre-dipped 1.6mm mandrel
- Un-dipped 2.4mm mandrel
- Razor tool
- Graphite rod
- 1 x rod of each of the following colours:
- Effetre Copper Green
- Effetre Special Handmade Purple, ‘EDP’
- Effetre Intense Black
- Effetre Transparent Dark Lilac
- Effetre Clear
- Effetre Opaque Light Pink pulled into stringers
- CIM Cranberry Pink pulled into stringers
Step 1
Taking your rod of pink glass, melt a gather and apply to the tip of the pre-heated un-dipped mandrel. Apply glass until you have a medium sized gather. Heat this gather and using your marver, roll it into a cone shape with the thicker part at the end.
Step 2
Taking your rod of copper green, add a fairly thick stripe down the length of the cone. On the opposite side to the copper green, add a stripe of the EDP purple. Finally, add a few thin stripes of the intense black alongside the other colours. (You can experiment with the positioning of the colours to see the different effects you can make). Melt these stripes in and regain your cone shape if necessary.
Step 3
Heat your cone gather evenly take a pair of tweezers and nip the end of the gather. Twist the mandrel whilst flashing the gather evenly in the flame to maintain the heat. Keep a nice rhythm whilst twisting so that you make an even twistie.
Step 4
To start, make a small core bead using the dark violet. If you want to make a large bead, make this core larger but bear in mind we are going to encase later so this will add to the overall size. Get a good shape and let the bead cool slightly to ensure you don’t lose your shape when you hold the bead still in the next step.
Step 5
Flash heat the end of your twistie and attach to the bead. Working under the flame so that only the twistie is in the heat - you may find it easier to turn down the flame so it’s not too fierce at this point - wind the twistie around your base bead. You should apply the twistie so that it sits on top of the bead in a trail – don’t turn the bead whilst holding the twistie still, otherwise you will ‘pull out’ the pattern in the twistie. (This does take some practice!) Melt flat.
Step 6
We are now ready to encase our bead. Keeping the base bead cool (but not cold), melt a gather of clear glass and starting close to the hole, wrap the glass around the bead in one even layer. Repeat by working your way around the bead, making sure each stroke touches the last one, until you reach the other hole. It is important to make sure you don’t leave any gaps otherwise the base colour will bleed through to the surface. Repair any gaps and heat the bead and melt in. Check your shape and correct at this stage, adding more glass at the holes if necessary.
Step 7
To make the flowers we will make groups of five dots around the bead as the base for our flowers using the light pink glass stringer. Heat the stringer gently and add your dots out of the flame. They should be equal in size and evenly spaced – but not touching each other.
Step 8
Melt your pink dots flat and regain your shape - if you have applied these evenly you shouldn’t lose your shape too much. In this instance I applied three sets of dots around my bead.
Step 9
Next take your Cranberry Pink stringer and place slightly smaller dots on top of the melted pink dots, but this time, position them nearer to the centre of the flower. Melt in flat and again get your shape back.
Step 10
Let the bead cool slightly and turn down your flame. Spot heat a petal on one of your flowers and using your razor tool and working out of the flame, ‘cut’ a line in the glass from the centre of the petal out. Try to work quickly but accurately as you don’t want your razor tool to stick to your bead. Heat each petal individually and cool your razor tool down in a pot of water between cuts.
Step 11
Repeat for all the petals and on each flower. This photo shows the finished cuts in the bead. Do not press too hard - you don’t want to distort your bead shape -but just enough to make a line appear. Melt flat.
Step 12
Finally, I have used a graphite rod to plunge a hole in the centre of each flower - a pointed pick or clean mandrel will work just as well. This is an optional step but will push the centre of the flower in. You could cover with a blob of clear glass to capture an air bubble at this point, or as I did, simply melt flat again.
how to wear your lampwork beads
Make a statement or keep it subtle the choice is yours. Get noticed, turn heads, these beads are handmade, bespoke and yours. Bright bold beads are so now. Link them onto chain to make a bracelet or combine them with charms and chain for a more dramatic statement. Bohemian girls will love the layered look.
Summer/Spring 09 Inspiration
Make A Statement
Ignite Your Creative Dreams
With a BobCat Torch