Indian summer jewels
This luxurious necklace is made from a large focal bead decorated with gold leaf and zircon, and a selection of simple gold and plain coloured beads. By Lesley Rands
The Artist
Lesley Rands
Lesley has worked with glass for many years and now specialises with flameworked beads and jewellery. This stylish necklace has been strung together simply by alternating coloured plain glass beads and bronze fossil beads that Lesley picked up from a local flea market! Small gold seed beads have been used as spacers and a bronze toggle clasp completes the necklace. Several techniques have been used; gold leaf, encasing, embedding zircon gems and twisted dots using a stringer.
Tools & Materials
- 2.4mm coated mandrel
- Marvel
- Brass pointed tool
- Pair of small tweezers
- Opaque orange rod
- Small piece of gold leaf (or gold mica powder)
- Clear glass rod
- Stringers of opaque green, blue and yellow
- 2mm clear round
- cubic zircon
Step 1
Prepare by placing a quantity of gold leaf (or gold mica powder) on a marvel. Using a 2.4mm mandrel coated with bead release, start by making a long thin barrel bead in your chosen core colour. Fire polish the bead and roll it over the gold leaf. Marvel well to secure the gold leaf onto the bead.
Step 2
Care must now be taken not to overheat the gold leaf or it will burn off. Keeping the bead warm but out of the flame, heat the end of the clear rod and wind it in an overlapping spiral over the core bead. The clear glass needs to be fluid enough to flow onto the glass to prevent air bubbles being trapped. Heat, smooth and shape into a slightly fatter barrel bead.
Step 3
Start to create your flowers by placing five green dots in a circle using a stringer, leaving plenty of space in between to form the leaves. Carefully heat the whole area around the dots to melt them flush into the surface.
Step 4
Repeat the previous step with both the blue and yellow stringers, making each colour dot slightly smaller than the previous layer.
Step 5
n preparation to embed the zirconia gem, heat the whole flower. Take out of the flame and wait until you can see the centre of the petals clearly. Plunge the centre with a pointed brass tool to leave a small indentation for the gem to sit.
Step 6
To insert the zirconia gem, heat the centre of the flower until it just begins to glow red. Remove from the flame and with a pair of tweezers and a steady hand, place the gem, flat faceted side upwards, into the indentation. Flash in the flame to ensure the gem is ‘seated’ into the bead.
Step 7
In the spaces left by the flowers, place sets of three dots far enough apart so as not to merge. Melt in flush with the surface. Reheat the three dots and with the bead out of the flame plunge a thick stringer into the centre and twist one quarter turn. Wait until the stringer has cooled sufficiently to break off cleanly at the surface of the bead. Apply heat to smooth the surface.
Step 8
Finally the bead needs to be encased for a second time paying extra attention to the ends of the bead to form an even shaped, well balanced bead. To do this, build up the outer edges with clear glass as the picture shows.
Step 9
When the sides have been marveled and shaped, apply direct heat to the ends of the bead on the built up edges, these will fold over the core bead and create a nice neat end.
fashion tips
The beautiful detail in this necklace is best highlighted against a neutral colour pallette. For a casual yet stylish daytime look, tap into this summer’s safari trend with a shirt dress in stone or beige. Add some sparkle with embellished sandals and inject some colour into the look with a stack of chunky bangles in a variety of patterns and textures
tone safari shirt dress £99 Kaliko
Bangles £5 each Sainsbury’s Tu Clothing
F&F gold gem t-bar sandals £8 Tesco
Lesleys's tips
- When encasing a bead spend a few moments warming the first 4/6 cm of the rod as well as heating the end. This helps keep an even flow of glass during the encasing process
Resources
Gold Leaf: www.tuffnellglass.com Cubic Zircon gems: www.beadysamglass.com CONTACT: www.lesleyrands.com