Most of the animals we are familiar with can be found as lampwork beads, both those made in an artist’s studio and those made as lampwork beads wholesale. The cat lampwork bead may be a head only, the whole cat, or, in one case, the head and body as separate lampwork beads with a rhinestone [...]
The thing is, at some point in the lampworker’s working life, they make nearly every shape of bead. In the practice required to make handmade lampwork beads, one way to alleviate the stress of making the same bead over and over is to try making the different shapes. So, a beginning lampworker will try to [...]
Fish make wonderful lampwork beads for several reasons. First, the tropical reef fish come in many colors and patterns for those who want to recreate creatures that exist, and the possibilities of the fish shape allow others to create wonderful animals with bright colors in a form that is not too complicated. The fish shape [...]
The really great thing about collecting lampwork beads is that storage requirements are minimal per item. They, of course, add up as the collection expands, but each one needs very little space. Think about the collector of punch bowls. Now that guy needs space! So, if space is not the problem, what might be? Glass is pretty sturdy, and [...]
With the transparency of glass, it is perfect for the aquarium bead. Each one looks like a small world of water, with coral, algae and fish. Better than a tide pool because you get a side view and not the view from above. And it does not smell like the beach at low tide, which is a [...]
The beauty of working with glass is that you can make it into nearly any shape. Working in a torch heats the glass enough to make it malleable, but it is still firm enough to retain the shape it is given. So the lampwork glass bead artist can form the glass into the shapes of [...]
Lampwork beads, when completed, come in two basic forms: ordinary beads and focal beads. Although anything but ordinary, by “ordinary bead” I mean beads that are intended to be used in numbers in a piece of jewelry, versus beads meant to be used as the single point of interest. Sometimes the lampwork artist makes ordinary [...]
This is a basic description of how lampwork beads are made. If you find it interesting, I recommend attending a couple of demonstrations and even taking a class in order to understand the technical difficulties and appreciate the finished product. The artist coats a mandrel, a steel wire in the gauge needed to create the [...]
In the last two decades, there has been an explosion in lampwork glass beads made by glass artists. This is a part of the explosive growth of the entire bead industry, which has erupted with innumerable styles of and sources for beads. The history of beads has gone from a one-man (Peter Francis, Jr.) obsession [...]
Many beautiful lampwork glass beads are being made these days. I hope you will come along with me as I explore the possibilities.