‘Petal’ Bead Tutorial

These petal-shaped beads are fairly simple and quick to make. One on its own looks a bit odd but a whole set of them looks great. They make a fabulous twinkly noise when they knock against each other too.

1. Using the darkest shade of glass make a small donut-shaped bead.

2. With the same colour add a large dot to the base bead.

3. Add some of the medium shade of glass to the dot. Keep adding glass so that your dot ends up drop-shaped.

4. Switch to the palest shade of glass and build up your drop a little more. Now rotate the bead in the flame to even out the drop shape. You need to keep the base bead cool and concentrate on heating the drop part. Don’t get it too hot or it will stretch and pull out of shape.

5. Now heat the drop part of the bead to an even glow and then flatten it with mashers or whatever tool/s you prefer to use.

6. Please note that you need to flatten the drop at a ninety degree angle to the mandrel.

7. Carefully reheat the flattened drop and using a pair of tweezers gently twist it through ninety degrees.

8. Warm the tip of the petal and dip it into fine reduction frit, reheat to adhere it to the bead, reduce to bring out the sheen of the frit and then put into a warm kiln to anneal. Voila!

Notes

Remember to keep your base bead warm at all times or it will crack.

Try experimenting with different colours and instead of decorating the petal tips with frit you could use enamels or pixie dust.

Happy melting!

Laura Sparling is a full-time beadmaker in Southampton, UK. She sells her beads through her website www.beadsbylaura.co.uk.