La Patisserie Press II - Creme Caramels

Today I'd like to show you how I have been making little iced oval chocolates with icing and Caramel drizzle with my new La Patisserie Press (which I love!)

Step 1 add a row of small wraps of glass to your mandrel and roll it out on your marver until you have a tube shape long enough to fill the full length of the oval cavity. In cross section it will look like a rectangle with corners that stick out beyond the oval shape.

Press your tube, turn, press again, turn, press again until the corners of your tube have been rounded off.

Step 2 add more wraps of glass to just the centre section of your bead

Step 3 press gently in to the top part of the press (the part with the handle) then flip it over and press again, add small dabs of glass where needed and press again until the shape is filled

Step 4 take a contrasting 2 or 3 mm stringer and draw and outline around the edge of the top side of your bead.

Step 5 fill in your outline with swipes of the same stringer

Step 6 heat your bead through and place your bead in the base and press between both halves of the press. This will smooth the shape and push glass down onto the texture plate to give you the waves on the bottom

Step 7 flame polish the top surface of your bead ready for decoration

Step 8 the stringer I am using for the caramel sauce is an encased stringer of CiM Peace encased with Effetre medium Topaz transparent 016. It is a good idea to prepare several stringers in advance. Apply your stringer in one continuous smooth trail back and forth across your bead

Step 9 heat the surface of your bead until just soft and rake about 1/3 of the way down your bead with a fine clear stringer (or fine stringer that matches your icing) to drag you caramel sauce

Step 10 heat the surface of your bead again until the surface is just soft and rake a line 2/3 of the way down in the opposite direction to finish the look. Warm your bead through thoroughly and place in your kiln to anneal.

Variations on a theme - why not ice white choc beads with dark chocolate and strawberry sauce or go minty instead? Try raking lines across the width of your bead rather than lengthways for a totally different look.

Have fun! Jolene x

Frit N Chips lampwork supplies and Kitzbitz Art Beads