Sunny side-up - fried egg mini tutorial

 A quick and fun bead to make that is  perfect for Beads of Courage 

 

Happy Melting, Jolene xx

Slimy Snail tutorial for Beads of Courage

 

This simple but effective snail design is perfect for Beads of Courage. 

You can find more great tutorials suitable for Beads of Courage in the BoCUK Bead Artists Group on Facebook.

Happy Melting, Jolene xx

Simple chocolate truffle tutorial for Beads of Courage

  Chocolate truffle bead tutorial for Beads of Courage.  

These chocolate truffle beads are quite simple to make and  can be decorated any way you like. Below are a few "recipes" and decorating suggestions.To make these little chocolates, start by making a round bead in your favourite chocolate brown glass colour and flatten one side so they will stand up. I have flattened mine on a wavy pattern brass texture plate but if you don't have anything like that then just flatten the base on any suitable surface.

Effetre chocoalte brown 444 with a swirl of white glass. I have used commercial stringer here rather than pulled my own.

Effetre chocolate brown 444 dipped in "sugar frit" Kuglar's Lead Crystal Clear (K100) in a fine #00 grind.

 

CiM Ghee for a caramel looking truffle with Effetre chocolate brown stringer waves.

Effetre chocolate brown 444 with chocolate brown stringer waves.

Find our how to support BoCUK with bead donations in the new Beads of Courage UK Bead Artists Facebook Group.

Happy melting, Jolene x

 

 

 

365 Penguins Fan Art lampwork bead tutorial for Beads of Courage

These super cute beads were inspired by a book that I read with my children in January 2015 called 365 Penguins. It was written by Jean-Luc Fromental and illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet. Joëlle has very kindly given me permission to write a not for profit fan art tutorial to show how I make them so that others may also create them for Beads of Courage donations. With Christmas just around the corner I thought that now would be a great time to share.

Step 1: Wind a tube of black glass on to your mandrel.

Step 2: Use a roller or a hand held graphite marver to shape your tube into a bullet shape.

 

I'm using a CG bead roller BR9 small chunky oval  here.

Step 4: Press your bead between 2 heat proof surfaces to form a tab shape.

Step 5: Draw a rectangle using chunky white stringer.

Step 6: Fill in your rectangle shape with swipes of white glass.

Step 7: Heat the whole bead and press it again.

Step 7: Add 2 swipes of black glass to form the wings and a large dot to form the beak.

Step8: Heat your bead and it press flat again.

Step 9: Add 2 large dots of orange or blue glass.

Step 10: Spot heat the tips of the wings and rake the soft glass with a dental pick to create points. Repeat this process to shape the beak.

Step 11: Heat the feet and press your whole bead flat again. Spot heat one foot and use a dental pick to rake twice to create 3 "toes". Repeat this process for the other foot. Add two black dots of glass for the eyes.

Step 12: Add a large dot of white on top of  each black eye dot, then layer on a second dot of black. 

Heat and press for a final time. Heat the whole bead through well and then garage in your kiln.

 

Happy Penguin making, Jo  xx

Minions in Dungarees, free tutorial challenge for Beads of Courage

Make a minion challenge for Beads of Courage

I was making some Minion beads for Beads of Courage the other day based on Heather Sellers fabulous make a Minion Challenge

I made one of them kinda oval just for fun and he looked like he was missing his dungarees so I decided to dress him and thought it would be nice to follow in Heather's footsteps and throw out a Minion making challenge for Beads of Courage too. 

So I challenge you all to make a minion and send it in :-D

UK Bead Donations:
Beads of Courage, Inc.
 c/o Diane Watt
 14, Radlow Crescent
 Marston Green
 Birmingham,  B37 7LZ

US Bead Donations:
3230 N. Dodge Blvd. Suite J
Attn:  Bead Donations
Tucson, AZ  85716

Canadian Bead Donations:
PO Box 71142
Silver Springs RPO
Calgary, Alberta  T3B 5K2

Firstly you will need to make some thick yellow stringer 2mm approx, some thick blue stringer 2mm approx and black stringer 1mm approx.

Wrap a wide footprint of blue glass on to your mandrel - I use the smallest cavity on CG Bead roller BR-46 large chunky oval to shape these oval minions. If you are hand shaping then aim to create a footprint that will be between 1/3 to half the length of your final bead.

Using a roller or by hand shaping with a graphite paddle, shape the wraps to form one half of an oval bead. If the flat end of your half oval has a pucker, gently heat and roll the bead against the side of your mandrel to remove the pucker to  minimise the chance of trapping a large air bubble in the middle of your bead when you add the yellow glass.

Add some wraps of yellow glass next to the blue taking care not to trap any air bubbles between the two colors.

Hand shape the yellow glass with your paddle to from the second half of your oval base bead or if using a roller, gently heat and press your bead into the roller cavity. Turn the mandrel a little between each press until you have created a balanced and smooth two-tone oval that will rotate freely in the roller cavity. If you have too much glass you can remove small quantities with a pair of long nose tweezers.

Wrap a line of thick yellow stringer around the blue half of your bead leaving a thin strip of blue at the centre which will create the straps of your Minion's dungarees. next wrap a thin line of black stringer around the yellow half of the bead near the bead hole.This will form the band for his goggles.

Melt your stringers in flat and then press your bead with some mashers, between two graphite paddles or with a parallel press. Don't worry about removing any chill marks at this stage as they will be removed during the next stages as you add further detail.

Take your blue stringer and create the "bib" part of your Minion's clothes by placing two swipes side-by-side that join up the dungaree braces to to the trousers. Repeat this for the back side also. Decide which face is going to be the front of your minion and place a small black dot where you would like the Minions mouth to be.

Melt all of the raised decoration in flush on both faces of the bead by warming the raised areas through and pressing them down gently with your graphite paddle. Once everything is flush partially mask your black dot with an offset dot of yellow to create the Minion's smile.

Melt the yellow dot in flat and then place a large grey dot from a full sized rod in the centre of the headband.

Flatten the grey dot but leaving it a little raised and then top the grey dot with white glass. Flatten the white dot also, leaving it slightly raised so that the dots are stacked up.

Top the white dot with a large blob of clear glass and let the clear glass round off to form a lens shape in the flame.

Choose your minions eye colour and place a small dot over the clear lens to create the iris. Next pick up your black stringer again and add a tiny dot to the eye to for the pupil. You can chose to add some more final last details at this point if you like, such as buttons and further details on the goggles. Warm your bead through and pop it in the kiln to anneal.

Minion beads are very well loved and treasured by Beads of Courage kiddos so it would be great if you wanted to give making them a whirl!

Have a lovely evening, Jo x
 
PS. This tutorial is written for bead makers with prior experience in mind. Please take all safety precautions when working with a very hot flame including proper eye protection and please do work in an adequately ventilated work space.

This tutorial is fan art and is not to be used for profit. It has no connection with the creators of Minions.

Strawberry iced chocolate bead tutorial in Beads & Beyond magazine Feb 2015

Hot off the press and fresh on the shelves, the Valentines edition of Beads & Beyond magazine has a tutorial in print for my fab strawberry iced chocolate beads. I couldn't be more thrilled, the page looks beautiful.

Jolene xx

My lampwork tutorials and EUVAT from Jan 1st

Tomorrow (Jan 1st 2015) sees the beginning of a massive change in EU law that sees VAT on ebooks and digital services charged at the rate of the country of the buyer..... an administrative and technical challenge that I am simply not able to meet as a one woman business.

(You can find out more about the changes on the EU vat action website http://euvataction.org).

Rather than withdraw my tutorials from sale completely I have been looking around for a 3rd party website that is VAT compliant and have decided to list with Payhip who are ready for the big changes on Jan 1st. My tutorials are only available on my blog for the time being.


 

6 Organic Shard Recipes and Shard Blowing tutorial is now available via Payhip as an instant download, £10 plus Vat for your country

Buy eBook

Tutorial details: 24 pages, 50 colour images, 9.58 MB and is written in English.

There is also a brill bonus tutorial on applying shards and making encased beads with a graphite roller.

Making Lime Murrini available Via Payhip as an automatic download, £12 plus Vat for your country.

Buy eBook

 

Tutorial details: 37 pages, 135 images, 6.2 MB and written in English

This eBook teaches you how to make my signature semi-circular lime murrini slices. There are 66 step by step images for this project accompanied by written instructions. This tutorial is aimed at for intermediate to advanced lampworkers and is not Hot Head friendly, a kiln is also required.

There are also 3 bonus tutorials

Amoeba beads for Beads of Courage
My favourite vine cane recipe
Chocolate Limes with the Kati was here! La Patisserie press
(which shows how to use pictorial murrini as raised decoration).


Jolene x

Twistie cored focal bead with hearts

I tend to make these beads on 4mm mandrels, turns out they are great as a center piece for beaded kumihimo type bracelets.

Equipment and glass that I've used:

• round cavity graphite bead roller
• graphite paddle
• steel dental pick
• parallel mashers
• clear glass
• CiM Marachino
• Effetre white commercial stringer
• goldstone ribbon twistie cane
• fine black stringer

Step 1
Make a tube bead out of clear or pale transparent glass that fits the cavity on your 1 size down from the size you would like to make.

Step 2
Encase your clear core with a layer of CiM Maracshino.

Step 3
Melt the Maraschino glass in and round off the edges in your graphite roller.

Step 4
Wrap a spiral of twistie cane around your Maraschino Core. I've used a black edged goldstone ribbon twistie here but you can use whatever twistie cane you like to make best.

Step 5
Wrap a second spiral of twistie cane around your core bead laying it between the wraps of the first spiral.

Step 6
Melt in your twistie wraps carefully and marver them in smooth with a graphite paddle.

Step 7
Spot heat your bead and make some twists with a fine black stringer to add interest.

Step 8
Encase your bead with a layer of clear glass. I have used Effetre 006 clear here.

Step 9
Melt in your encasing layer and smooth off your bead in the roller cavity.

Step 10
Add more clear glass at the edges and around the centre of your bead. By doing this you are ensuring that you will make neat puckered bead holes and are bulking out your bead to fill the next size up cavity in your roller.

Step 11
Melt in your clear glass and shape your bead in your roller.

Step 12
Add 4 or 5 largish white dots close to the bead holes on both sides of your bead and melt them in flat

Step 13
Add large dots of CiM Maraschino over your white dots and melt them in flat.

Step14
Spot heat each dot in turn and rake your dots into hearts using a dental pick.

Step 15
Repeat the heating and raking process on the other side of your bead.

Step 16
Slowly melt your bead smooth again and shape in your roller cavity.

Step 17
Pull some extra fine white stringer, I heat the end of the commercial stringer and anchor it to the end of my mandrel to pull out fine stringer as I need it.

Step 18
Wrap the fine stringer randomly around the centre of your bead and melt it smooth.

Step 19
Heat your bead until glowing and then press it in a parallel press or handheld mashers.

Step 20
Flame polish away any chill marks created when you pressed your bead and pop it in your kiln to anneal.

Have a great day, Jolene x

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