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

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.

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

My Etsy and My eBay
and Frit N Chips lampwork supplies.

Faux Malachite Recipe

Faux Malachite recipe

I haven't written a blog tutorial in a little while and thought it would be nice to share this recipe for faux Malachite that I have been working on recently.

I've been using Effetre Petrol Green as the base with stringers of Effetre Mosaic Green, CiM Goblin and CiM Slytherin melted in randomly.

Lastly I have layered up random stacked dots using stringers in all 4 colours and melted them flat before final shaping.


I think there is more work to do on laying down patterns but as a jumping off point I am pretty pleased with the glass combination. Many thanks to Kevin Walsh for sharing this beautiful image on flickr under a creative commons licence which allows me to share it's beauty with you. I hope it gives you some inspiration.

Have a lovely day, Jolene xx


My eBay and  My Etsy

Applying 3D flower murrini #blogtoberfest13 day 1

I'm starting #Blogtoberfest13 with a bang and this lovely tutorial for applying 3D flower murrini that I wrote back in January this year but until now it was just in pdf form rather than on my blog. I hope you like it xx













Step 1
• Spot heat your bead where you would like your murrini to go, pick up your murrini with long nose tweezers or murrini hemostats and plunge the point end in to your softened bead.

Step 2
• Cap your murrini with a small dot of clear to protect the surface of the murrini and stop the pattern from closing up when heated.









Step 3
• Heat your clear cap in a low flame and press it gently so that the end of your murrini starts to flare out. Repeat this step as many times as you like to help your petals to open more but remember to heat and press gently each time, opening the bloom is a gradual process.

Step 4
• Melt a larger dot of glass on the end of the clear rod and drop the glass on top of your clear cap and then flame cut the drop from the rod. Check your newly applied glass for any scum or unwanted bubbles and remove this with tweezers. Checking and removing any impurity at this early stage whilst your murrini is still cool is best. Trying to remove a blemish in the clear layer when your murrini is hot may distort your flower.

Step 5
• Heat and pat down your larger clear cap
gently. Do this several times, working
slowly to prevent smearing your murrini.
Your clear cap at this stage should be
much wider than your murrini.

Step 6
• Heat your clear cap and allow gravity to
pull the clear down over the sides of your
flower murrini. You can use a pick at this
stage to ease the clear cap down at the
sides until it meets your base bead.
You can go on to fully encase your base
bead around your murrini “bumps” or
continue to use gentle heat and gravity to
shape your clear lens over the top of your
flower murrini.

I hope you have enjoyed my flower murrini tutorial, Jolene x

www.kitzbitz.etsy.com
www.fritnchips.etsy.com

Gold Ribbon beads, a special tutorial for International Childhood Cancer Awareness month

Beads of Courage is dear to my heart, in the UK the program is funded and supported by a small family run charity called Be Child Cancer Aware. As part of their fundraising BCCA sell Gold Ribbons, the colour that represents Childhood Cancer Awareness. September is International Childhood Cancer Awareness month and I wanted to do something to help to raise awareness too. I decided to make all of my September 52 little things beads in bright yellow with gold ribbons and also to make this little tutorial to share how I make the canes for the ribbons in case anyone else would like to make some.

 Glass

1 rod of Effetre special dark yellow
1 rod of Reichenbach deep black
plus some scrap clear glass to make a punty

 Step 1

Melt a gather of glass on the end of the yellow rod, about the size of a Malteser (or a Dime) will do.

 Step 2

Flatten the gather between two heat proof surfaces to make a paddle. I've used a torch top and handheld marver.

 Step 3

Square off the edges of the paddle with your hand held marver, heat and flatten again.

 Step 4

Add swipes of your black glass to either side of the paddle.

 Step 5

Prepare a punty by melting the end of the clear scrap glass rod and flattening the end to make a maria. Make sure the maria is wide enough to cover the yellow and both swipes of black.

 Step 5

Heat the end of your paddle and maria and join them together. Heat the paddle, turning frequently to heat both sides evenly, until the paddle glows orange and is soft enough to pull.

 Step 6

Take the paddle out of the flame and allow it to cool slightly before pulling the softened glass out slowly to make a long flat cane that is about 5mm wide. Place the cane on a heat proof surface to cool and remove the punty and glass rod with rod nippers.

Step 7

When your ribbon cane has cooled down enough to handle you can use it to draw Gold Ribbons on your beads.

Make sure that the end of the cane has been nipped flat for a clean edge and lay on a short diagonal line from left to right using a low flame. Soften the next part of the cane gently in the flame so that you can draw on the curved part of your ribbon motif and then finally lay down the last straight part of your ribbon.

Use rod nippers to cut the cane from your base bead for a neat finish and bathe your whole bead in the flame.

Heat and press the ribbon cane gently to make sure it is properly anchored to your base bead, bathe in the flame again and place in a hot kiln to anneal.

If you have any beads that you would like to gift to BCCA - Beads of Courage UK please follow this link to the Bead Donations Form

Ta, Jolene xx