Every day around the world among lovers of needlework lampwork is becoming increasingly popular. What this is will help to find out this article.
Workshop
As the name implies, the lampwork technique is working with glass in a burner flame. In order to create elegant and fragile decorations at home, you will need to equip a workplace with good ventilation, and in the warm season it is better to do this fascinating thing in the yard - in the country, in the fresh air.
If you prefer to work indoors, then there should be a hood. Those who do lampwork seriously prefer to order such devices in specialized workshops. In this case, the fan power is calculated based on the volume of the room, by multiplying it by 15-20.
Lampwork at home: what is needed
To make jewelry and glass baubles, you will need:
- Propane burner.
- A respirator necessary to ensure your safety if you intend to use silver foil, glass with enamel or silver additives, etc.
- Safety glasses to prevent damage to the eyes from radiation from the burner flame.
- The coating or separator, which is a pasty mixture based on kaolin clay. It serves to separate metal spokes from glass.
- Special steel knitting needles to wrap molten glass on them.
- Tools used to form beads of various shapes (graphite blades, etc.).
- Ceramic blanket, replacing the furnace, in which still hot beads, "wound" on knitting needles, will cool. It prevents the beads from cooling down too quickly and cracking due to stress arising between the inner and outer layers of the glass.
- To ensure greater strength of the glass beads, they are annealed in a special furnace. They are slowly heated to 510-530 degrees and maintain this temperature for 30-90 minutes. Then it is slowly and evenly reduced, and after complete cooling, the bead is considered completely ready.
Glass
In our country, there are very few stores that sell the raw materials necessary for making crafts using lampwork technique (you already know what it is). The largest of them = Art Lampwork. At the same time, those who have been working with glass for a long time are advised to order tools and materials in online stores.
Glass rods are sold by weight and individually (the second option is much more expensive than the first). Abroad, the minimum weight of the order is 113 g, and in the Russian Federation - 100 g.
Simple Bead Workshop
In order to carry out a lampwork at home and get the simplest bead, perform the following steps:
- warm the tip of the glass rod, holding it above the lamp;
- when it becomes soft, twist on a steel spoke, forming a disk;
- slowly melt the disk in the flame of the burner until you get a bead in the shape of a donut with holes deepened inward.
- Before the glass cools down, the product can be decorated or its shape changed.
Dot Bead Workshop
Glass sticks sold in stores vary in thickness. To create beads with "pimples" use the thinnest. In this case, you can choose glass of the same or contrasting color. Further:
- heating a knitting needle with a bead;
- take her aside;
- heat the tip of a thin glass rod;
- put a point in the right place;
- to cut it from a thin glass tube, return the bead briefly to the flame of the burner;
- put the right number of points, periodically bringing the bead into the flame so that it does not cool;
- so that the specks are smooth and rounded, they are once again fused in a flame;
- dots of a different color can also be applied on top in the same way.
Workshop on making beads with flowers: what types of glass will be required
The lampwork technique at home allows you to create very beautiful multi-colored products with a beautiful pattern.
To work, you need glass:
- 058 Effetre Ink Blue;
- 006 Effetre Super Clear;
- 204 Effetre White;
- 144 Double Helix Helios;
- 128 CiM Sangre.
With their help, it will be possible to create a beautiful floral decor and decorate a bead with silver spots.
Operating procedure
Before you start making beads using the lampwork technique (what you already know), they light a burner and put on glasses. Next, “pull the strings.” To do this, it is required very slowly so that the glass does not crack from a high temperature, a stick is heated at the very tip of the flame. A small droplet is formed and, capturing it with tweezers, they begin to pull it away from the glass base to obtain the necessary thin “string”. In this way, all types of glass are processed except white.
Making a beautiful bead with a delicate floral pattern is carried out in the following order:
- a separator is applied to the spoke and its tip is heated;
- also come with a white glass wand (204);
- holding the burner in the flame, and constantly rotating the spoke quickly, they wind the necessary amount of molten glass onto it.
- the beads are introduced into the flame and carefully alloyed, forming a ball and constantly rotating a steel spoke to prevent glass from draining;
- take a string of glass "Sangria" (128);
- its tip is melted and 18 points are applied to the surface of the bead, in 3 groups of 6 pieces;
- all droplets are fused to a smooth bead;
- we warm up the plot with the flower and pierce its middle with an awl;
- also come with two other flowers;
- take a string made of transparent glass;
- reheat the area on the surface of the bead;
- a transparent string is “implanted” vertically in the center of the flower and rotates between the string and fingers;
- repeat the same steps for the 2nd and 3rd flower;
- take the blue string (058);
- complement the flowers with three petals, repeating all the steps, except for the step with twisting;
- they adorn the bead with dots that are applied with a string made of Helios glass (144).
The last operation should be done carefully enough, after putting on a respirator. Dots do not need to be fused. It is better that they are slightly convex.
At the final stage of work on the bead, a special “propane” lampwork technique is used:
- cool the bead;
- add the propane component on the burner;
- they bring the bead through the flame so that the silver glass reaction occurs and it becomes like shiny metal.
Insert the product into the furnace to relieve internal stress. The process lasts about 10-12 hours, until the bead cools down completely. Then it is removed from the knitting needle and used at its discretion.
Lampwork (what it is, is explained in detail above) is an original technique that allows you to create beautiful jewelry and trinkets that will be a wonderful gift for your loved ones for any reason.