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Questions  So what is lampwork? Holy Cow!(I had to get that in.) Lampwork is so named because the melting of glass to create beads used to be done over the flame of an oil lamp. Now we use dual fuel torches, in my case, the GTT Lynx, which runs on oxygen and propane.  (Many people use a Hothead torch, attached to a tank of Mapp gas!)
There are all kinds of glass and a lot of science is involved in bead making, but I guess you'd rather hear about the actual "How-to", yes? Hokay - first you take a metal stick, which we call a mandrel, but it's actually a steel welding rod. Generally 12 or more inches long. Dip this mandrel in a solution called bead release, kind of like clay slip (but not). This gets fired onto the mandrel so the bead won't stick. Ever wonder where the hole in a bead comes from? Voila! It's made on a mandrel; the glass is built around the hole. So now you have the dipped mandrel, heated in the flame and you take a rod of glass, slowly introduce it to the  flame so it doesn't shock and blow all over the place (not fun) and heat it to a molten state. Then you wrap the molten glass around the mandrel, shape it and decorate it. This can take 5 minutes or 2 hours, depending on how intricate the bead is. When you're satisfied, you put it into a kiln at precise temperatures for that specific type of glass, hold it there for a time and bring it slowly down to room temperature. This aligns all the molecules and prevents thermal shock. That's why you always want to see "kiln annealed" somewhere in the description of what you're buying, or know that the artist anneals her beads. Otherwise, you are purchasing inferior quality beads that will break. A lot of the "Power Sellers" on EBay sell imports that were made in sweat shops in China or India, or mass produced in one way or another. Full of bead release and not annealed, so they are prone to breakage. Always trust the symbol for Self Representing Artists! 
So then, every single bead has to be removed from the mandrels and all the bead release has to be removed from inside the beads. We mostly use a hand held dremel with a diamond bit to clean the bead release out..under water. This is not particularly fun, in fact, it's time consuming and tedious, especially on the tiniest of beads. When I make tiny beads, I lose my fingerprints for awhile to the dremel!
So that's a brief definition of the lampwork technique. It is a LOT of fun! There's the whole thing about the proportion of oxygen to gas and how changing it can bring out metal oxides in the glass and how different metals react with different glass and all kinds of cool stuff that makes it artistry/chemistry, but I won't bore you with that. My family's eyes glaze over when I go into that stuff, so I learn! |
