barrel shaped beads?

[Armstrong]

Hi-
Does anyone have any tips or advice for barrel shaped beads? I love the look of the long thin beads with decorated surfaces, but so far I completely suck at barrel shapes. Do you always use a marver? I seem to suck at that too.
I make a long thin bead, then marver it to even out the whole length, but then I always end up with crappy ends. And when I marver I'm going between too light of a touch, then too heavy and I'm pushing the glass around the mandrel.
I know it's probably just a ppp thing, but I just thought I'd check to see if there were any magic tips out there :-)

Thanks-
Ana

[chrisdd]

Yep, PPP really is the key. I can pass along a tip about getting nice ends, though. Make your ends first, and then fill in the middle. Then it's just a matter of keeping your ends cool enough to retain their nice shape.

[Cosmo]

Here are a couple tips that I've learned along the way...

1. Make the initial bead shorter than you want the finished bead to be.
2. When marvering, use a light touch and several trips to the marver. Don't try to shape it all at once. Also, roll the bead along the marver instead of holding it still and just spinning the mandrel.
3. For good ends, here is what I do: Make your bead, and shape the center. Add some glass to one end, heat, and marver gently. If the end is not even, heat and use your marver to push the uneven part back into the bead. Then heat and marver again. If you need to add some glass, add it on the bead, not on the mandrel.

The best piece of advice is to work it cooler than you think you should. Not so cool that it solidifies, but cool where most of the bead is somewhat stiff. And don't try to do all the shaping at once. It's not uncommon for me to marver an end 10-12 times before I get it the shape I want.