I need help with melted in flowers...

[sleekbeads]

Hi. I usually always make raised flowers.
I would like to make completely melted in flowers with the center that comes together in a point.
How do you do this?
Do your rake the dots together in the middle?
IF that is the way, do you do it when the dots are still sticking out?
Or do you wait until the dots are melted in?

Anyone got a quick tut on this?

TIA.

Joanna

[lenora]

I melt in the dots, heat the center until it glows red and poke in the center with a stringer. This pulls the dots in at the center. Take it out of the flame and snap off the stringer when it cools. You could use a tool to poke in the center as well. If you encased it, you would get the bubble in the center of the flower, or you could melt it flat. I know someone else has a better tut, but this should help you get started.

[J. Savina]

In Cindy Jenkins book, "Beads of Glass" there are a couple of really good techniques to make lovely florals. I never get tired of making florals. I forget who the artist is that is sharing the technique, but I'm so happy that they shared it.
J.

[jaylee78]

I poke with my tunsten pick (superheat the centers, wait a second, poke) and then gradually heat the bead back up.

[amberbryant1]

I make my five dots, melt them in and before they all touch in the middle, i poke a hole with my pick. I like the little bubble! I will put one small dot of clear over the hole and then decide to leave it a bump or melt it flat. I also like to encase the whole thing.

[Kikki]

When you melt the dots in, don't do as you normally do with twirling the mandrel.
Instead concentrate the heat in the centre between the dots. This will make them "move" towards the centre of the flower. The glass wants to go where the heat is.
I go around the bead just heating the centres until the dots are all melted in, more or less, then I poke the middle. I make encased florals and that type of bead doesn't have to be completely round before encasing to look nice when it's finished.

[Reenie]

I'm glad this question was asked cuz I have a hard time too. My main problem besides the distorting of the flower is...if you get your dots too close..they turn into one...too far away and they don't seem to make a flower shape...where do you find the balance?
I've also found a great tip that when I encase...I melt the clear and then mash it flat, then remelt and apply it to the bead. It gives me a thin but same size strip all the way around and doesn't take as long to melt. Great when using the hh.
Irene

[Afterdark]

How the heck do you heat the center of the dots without the dots meltingggggg into the witch in Wizard of Oz?? I put the torch flame on skinny but I make witch puddles everytime! grrrrrr.......Must have the heat too hot!

My biggest problem is what to do with the fugly melted flower to save the bead! ha Trudi

[Kikki]

How the heck do you heat the center of the dots without the dots meltingggggg into the witch in Wizard of Oz?? I put the torch flame on skinny but I make witch puddles everytime! grrrrrr.......Must have the heat too hot!

My biggest problem is what to do with the fugly melted flower to save the bead! ha Trudi

PPP. (Practice, patience and prozac...)

You only heat a little bit at a time. Don't try to melt them in completely in one go but go around the bead heating every cluster of dots a second or so, go on to the next one etc.

[tmatma]

I am SO struggling with this right now; I want to make nice floral beads! In answer to your question Trudi, I melt them in; add more color, make into a barrel shape, add bubbles and name them things like "Frustation" and "Anger" (in my head) and call them "artistic"! My friends and family LOVE them and say how pretty they are! LOL!

[Henrywashere]

Here is my 2c on the subject. When you heat the centre before you plunge wait until the rod colour comes back if you plunge before you will most likely push your flower out of shape. Also you want to plunge into the centre on a 90deg angle to the mandrel. When I started I was plunging too soon now I wait for the colour to come back and I have much nicer shaped flowers.
Christine

[Hana]

I make my five dots, melt them in and before they all touch in the middle, i poke a hole with my pick. I like the little bubble! I will put one small dot of clear over the hole and then decide to leave it a bump or melt it flat. .

I was hoping someone could help me with this, I do as above but when it comes to melting in the clear bumps the whole flower shoots off the bead?! The little circles of flower are very pretty but pretty useless not on a bead!

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Am i just letting the flower get too cold? None of the rest of the bead breaks tho.....

[Shawn T]

Hana I am trying to figure out how your flower is shooting off the bead, or exactly what you mean by this.
If the flower part is actually detaching from the bead, than you are letting that part get way too cold. Make sure when your at the end like adding your center weather it be poking to get a bubble or adding a stringer to the center for a different colored stamen, Make sure you are twirling the whole bead high in your flame to keep it warm.
Each time you touch your bead to something metal like brass or a poke you are adding a lot of stress/cooling it down quickly, you need to heat it back up.
Also cracking like that makes me think it might be an incompatibility issue. Are you sure all your glass your using is the same COE?

I am going to go against most of what has been said about this.
I have much better luck with my flowers if after I put all my dots on evenly,melting the dots a tiny bit. I then heat the whole bead very slowly higher up in my flame to melt in all my petals at the same! I don't center heat them one by one. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

[Emily]

Make your base bead out of transparent and your petal dots -- at least your bottom ones -- out of an opaque. Opaque dots on a transparent will spread out, which is what you want. You won't get the same effect on an opaque base. Transparent dots on an opaque base will sink in.

Making sure your dots don't touch each other is essential. (Not easy, but essential.) If your dots are tall, make sure they're straight -- you don't want leaning dots that might hit the next one as they're melting. Whether you center-heat the flower or heat the whole bead at once, make sure you're melting the dots in each flower all at once. You can't melt one dot, then the next dot, then the next dot. They won't push against each other to make the flower shape unless they're all melted at the same time.

[cherie]

Krissy beads has a tut on her web site for making some really floral beads..her site is www.krissybeads.com

[cgreagor]

I love Krissy's beads (in fact won a set from her for voting for her site) but for some reason my computer does not like her website and I can never fully bring up all her links! Not sure why, doesn't do it with anyone else's but hers!

A lot of good advice, hope to get out and torch today!
Christy

[MaryJo]

Thanks to all of you for sharing !!!

Happy New Year

MJ

[Lara]

Yes, all the techniques above are one way to do it (and the way I do it most of the time), but you can also pick the petals towards the center. You will get a small lump of glass in the middle of the flower. Now, heat up that lump and pick it off the bead quickly. This will pull all the petals in for a sharper defenition. It is hard to explain, but a fun technique. I learned from Peggy Rose (whom does great flowers, but I haven't seen her on any boards in a really long time).

The first photo shows beads that had the dots, then poked in the middle, then melted all in.

The second photo (which is one of my first and not very good, sorry) shows a bead where the dots were slightly raked out and towards the center, then picked as discribed above. I then poked a hole and added a transparent for a bubble. I think you can see the slight raking on the bottom petal best. I rake with a thin stringer of transparent glass.

[Dasi]

Emliy has good advice... The opaque, transparent relationship is right on....
I love doing florals and the secret I have found is to take your time. Slow down. Melt the floral dots flat very slowly and evenly. Just let the flame kiss the outside of the bead as the petals melt down. Then you can add more layers of petals and do it again.

When you encase, just let the bead get hard and keep it warm as you add the clear.

[Margrieten]

You can see it on a Movie Hottglass made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU3W2SkEHV8