My encased florals always stretch out!!!!

[musicpg]

I've been practicing encased florals for a very long time now. I've read every thread and tutorial about them and although I know the steps in my head, when I actually try to make one, it always comes out with elongated petals reaching toward the bead holes. Everything seems to be going well until I add the transparent glass over the flowers, add more transparent to the rest of the bead and then begin to round it out. In no time at all, my flower petals are starting to stray. What am I doing wrong. I really love flowers and would love to be able to make some decent encased floral beads. Thanks.
Pam

[one hot beader]

I used to have exactly this problem. I found that I was keeping the central core too hot while trying to encase and not putting enough glass close enough to the holes.

Try wrapping a 'turtleneck' of glass just out from your mandrel after you have put your encasing on, but not yet melted it smooth.

[musicpg]

Thanks so much for answering my question. It's good to know that someone else was going through the same thing and could identify with me! I will melt in more slowly. When do I start to melt in the encasing that I put around the mandrels?
Thanks,
Pam

[beadstillmyheart]

You could also try encasing in "stripes" rather than winding around the bead.

Get a good gather on your encasing rod, then apply that gather swiping it on from the right (almost down to the mandrel, but not touching it) to the left. Then repeat that process working from left to right. Go all the way around the bead like this. Then let the flame heat the glass just above the mandrel on the outter edge of the bead and melt in carefully, repeat on the opposite side. Once your "puckers" are formed, then go back and just let the bead barely come up into the flame and melt in the encasing layer. You want to melt JUST your clear layer. Be patient, this technique takes a lot more work, but it's worth the extra time.

Also, try making your core a lot smaller and then with a large gather you may be able to get all the way around the bead in one swipe.

[Cosmo]

You could also try encasing in "stripes" rather than winding around the bead.

Get a good gather on your encasing rod, then apply that gather swiping it on from the right (almost down to the mandrel, but not touching it) to the left. Then repeat that process working from left to right. Go all the way around the bead like this. Then let the flame heat the glass just above the mandrel on the outter edge of the bead and melt in carefully, repeat on the opposite side. Once your "puckers" are formed, then go back and just let the bead barely come up into the flame and melt in the encasing layer. You want to melt JUST your clear layer. Be patient, this technique takes a lot more work, but it's worth the extra time.

Also, try making your core a lot smaller and then with a large gather you may be able to get all the way around the bead in one swipe.

That's what I do. That's how I teach it as well. MUCH easier to get good results, in my opinion...

[NLC Beads]

Mary Lockwood (Moth on here) has a fab tutorial on encasing with stringer, it works great for me and my florals...

[Lesperlesakathy]

To stop that from happening, I try to keep my flowers on the main part of the base bead and keep them small so that they don't go on the curved part of the base bead if you see what I mean. Once that's done, let it cool and then encase (I use the wrap around the bead method with normal sized rods).

Hope that helps! :)

[Heather/Ericaceae]

Try making your flowers much tinier in proportion to the base bead. It's crazy how much bigger they get with the clear on top! If the flowers get applied close to the edge of the base bead then they'll probably stretch no matter what. Also, try making your base bead unto a tiny cylinder instead of a donut (in case that was what you were doing). A donut base will widen when you add clear, whereas only the clear will stretch on a cylinder base. Definitely add little "turtlenecks" on the edge of the clear before you melt in the main clear wrap. Hope this helps!! -Heather

[SuzyQ]

I use the turtleneck technique as well. When I am ready to encase I add a thin ring of clear on each hole end first. Don't melt them in. Then I melt a huge gather and try to swipe it all on with one wrap. The turtleneck ends keep my footprint as well as give me borders to keep my swipe in the right place. Not sure if this approach keeps the flowers from bleeding (it could be better heat control and not getting the core too hot because it cools while I add the turtlenecks) but it was what helped me keep mine from doing it.

[Alicemakesbeads]

Mary Lockwood (Moth on here) has a fab tutorial on encasing with stringer, it works great for me and my florals...


Off to look for this!

A

[NLC Beads]

Oh, man, I just looked and can't find it... Did I miss it? I'm PM'ing Mary...
It rocks, I love encasing with stringers.

[kimberly]

I make the turtleneck, too, then use a brass tool to move the glass towards the hole. Once the glass is pretty much down to the hole, then I heat and round up in the flame.

[beadstillmyheart]

The lesson here is....no matter which way you encase, melt in your ends first.

[Moth]

Thanks for the kudos, Nikki. Man, it sure was a long time ago that I wrote that tutorial for Wet Canvas. Seems like a different person. LOL

Anyway, here's a link to the article (http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/24464/484/).

If any of you have seen the Smircich dvds he shows this method with full sized rods, my tutorial was the same dealio, only using stringers. Now that I'm on the minor and can get a full sized rot hot enough fast enough, I use that...but I would still definitely use a stringer if I wanted a really thin encasing.

You should really be aware of, and good at, several methods of encasing because they can all give you different benefits and effects. And I don't melt my ends in first with the stringer around the world method. The idea is to not trap any air in the channels between the wraps of glass to begin with, but if you DO trap air, you will only seal it into the bead if you melt the ends in first. You need to go from one end to the other, or on a really long bead, start in the middle and melt out toward the ends. This will chase out the air and give it an escape route.

If I used a large gather around the center of a bead, and did the turtle neck like Kimberly described, THEN I'd take care to get glass to the ends/holes first. You don't have to worry about trapped air because it's all one big glob, not numerous wraps with potential air channels between.

Have fun. I love encasing.

~~Mary

[cherie]

:koolaid: