Hey Mary,
I do my jellies in a two stage process. I make two maria's. On the first maria, I put six indents with a pick, then I add the dots of color. I heat those until I get the rise of the dots that will become "Tentacles".
When the maria closes in on the color dots, it will have a sloped look. I put that maria to the side, or just inside my kiln to keep warm.
I prep the color rod that will become the cap. I put the color in the heat and make a small gather. You can add small dots of color to that gather if you like.
Next I take the second maria and heat it up. When it's good and hot I take my small color gather and push it into the maria, just like you do to make a mushroom. I then burn off the end of the color rod so all I have is the ball of color in the second maria.
I heat the maria and let the clear glass move around the ball of color just a bit.
The next step is to use a rounded graphite reamer to push into the color ball. This just indents the bottom of the cap and can flare it out at the bottom.
Now you can take the first maria, with the tentacles out of the kiln. Heat both maria's and connect them by attaching the tentacle side to the underside of the cap. The nice part about this is that any air trapped will be up inside the cap. I burn off the the rod that has the cap. The shape of the glass now looks like a mushroom.
I heat the cap side and let it flow down the sides of the first maria.
Next, put as punty on the cap side. Now you can work on the tentacles. I heat and turn the rod of the first punty until I get the tentacles the way I want them to look, while I burn off the rod. Keep heating the pendant until it's the shape you want, punty the bottom of the pendant, knock the punty off the top and form your bale. When that's done, take tweezers and grab the bale, knock off the bottom punty and flame polish the bottom of the pendant. Pop it in the kiln.
Here are some caveman drawings to make this all as clear as mud!
Dave
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