Off centered beads

[kdigiorgio]

I need help! I just started doing lampworking on Wednesday, I seem to be having trouble with getting a nice uniformed shaped bead, they seem to be thicker on one side and the hole is not centered, I am using a kit I bought from Hobby Lobby with a self igniting torch head and map gas, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated or if you have any suggestions on tutorials that too would be helpful..Thanks Kelly

[Alex9]

In my opinion nobody explains it better than Jim Smircich...
http://www.smircich.com/html/round_bead.html

[Puddy Tat Glass]

So true ... Jim Smircich does an excellent job of explaining how to get a perfect little bead. Once you've studied his technique it's just a matter of practice and patience. Remember that gravity will help you get that excess glass to move where you want it, just keep turning your mandrel slowly and give just the slightest pause when you get to the thin area. I like to take my bead in and out of the flame to give the heat a chance to do it's thing and keep my glass from over heating while I'm working to get the shape I want.

[Kalera]

One tip I found helpful was to remove the bead from the flame to round it up. Other than that and getting a good footprint to begin with, it really does take a lot of practice for your muscles to become accustomed to turning the mandrel smoothly and consistently.

[Lenda]

Agreed Smircich is great!

Too much heat and it'll move faster than you want and make it "wonky" and not enough makes it not move at all. You have to find the heat to make it move, and as you twirl the mandrel, gravity fixes it for you. Experiment with moving the bead closer or further from the heat while you twirl it, also remember what the "heat" in the bead looks like when it seems to go round by itself.

[stacied]

You will hear this a lot but PPP works every time. I say even wonky beads are good for just a few days at the torch and you will get rounds just practice, practice, practice.

[princessb]

Yep

Practice, Practice, Practice. I am 2 years in and still some times get real wonky ones. It took a year to get to the "ah ha" point.

[bead crazy]

I have this tool now and really like it. It helps to keep your mandrel level with the table. I did not even realize I was doing it but I had my mandrel slightly lower at one end

http://www.arrowsprings.com/html/shaping_tools.html

I started with this tool works the same as the above but is just like the hole alone

Smircich Tail Stock Holder

[wendbill]

This with Jim's site worked for me.

http://www173.pair.com/mirish2u/roundbed.htm

[fannydotson]

A month in and I still have yet to make a perfectly round bead. Lots of short donut styles, but none are "round". Thank you all for such great info and additional resources!!!

[PerfectDeb]

Originally Posted by fannydotson

A month in and I still have yet to make a perfectly round bead. Lots of short donut styles, but none are "round". Thank you all for such great info and additional resources!!!

there is a big difference between round and donut - donuts can be nicely "round" as in balanced and round beads can be unbalanced!

[fannydotson]

My donuts are getting better and better. It wasn't until this post that I really thought about it. I have yet to make a sphere shaped bead. Hmmm, guess I need to work on that, huh?

[karin]

well, I've been practicing for 4 years now, and have yet to make a bead that doesn't look like a slightly flat tire. It's not too awful when I use them in bracelets, but it's very hard to silver core one that isn't even, even harder to put a cap on them when you core them, and it's all magnified x20 when you go to boro.... I know if I could ever do a couple of them correctly, I could get it, but I'm equally sure that I'm just further cementing bad technique in my muscle memory every time I make one wrong. (And yes, I've taken classes, have Smircich's videos, every book known to man....)

Now you know why I never post any of my beads...

[Puddy Tat Glass]

Karin maybe you're just putting your beads in the kiln when they're too hot. I did that when I first started and had little flat spots (like a flat tire) from where the bead set on the kiln floor. They didn't look that hot. I put a little slice of kiln shelf in the floor of my kiln. Now my mandrels lay across the kiln shelf and it keeps my hot little beads off the floor...no more flat spots. I know other lampworkers who use their metal rod rests in their kiln to keep their beads off the kiln floor.

[SuzyQ]

I swear, it was practice, practice, practice for me. For the first 6 months, 5 days a week, I burned through an entire rod at the beginning of every session just making round spacer beads.

[karin]

nope, it's not the kiln - I have rod rests so they never touch anything. And the boro ones aren't even glowing when they go in. I know it's my technique, from start to finish - I don't get the initial wrap on properly, never have figured out how to make it even all the way around, then it just goes downhill from there. I rotate and rotate, heat and heat, watch it move around, and all it does is just chase the problem from one side of the bead to the other. Some of it is probably also my vision.

Just need another 4 years of practice I guess...

[squid]

Sounds like you need to get the glass hotter so it WILL even itself out and settle in around the mandrel. If the unevenness is moving around the mandrel, your glass isn't hot enough.

[karin]

hmmmm.... very fine line between dropping off the mandrel and moving around properly? On the boro at least, it's white hot, has to be or it won't move at all... I can watch it move, it just doesn't ever even out. On the soft glass, clearly I can't get it that hot, it just drops right off...

will have to go watch some videos again and see if I can figure out what I am missing...

[ginkgoglass]

I am not an expert on soft glass by any means! But . . . Keep spinning your mandrel for a longer time out of the flame when you think you have it round. If the glass is still moving gravity can make it drop to one side. My first teacher in soft glass also had us look at the bead from the end of the mandrel while still spinning and keeping it level. You can slow down or speed up your spin to adjust the thickness.

[SilverRiverJewelry]

I move mine in and out of the heat. I also make mine in the middle of the mandrel so that I can use both hands to keep it level and spinning evenly. I am pretty new (8 weeks) but I make at least one set of donuts every time I sit down and another 3 or 4 round beads. I am just now venturing into other shapes and bigger beads.

[PerfectDeb]

best tip i ever got was that beads round up OUT OF THE FLAME!

yay!!