For a simple round bead with a leaf hanging from it I do this:
Marver, needle nose tweezer and a plain masher.
Make a round bead and then add a glob of glass on one part of the bead.
It should look like a big dot. You can decorate this big glob dot by dipping it in frit, etc...remember to keep the whole bead and glob hot in the flame but not drippy.
Next, heat the glob up then remove from flame and mash it to make a flat pancake shape. Be careful the masher doesn't mash too close to the bead part. Reheat to keep it all hot.
Now pick up the needle nose tweezers. Get the pancake glob hot but not drippy. It should be plyable. Out of the flame, quickly cneter the tweezers and make a squeeze, not to hard, just enough to make a dent. Then heat the whole bead and pancake up again.
Next, heat to one side of the center dent until plyable and quickly tweeze in horizontal dents...3 for a small to med leaf, more for a larger. This take practice. Heat the whole thing up and then repeat on the other side of the center dent. Always remember you must keep the whole thing hot without distorting the shapes. Next, heat the lower half of the leaf part just enough where it is soft but doesn't melt the dents out. Remove from flame and quickly take your tweezer and pinch the center bottom and pull slightly...this will create the leaf point. You can flame polish everything and make sure the place where the leaf connects to the bead and the bead holes all are heated well before annealing. If you batch anneal, once the bead is warmed evenly place it immediately into a fiber blanket. Anneal when the bead is cool enough to remove from the mandrel.
It takes practice and coordination....good luck and have fun.
I have a bunch of my double round leaf beads on my website if you want to take a look but what I just described is for the single round with a leaf.
Leaf tutorial wanted
