Puckered Ends ~ Help?

[Leisabeads]

Does anyone have a tutorial on making nice puckered ends on long beads? I need the practice! Thanks ~Leisa

[Lara]

A quick search in the technique section found this old thread. I searched "pointy ends." Of course I knew it was there cause I posted photos, but this thread may give you the information you seek. Also, pick up Jim Kervin's book on Jim Smirich (can't spell his name).

http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/sh...ht=pointy+ends

[Leisabeads]

Thanks Lara! I have the Kervin book too, I guess I should actually read it!! ~Leisa

[Lara]

Your welcome. If you can take a class with him it is one of the best!

[Angela Schoonen]

Hi Leisa;
I have 2 tips.
First is to gather the full amount of glass you want for your base bead on the tip of the rod. Once you have a gather large enough, drop this onto your hot mandrel. If you do this, rather than the 'wrap' method, I find the ends are always perfect.
Second - if you're doing the wrap method and don't have nice ends, heat one end of the bead, then tip the mandrel down so the glass will fall down on itself and create a nice end. Hold it that way to let it cool, then repeat on the other side.
Hope that makes sense and is helpful.

[Ellen Haskell]

Even though I'm fairly new to the beadmaking process, I picked up the process of nice puckered ends by accident. After I get my basic gather of glass on the mandrel, I do a check for potentially sharp edges while the initial gather sets up. Then I add more glass to the center so it looks like I'm making a disc bead. Depending on how bad I did in the beginning or the size I want the bead to be determines how much I add to the center. It may take two or three wraps. Then I start melting that in which forces the first gather to bulge out to make those pretty dimpled ends. If you have a hard time envisioning this, I'll get some photos made for you. Good Luck!

[barclayb]

For some reason, it seems to help me to spin the bead both forward and backward. It also helps to start with a good "footprint", where there's about the same amount of glass on the mandrel all the way around on the initial wrap. (I wind the glass on instead of getting a gather on the rod.)

[Margrieten]

I do it like James Smircich. On his DVD he explains it very well. Since I do it his way, I have nice ends...

http://www.smircich.com/html/round_bead.html

Good luck!