Star Bead Tutorial

[Jacinthe]

First off I want to acknowledge, that I did not discover the star bead, and didn't figure it out on my own. It was thanks to another tutorial that I can now make mine.

Step 1:
Make small base bead, it should be as even as you can get it:

[Jacinthe]

Step 2
Add your second layer and melt it in:

[Jacinthe]

Step 3:
Add third layer (as you can see, I am using white as my base and a transparent as my between colour) and melt it in:

[Jacinthe]

Step 4.
Add your fourth layer and melt it in, after this layer, you can add more layers if you want, it all depends on how big you want your bead to become.:

[Jacinthe]

Step 5.
Add your base row of dots around the bead. I start with one, then go to the other side to line up the dots, then continue around always doing one, then the opposite side. Do this until you have as many 'arms' as you want. I tend to stick to 5 or 6 arms.

[Jacinthe]

Step 6
Gently heat each dot and flatten them carefully:

[Jacinthe]

Step 7
Add the next row of dots, carefully on top of the first row of dots, gently warm them and carefully flatten them against the first row of dots.

[Jacinthe]

Step 8.
Repeat Step 6 and 7 until you have the arms of your star as long as you want them. I myself do step 6 and 7, three to six times depending on how long I want the arms of the star to be and on how big I've made the center part

[Jacinthe]

Step 9
Now up til now your need for heat control was minimal, but now is when your heat control comes into major play:
Heating each arm and gently pulling it towars the mandrel.
I heat one arm holding it downwards, then turn it up, use my poker/rake/whimzitool, and poke just into the edge of the heated arm and carefully pull the glass towards the mandrel, you have to do it rather quickly on a hh cause it cools rather quickly. You can pull quickly and get less glass pulling towards the middle or pull slower and get a bit more glass, each way giving a different effect, do this to each arm, once again, I work opposite arms before moving on:

[Jacinthe]

Step 10
Turn the star so that the unraked side faces you and repeat Step 9

[Jacinthe]

Step 11
Now you are ready to add the points to the star:
I use a manufactured stringer for this and add dots on the top surface of each arm. You can leave this, or add to it if you want.

[Jacinthe]

Step 12
Now this step is something I do, just because I think it add a little extra to my beads.
I poke the point dots, so that I get a bubble in the points

[Jacinthe]

Step 13
Add on top of the poked point dots, another dot of your transparent glass

[Jacinthe]

Step 14
Finally, you have to be very careful with you heat control now, otherwise you just melt everything into each other and lose the points into the arms of the star. You carefully melt in the transparent so you can see the bubble.

[SuzyQ]

Great pictures Sarah! Now I have got to try this. Thanks for a great tutorial.

[Jacinthe]

Originally Posted by SuzyQ

Great pictures Sarah! Now I have got to try this. Thanks for a great tutorial.

Thank you! And please post your results good and bad here!

And if you have any other questions, Please post them here too

I just wish I could have shown more of the 'technique' than what I did, but i would need to have grown two extra arms to do that...


Hugs,
Sarah

[Gwenlori]

Great job Sarah

I can't wait to try those in the am.

Gwen

[paintingwithglass]

Fantastic tutorial Sarah!!

Great step by step and pics!! WTG!

[whimzicalities]

Awesome tutorial, Sarah!!! You've given me courage. I'm definitely going to try it!!!

[boheme']

Sarah - WOW!!!

Fantastic tutorial - you make it look so easy that I want to give it a try. Thank you so much for sharing your star with us. I'm truly inspired.

[AngelHeart]

Sarah your stars are beautiful! Thanks for the tutorial as I haven't had much success with making stars. Now I will give it another go!

[Emily NZ]

What a wonderful pictorial.
Lovely stars Sarah.
Emily

[UCBYCINDY]

Thank you so much for the tutorial...I just go in from the garage...and I am quite impressed how well I did considering it was my first time and only been lampworking since jan.

I can see they will be my new favorite thing to make

[Sylvie Anne]

Sarah,

That was a really fantastic tutorial. I love your use of pictures. I know the one thing that really helped me was your advice to flatten the dots. My arms used to go all wonky, now they stay right where I put 'em. Couldn't have done it without you!

[Gwenlori]

I made a star today I will post pics in the am.

[sadiesmom]

Sarah ~

That tutorial was Awesome!! Are you sure that was your first tutorial?? Great Job!!

I definitely want to give that a shot after I get back from Florida.

Denise

[Marie]

Great Tut Sarah
Your pics are great, can't wait to try it!

[Jacinthe]

You all make my heart soar!
Thank you for the compliments.
I'm hoping this weekend to find time to torch while its light outside and get better pictures even.
And maybe even a goddess tutorial as well.

Hugs,
Sarah

[UCBYCINDY]

That would be great if you could do another tutorial.

It is so nice that you are willing to share your knowledge with use.

Thanks!

[purplelilyone]

Originally Posted by Jacinthe

You all make my heart soar!
Thank you for the compliments.
I'm hoping this weekend to find time to torch while its light outside and get better pictures even.
And maybe even a goddess tutorial as well.

Hugs,
Sarah

We all love your work! It's great!!!!