Pressed Floral Beads

[ChaseDesigns]

I had a few people ask me to write a tutorial for my pressed floral beads. So here goes. This will be for a frit base floral bead (the one pictured below).

This is a pastille press, so I will write the directions for this press, which is very simular to the tab press.

1st Start out with a base color of your choice.

2nd Make the footprint of your bead on the mandrel. Check to be sure that the glass is slightly shorter than the opening of your base. If you add too much glass length wise you will end up with sharp ends on your beads. Keep adding and checking until the length of the base is just a bit smaller width of the base of the press. Add more glass until it is the right size for your press. Usaul ly I add enough glass that it fills about 3/4 of the base.

3rd Pick the frit you would like to use. Roll your base bead in the frit. For this one, I melted the glass until it was droopy, so that the frit would swirl around on the base bead. Depending on what color and size frit you use, will determine how much you need.

4th Round out your bead. At this point it should be a lemon drop shape.

5th Now you add your stringer. After you apply your stringer, melt it all the way in, by turning the whole bead in the flame.

6th On a lot of beads rolled in frit, the frit likes to compete with your floral dots, meaning some colors will be taken over by the frit and distort, while others will compete with the frit and be nice full petals. Try to use a color that likes to compete for space on the frit. Add your dots for the florals in a circle, leaving an open space in the middle of the dots. I use five dots. Just personal preference. Use as many dots as you like.

7th Melt the dots all the way in, rotating the whole bead in the flame.

8th Spot heat the center of each floral and poke with a a stringer of the color of your choice. Be sure to make sure each dot gets pulled down into the center of the bead. If not, just reheat and poke again.

9th Now heat your bead until it is round and smooth.

10th At this point you are ready to press your bead. Be sure it isn't so hot it is droopy. If the glass is droopy the design will distort. I rarely get the press perfect on the first press. So I reheat it enough to press again. But don't reheat too much that the design distorts. I keep repeating this until the bead is the shape I am looking for.

11th Be sure to flame polish your bead, to get out the chill marks of the press, by flashing your bead in the flame.

Now you are done. I hope this makes sence. If you have questions feel free to post them here or pm me. I will be happy to help.

[CorriDawn]

wow! thank you, those are so pretty, I love the base! I may have to try that

[paintingwithglass]

Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing Deanna!

[Gwenlori]

Thanks for sharing. I always smear my flowers, but im gonna try again.

Great job!!

Gwen

[boheme']

Thanks Deanna - can't wait to try it out.

[Rhapsody Fire Beads]

Thanks Deanna! You are a natural born tutorialist!! I love the beads!!
~Suzy~

[Craftylady]

Deanna thank you for your time. Love the tutorial.

Laurie

[StLouisBiker]

Thank you Deanna!

[Deb]

Thanks Deanna. I'll give it a try. By the way, pretty beads!

Deb

[McDuck]

Deanna thank you for sharing, now just to try it out!

[Shawn T]

Deanna
Your written tutorial was almost as good as being here watching you do it in person.
Well not as much fun and laughs.
Miss you hon. Thanks for sharing and Love your Flowers!
Shawn

[Rose Leslie]

Thank you. I was wondering how this was done. Allways admired the people that could do this. I will try this. Thank you again for the great tutorial. Love it.

[Roseanne]

Great tutorial! And love the colors of your beadies

[Sue H-K]

Thanks for a great tutorial Deanna~I did a set last night in sky blue and violet following your directions! I'll post pics later...I think they turned out pretty good for my first try!

Sue

[TroyNC]

Deanna,
I made some yesterday and they turned out great! Different than yours, but I'm really happy w/ them. One of the things I love about lampworking...even when copying something is always different! Once I get the bead poop cleaned out I'll post a picture

[TroyNC]

Okay, I've got a picture....what size picture can we attatch here?

[jazzcurls]

Great Tutorial Deanna...now I know your secret...patience, patience patience...I'm going to try these again...thanks,

[ChaseDesigns]

Originally Posted by TroyNC

Okay, I've got a picture....what size picture can we attatch here?

Ha! Great job and you are right they don't look the same at all. Don't worry, I am not a "copy" freak. Meaning I don't freak out about it.

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I would love for ya all to show what you made.

[jessie]

Deanna-Thank you for such a detailed tutorial. I am having trouble with the flowers distorting. Not even close to flower shape. They don't look like yours at all I thought I'd ask for some advice before I give up completely. Can you tell me what are some of the more 'aggressive' colors to use for flowers? Maybe that is my problem. I've tried moretti new lavender blue, and sky blue for flowers, but they end up in a funny shape and have a dark line in the middle, sort of. Are the flowers large? or on the smaller side? I'll try to post a pic later, my batteries are charging.
Jessie

[ChaseDesigns]

Jessie,
If you are using a raku base, you need to use a more aggressive color, like the lauscha steel blue, petroleum green, or rubino (over another color). If you want to use anohter color, just use a regualr base color, not raku or frit and you can use blue or lavender and you should be fine.

I know what you are talking about when you say the flowers are distorting. You can use those colors if you want, but you need to use large dots...really large dots, and try to get them as close together as possible, without touching.

Here is a set with sky blue

[ChaseDesigns]

Okay, those look kinda blurry to me. How about this

[jessie]

Thanks, Deanna, you've given me some hope! I will try again.

[jessie]

Woohoo!! I think I've got it. I'm on my way to Curves, but will post a progress photo later today. Thanks Deanna!!
Jessie

[jessie]

Well, I'm back from Curves, and here is the picture. Quite a difference from bead one to bead 4 Yeah!!
Oh Oh, yucky pic. It looked fine before I uploaded it, anyone know how I fix that?

[ChaseDesigns]

Whoo HOO! Look at that progress. WTG girl!

That happens to me sometimes too, the picture thing. I got nothing to help you with there. LOL

[Three Muses Glass]

I have a question. When you are using the stringer to plunge in the middles of the flowers, do you fire cut them leaving a hopefully small dot or break them off when it's cool enough? Thanks, great tutorial!

[McDuck]

jessie you did great! i still havent tried it ...but deanna is coming maybe she can just teach me. i do better in person anyway

[ChaseDesigns]

Originally Posted by Three Muses Glass

I have a question. When you are using the stringer to plunge in the middles of the flowers, do you fire cut them leaving a hopefully small dot or break them off when it's cool enough? Thanks, great tutorial!

Oops...I have been MIA i guess. I fire cut the sringer. What I do is plunge the middle and then slowly bring the bead back in through the top of the flame and let the fire cut it as it gets to the stringer, keep tention on the stringer so it doesn't flop over on the bead. Does that make sence at all?

[SuzyQ]

I'm so glad I read this! I think I know my problem now. I don't spot heat, but heated the entire bead to poke the petals in. I'm going to give this a shot tonight. Thanks!

[Three Muses Glass]

Thanks Deanna! Makes perfect sense, but that still doesn't mean I'll be able to make a nice flower.
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