Jeannie's Beads

After spending most of my life pursuing the fiber arts, I discovered lampwork beads. I took my first lesson in 2006, and it quickly became an obsession.

Glass bead making dates back to the Roman times. Early lampworking was done in the flame of an oil lamp. Today, we typically use a gas fueled torch to melt rods of glass on a metal rod called mandrels. Molten glass is wound on the rod and then designs with other colors of glass are added and manipulated to enhance the bead. After these beads are made, they are put into a kiln to heat all the parts evenly and then allowed to cool slowly to reduce the stresses in the bead. This part of bead making is called annealing. After the bead has cooled, it is then removed from the mandrel, cleaned, and is then ready to be incorporated into a piece of jewelry.

My work can be seen at the following:

www.jeanniesbeads.etsy.com

and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeanniesbeads/125348505100?v=wall

email me: jeanniegalt@gmail.com