One of the most common questions I get when selling beads are ”how do you make them?”
I figured I should try to give a simple answer; to make glass beads you really only need three things; glass, a heat source and a metal stick, called a Mandrel. However, this is as simple an explanation as can be made for the simplest type of bead that can be made.
- The mandrel is in this case dipped in a ceramic separator to prevent the glass to stick and melt into the mandrel. (there are other ways to do it but i like this way)
- You wrap the glass around the mandrel.
- and keep winding to add some size…
- then the glass rod is molten off.
- The bead is kept in motion, you roll it in the air to allow gravity to shape it into a sphere. Afterwards the bead needs to cool slowly, this can be achived in many different ways but I use an oven, a bit similar to working with ceramics. The last thing I do is to remove the mandrel, that leaves behind a hole for the string.
This is the most basic Technique and common, for example in the Viking period. However, they also had blown-drawn beads and mosaic beads.
I also make other objects, for example marbles and pendants that are made ”off-mandrel” meaning that they are made without the metal stick.
This is how to make beads with a dotted pattern, the principal is the same but different types of glass is added.
and in the end the bead is again heated smooth and kept in motion to form into round speres. You can also marver them, (push them) into a smooth or flattened shape, but I usually prefer using gravity, the result is usually better.
In the Viking period, glass beads was made in an oven, maybe similar to this one at Storholmens Vikingaby.
