as I've used that word in my last post. I often
forget, that some specific words are only
familiar for beadmakers only. So, I thought
I'll start a series of the B-words - words,
which we often use as beadmakers ;)
Today I'll talk about mandrels.
Did you ever ask, how does a glass bead get
the hole in it? Well, actually there are several
techniques :) Krobo beads from Ghana get
the holes from the burned out cassava stalks,
but it's a totally different technique of
beadmaking. The hole in lampwork beads like
mine comes from the mandrel.
Maybe you still remember my post about my
studio - there you can see a mandrel in use.
First the glass rod is molten on the torch.
The honey-like molten glass is wound around
the mandrel, shaped into bead and get annealed.
Once the bead is cool down, we can take it off
of the mandrel and tadaa.. there's the hole :)
That's the whole process in short.
Actually there are many kind of mandrels.
Some Italian beadmakers still use copper
mandrels. The most of us (European and US
beadmakers) use stainless steel mandrels
though. The most common form is of course
the straight one. But as there are a lot more
bead forms come out of the imaginations of
beadmakers and also the jewelry makers,
some other mandrel forms are also needed,
e.g. the curved mandrel, ring mandrel or
button mandrel.
some straight and curved mandrels
>> edit: depends on the thickness of the mandrel
you use, you will get smaller or bigger hole :) <<
cone and ring mandrels
As you can see on the 2nd photo, the mandrels
are coated with something, which is called
bead release. But that's another blog post -
so, stay tuned! :)
