What is Lampworking?

Lampworking is a technique used to make glass beads. It is a skill which involves a lot of patience, practice, dedication and, above all, imagination.

Glass rods ranging between 1mm - 8mm are melted in the flame of a torch. The typical torches used are a hot head torch and an oxy/propane torch. Oxy/propane torches come in a variety of designs with nozzles for different applications. Different torches can have varying results on the style of bead being produced and the time it takes to make it.

Molten glass is wound onto specially coated stainless steel rods, or mandrels as they are also known, and shaped using turning motions, a flame and gravity to achieve the desired result of the artisan. Very thin rods of glass called 'stringers' are used to decorate the bead further and a simple bead can be produced in around 5 – 10 minutes, whereas a complicated one can take up to an hour. 'Stringers' can typically be from 2mm diameter to the thickness of a human hair, 0.1mm.

Lampworkers also use multi coloured rods, usually created in advance by the artist, called twisties and shards, a bubble of glass is blown and then shattered and the resulting shards make a wonderful texture on a bead.

Silver rich glass creates some of the wonderful metallics and rainbow colours that you get in lampwork beads and the crushed glass, called frit, is used in decoration.

A lot of lampworkers also use fine silver as wire, leaf or foil to add to their work and presses to help shape the glass bead into uniform shapes for a set.

Once the bead has been made it then goes into a kiln for annealing which is a high temperature process that reduces the stresses in the glass and prevents it from cracking and breaking under normal wear.

Once annealed and cooled at room temperature the bead is cleaned and inspected for quality purposes and, once passed, can be used to produce the stunning jewellery pieces you see on this site.

As a rule, no two pieces will be identical, each will have its own characteristics that you would associate with hand crafted jewellery which creates highly unique items to treasure for years to come.