Creating our own art glass beads gives us an added dimension in the jewellery that we can make.

Each bead is individually made using a process known as lampworking. This involves melting the glass in a gas/oxygen flame at between 1400 and 1600 degrees centigrade, using the nature of the glass itself to create the interesting patterens and shapes as in the beads you see in this website. It can take anything between 5 minutes and an hour to make a bead, which can have many layers.

We prefer to use Murano (or Effetre) venetian glass, however other manufacturers are starting to produce some stunning colours, including reactive glasses with a high content of silver and other metals giving effects such as in the raku focal bead below. Glass for lampworking comes in rods (approximately the thickness of a pencil) in a huge array of colours.

Once the bead has been formed we aneal it in a kiln (usually overnight), decreasing the temperature slowly from about 965 degrees centigrade to ensure it is free of any stress and wont crack. Many cheaper "production" beads not made by lampwork artists are not anealed and therefore prone to cracking at any time