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First lampwork - gluing glass beads back together?

Hi all,

I just got through my first lampwork class, and me being me, I'm a. rather clumsy and b. rather ambitious which with lampwork doesn't go together well. 2 of the 4 beads I made lived through the annealing and getting off the mandrel (and are still in one piece each), the other

2 didn't do as well. I know why, I made them rather too long and thick and not kept them at an even temperature, and one probably also got into the kiln too cold.

So, I now have 2 beads which I quite like (eh, I made 'em, and I'm not very picky yet) one of which broke into 2 pieces and the other one into 6.

- Can these be glued back together?

- how and with what kind of glue? (I''m not talking about selling them, but to me they are kind of pretty.They'd be focals if they hadn't broken, but in glued state cell phone charms beads at best. I hope more of today's beads at least survive. And yes, frit happens, I produced my share of it today)

Switching hands in the middle of the day today was probably some improvement. And at the end today I just tried making round beads, using up all the time and (prepared) mandrels in the class - and most of the transparent glass . I find this highly addictive, but I can't afford to quit my (admittedly rather well paying) job.

Thanks for any advice about gluing beads back together, and I'll post the survivors on my website.

Aloha, Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry

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Reply to
Maren at google
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I've used E-6000 for gluing glass, but I've never glued a bead back together.

Reply to
Beadbimbo

Maren, If you glue the beads back together, they are just going to break at the stresspoint again if you use them for anything like cell phone charms. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be cut by the bead breaking in half. You could grind the edges of the broken ones and make pendants out of them using a bail from Ankaru or making your own bail with silver sheet or thick, flat wire. Or, if you glue them back together, just put them on display somewhere. When I glue bails to glass, I use silicone (plumbers or household) because it is less toxic than E6000. There are also some new glues made especially for glass (you can find them on stained glass or lampwork supply sites), which are supposed to work well, but I haven't used any of them yet. There's lots of information on gluing bails, etc. on the warm glass site,

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You can sign up and post your questions there and someone will answer you. You could also ask on WetCanvas - a wonderful site for artists of all media. wwww.wetcanvas.com. Hope this helps,

Patti

Reply to
Patti

I've glued them back together. They never last. You can do it, but don't sell or give it to anyone else. Keep it for yourself.

There may be a way to melt glass and re-anneal them, but no idea if this is successful or not.

Becki

Reply to
Beckibead

Thanks all of you. You've convinced my (unfortunately, I wish there was a better way), so I'll just leave them in pieces and maybe at some point make something else out of them.

Patti's suggestion wouldn't really work in this case because the edges are rather sharp.

When I get a chance I'll put pictures on my blog. Didn't get a chance to pick up the second day's beads yet.

Thanks! Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry

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Reply to
Maren at google

If you do any fusing, you can always fuse them on to something. I've done that with some beads that I deliberately cut in half. It's kind of fun.

Reply to
Beadbimbo

Haven't so far, but that's a neat idea.

Thanks! Maren HiloBeads: Beads - Beading Supplies - Hand-made Jewelry

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On Jan 30, 3:15 am, "Beadbimbo" wrote: > If you do any fusing, you can always fuse them on to something. I've done > that with some beads that I deliberately cut in half. It's kind of fun. > > --

Reply to
Maren at google

I've seen broken beads used as cabs -- especially if it breaks cleanly in half. Put into a silver bezel for a ring or pendant. Peyote stitch as bezel around it. And I've seen them used beautifully incorporated into a PMC piece.

I also have a broken goddess that I glued and plan to use in a wire wrap project. As a way to protect it.

Tina

Reply to
Christina Peterson

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