Lampworkers

i'd like to put an explanation of just what lampwork IS in my flyers and on my website, so people know what they are buying. but i am totally unqualified at writing such a thing.

i "stole" some of marjean's and faith's information about Czech lampwork from an earlier thread. i'll be happy to attribute it if either of you will let me know how you want it done!

i'd like explanations about Bali silver, American lampwork, Hill Tribe Silver, and such. the more i can educate people, the better off we all will be - and it's information i want to include for people when they buy a piece - so they understand what they have purchased, how to care for it, etc.

anyone?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

Hmmm.

Lampwork beads are made by melting glass and winding it around a metal rod (called a mandrel). Decorations are then applied using this rods of glass (called stringer), and painting it on. It's called lampworking, because way back in olden times, they used to use oil lamps to melt the glass. Handmade artist beads are crafted all over the world these days - The U.S., Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Italy, Germany.

Do you want a more detail explanation - or will that work? I am certainly not a writer, so if anyone wants to attempt a better explanation, please feel free. :)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Kandice Seeber" :

]Do you want a more detail explanation - or will that work? I am certainly ]not a writer, so if anyone wants to attempt a better explanation, please ]feel free. :)

i'm not ignoring you, Kandice - i was waiting to see if others chimed in. this is what i have so far, [and i did get permission from the website i stole the first part from to use it] but it's open to modification, and i'm hoping others can use it, too . . . --------------- [image of Tink bead] American Lampwork: Lampwork is an ancient technique of using a flame to melt glass. It involves the process of melting glass in a hot flame on a steel mandrel. The molten glass is wound around the mandrel until the desired size and style are achieved. The flame used to melt the glass is produced by mixing gas, either natural or propane, and oxygen. Thus, the flame produced is hot enough to melt glass. A torch is the primary tool for the flame.

Once a bead is formed and the artist is finished with the actual creation process, the bead is then placed in a kiln to start the annealing process. Annealing is the process of bringing down the temperature of the glass very slowly. Annealing makes a glass bead very strong and durable.

When a bead is taken out of the kiln, it is still on the steel mandrel. The cooled bead is soaked in water to soften the bead release agent. Once the bead is removed, the holes are cleaned and filed.

Artist made Lampworked glass beads are one of a kind, and should be considered artwork that is wearable. No two beads are identical. If you own lampworked beads in jewelry you can be sure that you own a one of a kind piece of jewelry - an heirloom for your family.

What you are NOT getting are the mass-produced lampwork beads that are imported, unless specified as Czech. [see Czech lampwork] I go out of my way to avoid glass from India, Turkey, and China. Those beads are usually not annealed and are very weak and prone to cracking and breakage.

Lampworked glass beads are not "blown glass", this is a different technique entirely.

Most of the lampworked beads I use are handcrafted in the United States, Canada, or Australia by glass artisans, who utilize a high level of safety in their lampwork process. When you purchase jewelry from me that contains lampwork, the artist will be specified.

Czech Lampwork:

The glass bead industry in the Czech Republic is well established and has been there for over 100 years (if not longer). While the firepolished and pressed glass is made in factories, there are many factories and none of them would be considered huge by American standards. The lampwork beads are a completely different story - or at least they used to be. Lampworking is a cottage industry in the Czech Republic utilizing many individual families making beads at home. The techniques are passed from generation to generation starting at a very young age. These people are VERY skilled artisans and by their own country's standards, very well paid. They make beads only in the styles that have been mainstays of the industry for decades, so they may look 'mass-produced.' For them, the beads are a product to make well but they are NOT necessarily an expression of an artist's sensibility.

The beads are contracted for through either the factory owners or other middlemen - the families rarely, if ever, produce beads for direct marketing. As for quality, I can only assume that their glass industry knows how to make beads that last considering how long it's existed in that area. If they didn't make a quality product, it wouldn't have flourished as it has.

There is a dynamic difference between the way European glass beadmakers and the new generation of US beadmakers view 'production work' vs 'art beads'

European glass workers (they seldom refer to themselves as artists) HIGHLY value skill, precision, expertise, experience, & the level of experience/mastery of who they studied with. The common (uncommon in the states) is generational passing of knowledge and the demanding perfection that accompanies it. Form and function are of UTMOST concern - technique is stressed over 'interpretation' or art. In fact at some points, those in apprenticeship are not considered prepared to venture outside the level of skill they are currently mastering. Pride and purpose for many European glassworkers/beadmakers is to create a technically perfect bead or item upon demand, over and over, flawlessly. It's a different sort of 'bar' than we think of here in the US where art glass, especially bead-making, has been born in the warmer glow of expression, personal statement and variation.

I go out of my way to buy from people I know I can trust - lampworkers, beads, silver, and finding suppliers. I use sterling silver or copper wire for wire wrapping, natural stones, Czech and Japanese seed beads, sterling silver findings [mostly Bali], and pewter, glass, and porcelain charms.

When you buy jewelry from me, you will often know who made the beads and where they live.

======================

suggestions are welcome. i haven't found anything like this for the Bali silver or Hill Tribe silver yet [couldn't find the right posts]. i do have the link for Bali i can use on my site, but need to figure out what to put on the actual flyers that go with my jewelry display.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Shirley Shone :

]Thanks for that Vicki. I have printed it off to show my Monday night ]class.

cool. now . . . additions? deletions? corrections?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

Just a note: at least some of the Chinese beads seem to be OK. I have a couple on an ID holder neckstrap-- they have been clanked together and against hard surfaces, as well as dropped on cement, ceramic tile and blacktop for over a year (maybe over 2 years...) and they are still intact. These are humungous (30+mm) sized round beads with "painted" type designs on them (look like Chinese brush paintings, but all done with glass). The smaller "sputnik"/"Warring States" type beads also seem to hold up pretty well, judging from unplanned bounce testing. Kaytee "Simplexities" on

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnospam (Kaytee) :

]Just a note: at least some of the Chinese beads seem to be OK. I have a couple ]on an ID holder neckstrap-- they have been clanked together and against hard ]surfaces, as well as dropped on cement, ceramic tile and blacktop for over a ]year (maybe over 2 years...) and they are still intact. These are humungous ](30+mm) sized round beads with "painted" type designs on them (look like ]Chinese brush paintings, but all done with glass). The smaller ]"sputnik"/"Warring States" type beads also seem to hold up pretty well, judging ]from unplanned bounce testing.

point taken. so far, *i* have avoided them.

thanks!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

The line can be pretty blurry, though. Big blown stuff that requires a furnace to make and then to anneal -- that's pretty different from lampworking all right! But I make small (1-2 inches or less) blown glass bottles using the same torch, rods, release, and annealing blanket as I do for beads on a mandrel. The only real difference is that I puff once or twice down the tube that the glob of molten glass is built on. If my @#$%$# cats would just leave the things alone when they're finished, I'd have a lot more to show for my efforts! Small-scale blowing is a huge amount of fun and everybody should try it at least once.

- Steve R St Louis

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@aol.compuppies (Dr. Sooz) :

]Remember to check in at Bead Notes for any info you might need to add....I'm ]not sure what's there myself......

well, i did. and the sort of thing i'm looking for isn't there yet.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S. :

]So ... the reputation of Indian and Chinese lampwork is a ]-generalization- only. *IN GENERAL*, it is prone to more problems. But ]bead by bead, it may be just fine...

thanks. Nicole was taking me to task about that just last night. it's the "how to tell" part i'm having real trouble with.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S. :

]Are you sure you want to make your category for artisan lampwork ]specifically *American* lampwork? That suggests that we are the only ]bastion of artisan lampwork in the world...

you're right. i need to find a different way to do that. since i have lampwork from Canada and hope to have from Australia, too. [as it says near the bottom] maybe "Western Lampwork"?????

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Steve Richardson" :

]The line can be pretty blurry, though. Big blown stuff that requires a ]furnace to make and then to anneal -- that's pretty different from ]lampworking all right! But I make small (1-2 inches or less) blown glass ]bottles using the same torch, rods, release, and annealing blanket as I do ]for beads on a mandrel. The only real difference is that I puff once or ]twice down the tube that the glob of molten glass is built on. If my @#$%$# ]cats would just leave the things alone when they're finished, I'd have a lot ]more to show for my efforts! Small-scale blowing is a huge amount of fun ]and everybody should try it at least once.

thanks, Steve! the statement is there just so people understand the techniques are different and so they know that what i'm using/referring to are not beads that are "blown".

isn't there a way to put your blown bits in a case or cupboard, or something? or restrict the cats to the non-work area?

i've been lucky, so far. the cats ignore my beads except to complain with my tray is in my lap and they want the lap.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

How about describing it accurately "Artists Lampwork"

Tina

Actually, Deirdre, I'd probably refer to the cottage industry (like in Czech) beads as "artisan".

Tina

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]How about describing it accurately "Artists Lampwork"

because i was trying to make a distinction between Western and European.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Christina Peterson" :

]How come?

why not? i like supporting "American Artists".

and because of the difference in focus between Western and European beads - as discussed before.

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

In article , vj wrote:

The only suggestion I would make is that you could elaborate a little more on annealing... a subject about which little is commonly known, even to many newer lampworkers. I wouldn't mention it except that your overview *is* so comprehensive, and it seems like a good place to introduce another level of understanding about this process and maybe start changing the public idea of the annealing process. Annealing is more than just slow cooling; every kind of glass has a fairly specific annealing point at which it is neither too solid nor too liquid, where the molecules are "relaxed" enough for stress to be alleviated, but not fluid enough to move into new stress-causing positions. The piece of glass must be held at its annealing temperature long enough for the temperature to equalize throughout the piece. If it is ramped down through the annealing temperature rather than held there, the core will remain warmer than the outside and full annealing will not take place. A piece that is slow-cooled in a kiln will be more stable than a piece that was not, but it is NOT fully annealed! Glass that has an annealing point of 970 will not anneal at 1000, and it will not anneal at 940. Larger pieces take longer to anneal, and to safely cool, because it takes longer for the core and the surface temperatures to equalize. However, more is not better; there is no benefit to holding it at the annealing temp longer than the minimum it takes to anneal. It usually won't hurt it, either, but it's not really a good selling point; the soak time for beads is only around ten minutes. Holding glass at its annealing point for an extended period can cause it to slump or stick eventually; at an annealing temperature, the molecules *are* moving... just slowly.

Last but not least, glass also has a strain temperature a few hundred degrees below annealing temp, at which it is most likely to crack during cooling. Soaking it at the strain temp can help reduce loss of even properly annealed pieces during the cooling cycle.

I by no means expect you to include this long-winded explanation in your overview, I just thought I would put it out there, as information that seems to be not widely circulated even in lampworking circles!

YOu should let the artist know and even send it to them, not just for a replacement, but because it's possible that they are inadvertantly using colors that aren't compatible, as with me and my Pink Tourmaline and Denim .

Yes, that does happen on occasion. They are glass beads, after all. I had a flower pop off one of my beads fresh out of the kiln two days ago. I was so ticked off - this hardly ever happens. But we're not infallible, we lampworkers - as much as we like to believe we are! :)

-- Kandice Seeber Air & Earth Designs

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kalera Stratton :

]YOu should let the artist know and even send it to them, not just for a ]replacement, but because it's possible that they are inadvertantly using ]colors that aren't compatible, as with me and my Pink Tourmaline and ]Denim .

when they're in China or India, and the beads are wholesaled to companies, that's a tad hard to do!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)