How to Make Hollow Beaded Beads

You can make all kinds of hollow beaded beads from home.

Hollow beaded beads are the bread and butter of beadery. Hollow beads allow you to use threads to create necklaces, bracelets and all kinds of other jewelry and decorations. Creating a hollow beaded bead is tricky the first time around, and you may make a few mistakes. Fortunately, the glass is very cheap and once you get the hang of it, it'll become second nature very quickly. Make sure you're doing this in a non-flammable area.

Things You'll Need

• Mandrel
• Glass strands
• Flame

Instructions

1. Spiral some glass around your mandrel. Make the glass thin so the bead doesn't weigh too much once you're finished. Make the size just a little larger than how big you want your bead to eventually be.

2. Apply the flame to the glass. Heat the two ends of the glass more than any other area of the bead, but keep the whole bead heated. As you're heating the bead, the two ends will start to curve upwards. Heat it until the two ends are sticking up at 90 degree angles.

3. Add glass to the two sticking up ends. Keep the flame on the glass to prevent the glass from cooling. Continue to apply heat to melt the new glass onto the old glass.

4. Keep adding glass while moving towards the middle of the bead. Eventually, you'll be able to put one final strand of glass that'll unite both ends of the glass. Use the flame to even out any uneven parts of glass, then let it cool.

Tips & Warnings

• Work slowly. You're much more likely to get it right if you take the time to do each step carefully.

• Never let your glass cool down completely. Cooling and heating glass is bad for the glass and will likely cause cracks.

References

• Lori Greenberg: How to Make A Hollow Glass Bead on a Mandrel