About Lampwork
What is Lampwork?
Lampwork is a form of art.
The art of lampworking glass has been around for many many years. The term lampwork comes from the way glass was heated in order to melt the glass into forms. When first practiced, the use of wax or oil lamps would melt small amounts of glass into beads and other small artful objects. The contemporary Lampworkers now use propane gas powered torches to produce a concentrated flame at over 1700 degress.
Creating A Bead...
Colored glass rods are melted by the torch to different degress of molten stages. The molten glass is wrapped around a steel mandrel to form a core bead. The steel mandrel must be rotated continuously in the flame in order for the molten glass to stay in core bead form. Shaping and decorating the core bead with different colors of glass gives each bead its uniqueness. I like to think of the whole creative process as "painting with molten glass".
VeryVeryVery Important Annealing...
Immediately after the bead is created, it goes directly into an annealing kiln. This kiln temperature is held at 960 degrees to soak the bead for a set amount of time. The kiln temperature is then slowly lowered by single degrees over hours of set time until room temperature is reached. Annealing a bead gives it strength and prevents cracking. The annealing of a bead is what sets Artisan lampwork beads apart from cheaper mass produced beads.
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