Jewelry By Kaia- About Lampworking

Basically, Lampwork is the process of melting glass over a torch or flame to create the desired object, whether it be a bead, a cabachon, a sculpture or so on. Glass itself is a fascinating substance. It is brittle at room temperature, but with added heat, it becomes more and more fluid. The source material of lampworking is glass in the form of rods or sheets. The most common glass used in lampworking is Moretti (Efrette), an Italian "soft" or soda-lime glass. The torches in lampworking need to reach temperatures of at least 1400 ° F in order to make the glass molten enough to flow.

To make a bead, one takes a thin stainless steel rod or mandrel that has been coated in a substance called bead release, whose purpose is to prevent the glass from sticking to the steel. The glass is heated until molten, and then wrapped around the mandrel to form the bead hole.

Once the glass has been wrapped around the mandrel, the glass can be shaped by pressing it against graphite, brass or stainless steel tools. Surface decorations such as enamels (colored ground glass of a slightly lower melting point), silver, copper, gold or platinum leaf or foils, mica powders, frits (small particles of glass) and so on, can be added during the process as well.

One of the most exciting aspects of working with hot glass is the various ways a particular color of glass reacts in the face of variations in the flame, or the addition of reactive metals and reduction frits. For instance, dark ivory reacts with silver to create a striated rocklike pattern. Reduction frits added to the surface of a bead and bathed in a low-oxygen or reducing flame develop a shiny, metallic coating.

In addition to surface decorations, one very common method to add interest to the glass is to use pre-formed components such as latticino and ribbon cane. These are just two of the many methods of combining various colors of glass and then pulling the resulting molten mass into a thin rod known as a stringer. Cane can add incredible variations of color in a small area.

Once the bead is finished, it is put into a kiln to be annealed. Annealing is a process of heating the glass to a specific temperature, holding for a certain amount of time before slowly cooling it at a controlled rate. Annealing is done to remove the internals stresses that can be created in the glass from progressing too rapidly from the molten to the sold state, and greatly increases the durability of the glass.

Being "on the torch" is one of the pleasures of my life. Glass is truly magic to work with. I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who is interested in this age-old craft to consider taking an introductory course, or to visit a bead show if one comes to your area. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.