Most of the glass beads I make have a hole running through the middle of them. The hole is created by a mandrel which is basically a stainless steel stick of varying thicknesses and sometimes shapes. Before a mandrel can be used for bead making, it must be covered in bead release to prevent the glass sticking. Bead release is like a clay slurry that the mandrel is dipped in and left to dry. You may notice beads from a craft store have a whitish powdery coating in the hole? This is bead release and one sure way to tell an artists bead from a mass produced bead is an artist will remove the bead release from their beads before selling them.
I have dozens of mandrels - some are basic and some create cabochons or buttons.
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| These are just a few of the mandrels that I commonly use. The grey tips are dried bead release. |
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| This is bead release. It is simple to use - just give the jar a shake, dip the mandrel in and let it dry. I use decorated tin cans filled with rice to hold the mandrels for drying (top image). |
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| A little blurry but you can see the blob of glass being wound around the mandrel - this is the base of one of my signature tree beads. |
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