Braille Lampworked Glass Perfume Bottle

Amy Trescott from Bellevue, Wash., crafts glass items in a spare room in her home under the name Forever Grateful Beads. Her lovely glass perfume bottle looks like blown glass, but it's actually made through lampworking.

Materials and Tools:

torch (minor burner)
Italian glass (rods, handmade twisties, stringers)
oxygen/propane tanks
kiln
didymium glasses
graphite paddles
long tweezers
leaf mashers
mandrels (steel rods)
bead release (kiln wash)
ventilation (open window/fan)
cordless drill
sink

Steps:

1. Turn on the kiln so that the temperature rests at 948 F degrees. Open window and start fan for ventilation.

2. Ignite torch. Pull two twisties in coordinating colors.

3. Pull stringers in coordinating colors (also pull stringers out of reduction frit).

4. Make a hollow bead close to the end of the mandrel.

5. Add glass to the side of the hollow bead that's near the end of the mandrel.

6. Heat the gather of glass you just added and flatten the bottom (this will be the bottom of the bottle).

7. Add the neck of the bottle and shape it. Add a lip to the neck of the bottle.

8. Add the twisties to the bottom of the base and to the top lip of the bottle.

9. Use the glass stringer to add the Braille word(s), any dots/bumps or to apply scrollwork, making sure that they're adequately melted in.

10. Turn off the oxygen at the torch and turn up the propane all the way (creating a dragon-breath style flame), and "bathe" the bottle in the flame for about 10 seconds (this will turn the reduction frit metallic).

11. Put the bottle in the kiln. Allow the kiln to ramp down slowly for several hours until it’s room temperature.

12. For the stopper: Heat up a big blob of glass that will match the bottle. Press the blob into a leaf press (creating a leaf-like stopper).

13. Heat the base of the leaf and pull the glass into a wand for the bottle.

14. To clean: Clean the bottle with a diamond-coated bead hole cleaner and cordless drill.

Web site: www.amytrescott.com