Project by Amy Trescott from Bellevue, Wash.
Amy's passion for lampwork all started with a favorite childhood toy made of colored pegs that lit up when plugged in. She just loved the look of the colors. As a grown-up, Amy took a glass class and quickly became hooked. She specializes in making Braille glass beads, which came about from combining her craft with her regular job as a speech therapist dealing with children with disabilities, including blind children. Amy crafts glass items in a spare room in her home that her husband set her up with as a gift, so she goes under the name Forever Grateful Beads. Her lovely glass perfume bottle looks like blown glass, but it's actually made through lampworking.
Materials:
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.
Website: amytrescott.com
E-mail: amy@seametrix.com
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