How to Make a Holiday Lampwork Necklace

14. After heating the center where all the lines intersect, plunge the red stringer into the bead and twist.

15. Pick up a clear glass rod to create a candy wrap on both sides of the peppermint candy bead. Ensure that the clear glass touches the peppermint candy bead.

16. Take a pair of tweezers and twist the clear glass to resemble candy wrapping. Place the peppermint candy bead in a fiber blanket. Make two more peppermint candy beads.

17. Remove the mandrels and smooth the holes in the beads using a hand-held rotary tool.

18. Clean the beads with water.

19. Lay out the necklace design in a beading tray.

20. String a necklace on 49-strand beading wire:

• Add clear and red crystal beads, silver and turquoise beads between the lampwork glass beads.
• Add jump rings to the ends and silver clasps with jewelry pliers.

Holiday Lampwork Necklace by Renee Weaver

Renee Weaver of West Point, Utah, has her mother’s collection of crystal to thank for her fascination with glass. As a child, she loved watching the light reflecting off the numerous cuts in the glass. That fascination led to a number of stained- and fused-glass classes but once she discovered lampwork glass, she lost interest in the other two techniques. Since then, she’s been melting glass rods into playful and colorful beaded jewelry of all kinds, like her festive holiday necklace.

Website: www.reneebeads.com