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I'd like to show you next the making of a cylinder bead. We did a basic donut bead using
our colors again of gray. I'm going to preheat my mandrill and I will put on a wrap of beautiful
gray glass. And instead of leaving it as a donut, we'll use the marver and we'll shape
it into a cylinder. Slowly and deliberately apply a gather on to your mandrill using the
torch to liquefy the glass as you rotate slowly and gently and evenly. The smoother you put
on these initial wraps of glass color the less work later you'll have in terms of shaping
the bead. You can also add glass where you need to. So you can always go back an equalize
things and then from donut shape it kind of naturally will incline towards a barrel shape.
And then with the help of a marver by rolling it on that little flat paddle of graphite
then we'll get more of a cylinder out of it. The bead is a little bit wobbly so if it is
wobbly, heat it up again, take it out of the flame and the key here is just smooth steady
turning. Keeping an eye on it, if there's a part that is dripping down or slumping down,
that part can be heated and then raised on to the top of your rotation and once there
you can kind of freeze it for a split second causing it to slump down. I've picked up my
marver now, I reheat my donut bead and I rotate as I apply downward pressure, the bead on
to the marver. Always rotate. If you don't rotate you will get a flat spot. And don't
be afraid to do this in stages. A lot of bead making is incremental process, a little bit
at a time. And you can continue to refine your shape as long as your heart desires.
Some point though you kind of reach a point of diminishing returns and you kind of end
up feeling, well that's good enough. And then its time to put that bead to bed in the kiln.
And I will repeat if this bead does not go in to a hot environment or a fiber blanket
that keeps its own heat like a sleeping bag, this bead will crack. If I were to leave it
out here on the table top it will crack. This glass is highly susceptible to thermal shock,
this 104 COE Italian soft glass. Other glass like the borosilica I mentioned in the beginning
of earlier segments that is more thermal shock resistant and that's why its used for test
tubes and also the old fashioned coffee percolators. A bead that was made out of borosilica would
not be as likely to shock or crack if didn't go in to a kiln. But, you know, its always
a good practice even with borosilica to put the object, the main object in to a kiln.