Spiral Beads

摘要

I was drawn to the idea of making enameled beads by Edmund Massow's excellent article, Enameling Copper Balls (Glass on Metal, Issue 19, 2000). In the process of attempting to make cloisonne beads, however, I experienced a fair amount of frustration. I admit to lacking patience, so I set about to see if I could find a way of making attractive enameled beads - with a bit less effort. What I came up with is a way of holding copper balls on a shaft that is attached to a low-speed motor that turns the ball while you work. This makes it possible to create patterns like the spirals that are illustrated here. I started with copper beads in a variety of sizes, that I purchased from Thompson and from Rio Grande. I degreased them with Pennybright and did not counter enamel the inside. I threaded them one at a time onto a stainless steel rod, that I refer to as a mandrel. The mandrel is a & inch (0.062 inch) diameter stainless steel rod that is used for lamp-working beads and is cut into 6 'inch lengths.