Blown Hollow Glass Beads with Olga Alianova

The one bead I'm happy with

 

I am totally obsessed with hollow glass beads and have tried many techniques to try and make the perfect hollow beads.

Hollow beads are much harder to create than solid glass beads and there is much less room for error.

Last year I did make a couple of necklaces with hollow beads but while they look great and they are the best I can do with my skills right now (and I am happy with them) they are heavy.  So far all the techniques I've tried have ended up being quite heavy.

I continue on my quest....

Last year I saw this class come up at Tuffnell Glass, but by the time I got myself organised it had sold out!  I was gutted.  So when I saw they were running it again I booked it straight away.

Olga is a very talented bead maker and her hollow beads are amazing - and importantly very light.

The end of Day One

 

So I last weekend I drove all the way up to Yorkshire again and spent two days learning Olga's technique.

As with many things, it looks very simple until you try it yourself and then you find it is much much harder than it looks.  And I wasn't the only one!

So for much of Saturday all I managed to make were bubbles that were much too thin to keep and so went into the glass bin.  It was a very frustrating day.  I am used to having something to show for my efforts by lunch on the first day, but not this time.

The end of Day Two

 

However, by the end of the day I managed to make a couple of beads that weren't too thin and didn't crack when I put them in the cooling beads.  Maybe I was finally getting the hang of it?

On Sunday I went back without much hope.  However, I did manage to make some reasonable beads at last.  My main struggle had been working out when the first bubble of air was coming into the glass.  If you don't stop at the right time it just turns into shards.  So I was given a flexible hose to try so I could see the end of the blow pipe.  Finally I could see what was happening and stop at the right point.

 

I finished Sunday with a couple of beads I'm actually proud of.

And while I might not have the handful of beads I'd normally expect, Olga was very generous sharing her different techniques for decoration, so that's given me lots of ideas too.

Having two days to do this while frustrating was actually really good as it let me work on my techniques without having to worry about taking the dog for a walk or cooking dinner etc.  And by the end of it I could see an improvement.  But if I want to get anywhere like as good as Olga (yeah right!) it will take a lot more practice!  I mean days rather than hours. 

 

So a good weekend even if it was frustrating in places.  It was great to learn a new technique and it's always lovely to spend time with other lampworkers.