FREE TUTORIAL - Fire Opals
 

HotHead Friendly!

This one will come without photos because I want you to play with your glass! ;)

You need:

1 rod of Black
1 sheet of silver foil (I cut mine into strips about 10mm wide, 1 strip per bead)
1 rod of DoubleHelix Ekho
1 rod of Clear (your choice) - I use Lauscha Soft Clear


1) Make a base bead of Black.

2) Wrap the bead in silver foil. Burn off the foil at the edges of the base bead but leave it intact as much as possible on the rest of the bead.

3) Use Double Helix Ekho and wrap it around the base bead in a random pattern twice. Leave some silver showing! The trick with the Ekho is to let the tip of the glass go completely clear before you make your swipe. This creates the intense fire color you need over your silver. So let the tip go clear, then swipe the right side. Let the tip go clear, then swipe the left side.

4) Keep the edges of the bead warm (at the mandrel) while melting your choice of Clear glass then encase the entire bead with your favorite method.

5) From here shape as desired.

Voila! You now have a Fire Opal! :waving:

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http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248.../392371794.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL248.../392371791.jpg

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Amber those are beautiful !! Thanks for sharing the tut :)

Amber, that is such an awesome thing to do....great tutorial and so very generous of you to share your beautiful technique!

Thanks so much...

Amber you are the best! Can I ask what your Ekho looks like? Mine is a streaky brown translucent rod, I'm wondering if mine's marker wrong. I love those beads I'll try them once the weather cools.

Amber, you rock! I'm going to go light up my torch and make some fire opals right now!!

Teri P \\:D/

My Ekho can be different colors. I've had dark Brown rods and light Khaki rods. They are opaque on the outside and have sort of rootbeer transparent center though. All of the rods create the same look for me.

Wow, I love these beads, thank you so much! I can't wait to see if I can make some :-).

How very very generous of you to do this for free!

Thanks Amber for the sharing your tutorial!

I love your fire opal beads!

Wow! What a great tut. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much Amber! I can't wait to try this!

Thanks for the wonderful tip of swiping the bead when the Ekho is clear. That was my major problem.

Sara

Very kind of you! I'm going to try it!
Beth

Sara , you'll find you get much better color from the Ekho in all applications if you let it go clear before applying. :)

Very pretty and generous of you to share your technique. Too bad I don't have any Ekho. At least I don't think I do. I may have a sample rod around to try out.

Thank you for sharing!

Oh, cool beads, nice tutorial! Thank you, Amber! I don't have Ekho; wonder what would happen with Clio? Pink opals?

Thanks, Amber. That's very sweet of you.

It does work with Clio, too! ;)

A-ha! Clio it will be! (I've yet to melt a rod of the little stash I bought, so this could be it's maiden voyage.)

Thank you, Amber!

Clio can be a little tricky since it can go opaque fast but I found it to be the same principle. Get the tip to go clear then swipe lightly. Keep it out of the flame before you encase.

:kiss: You're WONDERFUL!!! I've admired these beads of yours for quite some time! They're gorgeous...and interestingly, my birthstone (Oct.) is Opal. I've never really embraced it because it is so terribly fragile over time, so I'm thinking I HAVE TO TRY THIS and see how I do.

I really appreciate it!

:)

Ah, yes, and stick your tongue out at the right angle, squint your eyes just right, & only breathe shallowly through one nostril. Ok, gotcha.

OMG< I've been doing it all wrong. 8-[ I stick the mandrel in my left ear (not the hot bead side of course), I twirl around in a circle once, and then hop on one leg three times.

Thanks so much for sharing this, Amber!
I can't wait to give it a try.

Thank you, Amber!!

Me too!
Thanks so much for this Amber!

Oh Amber! Thank you so much!

Aw, Amber... you rock! :love:

:lol::lol: If it doesn't work my way, then I'll try yours!

Good on ya Amber!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Im going to give this a go next time I play with the soft stuff. I've admired these beads of yours so much!!!!
HUGS!
Nita

Wonderful! I hope to see a thread in the Gallery section soon! ;)

Well it's official I love you! I can't get it to squat so I'm going to try this. You a doll for sharing!

Amber...I've admired those beads since you posted your first one...how kind you are to share your technique so generously!

Amber, when I suggested that you write a tutorial, I meant for you to sell it too! This is very kind of you to offer this for free. Now can you do a tutorial on those black spacers ya got there girly? :lol:

Well, Mother Earth would have to do the black spacer tutorial. :lol:

They're genuine lava rock. ;)

P.S. How can I charge for such a short and sweet tut? LOL I do plan on writing a tut this year with tips and tricks for HotHead users... just finding the time to do it AND make beads is the hard part.

You're a legend Amber, they're gorgeous beads.

Thanks so much for posting this, Amber! Your beads rock! :love:

Thanks so much for sharing Amber! :)


:-$ Shhhttt :-$:-#.... I fiddled around with silver leaf & foil and figured it out, but didn't dare to list exactly the same style as you're doing. :waving:

I appreciate that, Judith - you're a class act! Now it's available so I'd love to see what you've done...

...And thanks so much everyone for the positive responses. I appreciate it - you've made me very happy and I'm so glad you like my design. :)

Lovey beads... you are so generous to share your technique!

Wow, thanks for sharing this technique! I too have been admiring these beads and wondering how it was done.....

Jo

Amber, You are the biggety bomb!!!
thanks for sharing :grin:

Wow - those are GORGEOUS! Thank you so much for sharing!

-Diane

Oh my, they're not half as gorgeous as yours!!! :-?
Hope we'll see a Gallery thread of beads inspired by your beautiful Fire Opals!

Amber, thanks for sharing ~ so extremely kind of you!!!

Very cool ... thank you for sharing

Amber - what a love you are... thank you SO much. I've been trying to figure out your fire opals for ages... got the Ekho bit, got the silver foil bit but didn't cotton on to the black underneath....
Its really lovely and once again, thank you for sharing :)

Gorgeous and thank you, Amber, for sharing!

Amber ... like many ... I've been admiring your Fire Opals. Thank you so much for sharing. It makes me want to go play with Ekho and Clio!!! Can't wait to see a gallery thread of everyone's interpretations.