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Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-16 6:33pm

My Grinch Bead Instructions
 
I've been asked for a tutorial for some of my beads, but because I was trying to make some extra $$ with my beads I didn't think it was prudent to share that information at that time. However...since I quit lampworking I thought I'd go ahead and share as much info as I can before I forget it all ;) I don't have step-by-step photos to share...just a couple pictures with handwritten notes that I used at the torch...and instructions that I've tried to make as easy to understand as I can. If you have problems or questions feel free to PM me.

I've been getting a few requests for this one lately so here it is...

Grinch Bead Instructions
Glass Used: Bullseye COE 90
Pea Pod Opal
Black Opal
Charcoal Gray Translucent
White Opal
Yellow Transparent
Tomato Red
Schott or Crystal Clear
Clear sizzlestix (optional)
Mandrel Size: 3/32
REMEMBER: KEEP YOUR BEAD WARM

1. Prepare your stringers using white opal, black opal, translucent gray and pea pod…don’t make them too small. I never measured the diameter, but I’m thinking the Pea Pod was around 2mm and the black and white about 1.5mm.

2. If you choose to add dichro to the eyes, prepare your sizzlestix by cutting several small pieces approx. 3.5mm long and placing them on a hot plate or other warming station DICHRO SIDE DOWN.

3. Using Pea Pod, begin by making a 1” long barrel bead on your 3/32 mandrel.

4. Continue adding Pea Pod to the middle of your barrel bead to create a bi-cone shaped bead. I never measured the size at this point so you’ll have to experiment a little.

5. Using parallel mashers, squish your bi-cone to form a flat diamond shape bead. The bead should be as wide as it is long…at the widest point your bead should measure 1” (this will be the cheek area). If it doesn’t, just add more glass to those areas and keep squishing…adding…squishing…adding, etc.

6. You want your bead to be as “diamond” shaped as possible so use a paddle to flatten the sides to achieve an even shape.

7. Add some Tomato Red to the top of the diamond…this will be the beginning of his hat so make it about 5mm wide. Roll this on a marver or use a flat tool to give it a bit of a cone shape.

8. Adding the eyes…using your Translucent Gray add two medium size dots where you want your eyes – just above the horizontal center line of your bead. This will put your eyes in the upper half of the bead, just above the cheek area. Flatten these into nice round disks…heat and flatten…heat and flatten until they are almost melted in.

9. Now using your white rod…add two largeish blobs (of equal size) to the center of each translucent gray disk. Heat and flatten…heat and flatten…etc. until almost melted in.

10. If you are going to add dichro to the eyes this is when you’ll do it…add a small dot of Schott to the white disk, then using a pair of tweezers pick up one of the pieces of sizzlestix and stick it to the dot of Schott…DICHRO SIDE DOWN. If your dichro is up you run the risk of burning it off. Now flatten your little dichro blob and repeat this procedure for the other eye.

11. Now add a small/medium'ish size dot of translucent yellow on top of the dichro...flatten the yellow out to cover the dichro completely...don't smash it into the bead...just gently smooth it over the dichro.

12. Add a large blob of Schott to the top of your dichro and using a small flat instrument, flatten the Schott slightly and gently push the edges down toward the white disk. Now melt in gently…just until a nice domed eyeball shape is formed. You don’t want it to spread out too much and you want your dichro to have time to spread beneath the Schott.

**NOTE** If you want the eyes to be brighter yellow then omit the Schott and use translucent yellow.

13. Now take a look at your bead and decide where your mouth is going to go. Using your black stringer…start at one cheek and work toward the chin then back up to the other cheek, about 2 to 3mm in from the edge of the bead and lay your stringer down in a wide V shape. DO NOT make a U shaped mouth, it just won’t look right. So use a tool to move your stringer into a V if you need to…and melt your stringer in slightly.

14. Add a large blob of Pea Pod to the area between the V you made and the eyes…this will be his upper lip/mouth area. Work that blob around so it covers the upper area of the V, but don’t let it cover the black stringer. This area should end up looking puffy…so your adding a V shaped pillow to his upper lip area.

15. This is the most difficult part (in my opinion)…the lower lip and cheeks. Using your Pea Pod stringer begin at the base of his chin and lay your stringer right along the outside edge of your black stringer…working your way up toward his cheek. When you get to the cheek, continue laying stringer in a curve over the tip of the black stringer to touch the corner of your V shaped Pea Pod Pillow. Repeat this procedure for the other side.

16. Gently melt in the lower lip stringer…if you need to add more Pea Pod to his lower lip it’s easier to do it now, before you melt the first stringer in too much. Take a look at the outside edges of the lower lip and make sure you’ve gotten the edges of your bead melted in and nicely smooth. You wouldn’t want his lip to pop off later.

17. Using your exacto knife…you’re going to make wrinkles in his cheek area. This process is difficult to describe, but you want to have semi-circles in the Pea Green area where his cheeks are…so lay the blade of your knife on his cheek and score, using a rolling motion to create smile wrinkles.

18. Add his hat…go back to the Tomato Red area you made and add more red rod to it to form a cone about ½ the length you’d want his hat to be…then add a large blob of the Tomato Red to the top of the cone but off to the side slightly. You don’t want this blob to be attached or touching the mandrel at all…this is going to be the top of his hat. Continue adding red to the blob and shaping it until it looks like the top of his bent hat. Use your exacto knife to add creases that look like folds in his hat fabric.

19. Add the eyebrows by using a Pea Pod stringer…working from the center of the eyes lay your stringer in an upward direction toward the outer edge of his head. Do this on each side…it’ll probably look kinda like a V between his eyes. Now using your exacto knife make a cut in his unibrow right between his eyes. Shape each brow to your liking. Mine all had eyebrows that were a little different shaped.

20. Using your exacto knife make a slit in the V shaped Pea Pod pillow you made for his upper lip area. The slit should run vertically down the center of the V pillow.

21. Add the pupils…using a very small black stringer add one dot to each eye. Flatten it slightly and warm it just until its edges smooth over and you know it’s attached to the clear Schott. DO NOT melt his pupils in leave them raised…this may take some practice…and you’ll need to keep them warm throughout the next few steps and they will flatten some during that process…but you don’t want to melt them or your black will spread and spider-web and you won’t have nice sharp looking pupils.

22. Now add the nose…using Pea Pod stringer add a dot right between his eyes on the upper area of the slit you just made on the V pillow. Melt the dot in slightly and flatten it (kinda like a pigs nose).

23. Add the white to his hat…using your thickest white stringer lay a band around the base of his hat, flatten and melt in slightly. Add a dot of white to the tip of his bent hat. Now add all the little dots of white to make it look like fluffy cotton.

24. Go back to his nose and if it’s rounded up, flatten it back out and add two tiny dots for his nostrils using your tungsten pick.

25. Check the little white blobs on his hat and if they need touching up, just add more.

26. Warm you bead well and put it in the kiln!



2xMI 2013-12-16 7:21pm

Thanks, Bonnie!

Mimi

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-16 8:07pm

You're very welcome Mimi !

dkpmd04 2013-12-16 8:22pm

So nice of you to share, thank you.

theglasszone 2013-12-16 8:51pm

:kiss: Thank you for this...and I miss you!

LyndaJ 2013-12-16 8:53pm

Awesome! Thank-you.

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-16 8:55pm

You're all very welcome... Wish I could have gotten it done sooner, but I hope to see more Grinch's on LE next Christmas :p

ginger2 2013-12-16 8:59pm

Thank you so much for your generosity!
Best,
ginger

Deb 2013-12-16 9:16pm

Thank you!

jeepinwelch 2013-12-16 10:26pm

Thank you so much for sharing! I think I am going to try these as larger hollows. I have a few friends that would love these for Christmas tree ornaments.

anitah 2013-12-17 6:39am

Thanks for sharing! Anita

papimom 2013-12-17 7:09am

Such a cute rendition of this character. Thank you for your generousity.

Pat 2013-12-17 8:15am

Thanks Bonnie. He's so cute!

PattyK 2013-12-17 8:17am

Thank you Bonnie - so generous of you!!

swamper 2013-12-17 8:27am

Awesome. thanks for sharing.

BabetteC 2013-12-17 9:58am

Hate to be stupid here, but WHERE does one buy Schott clear 90 COE?

bob 2013-12-17 10:49am

Wow, I'm surprised your getting out, your bead work was amazing.
Bob

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 11:16am

I'm not sure these days...I think there was someone on LE who was putting together a bulk buy a while back. You used to be able to get it from Bullseye, but not the last time I looked. I was considering buying a case and selling some on-line a few months before I quit. If you can't find Schott, then I'd use BE Crystal Clear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BabetteC (Post 4482619)
Hate to be stupid here, but WHERE does one buy Schott clear 90 COE?


Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 11:28am

Several things contributed to my decision Bob ... The health of my sister and my husband are tops on the list. My sister was diagnosed with stage 3-C Colon Cancer in February and so we spent this year in oncology together. My husband has had heart issues (quad-bipass and stints) in the past and is having recurring problems...so he's going in for Hybrid CTO surgery next month. And of course there was the move into town this past summer so I could be closer to my Mom, who's 85 years old, and my Sister. I decided that I needed to do something that would allow me to drop my work at a moments notice, allow visitors (like my Mom and Sister) to come into my studio no matter what I was doing, and above all...be relaxing! I was always so strict with people...never allowed the doors to my studio to be opened without prior notice because the slightest cool breeze could destroy 2 or 3 hours of work...so my Mom would come out to see me and have to stand outside the window to my studio looking in at me :sad: I don't want that any more. My time with my family is finite and I need to allow them in, anytime. Oh and clay is so relaxing...I mean...it's just so comforting to me...and forgiving...and soft...and squishy...and...well, you get the idea.

There ya go Bob...more than you ever wanted to know I'm sure :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob (Post 4482669)
Wow, I'm surprised your getting out, your bead work was amazing.
Bob


rrunner 2013-12-17 11:29am

Thank you so much, Bonnie! This is so thoughtful and generous! You can't stay gone for long though, your beads are wonderful.

Cheryl

rrunner 2013-12-17 11:34am

I hope everything goes smoothly with your husband's surgery and that he and your sister will be ok.

Cheryl

NeenaG 2013-12-17 11:44am

Thank you! Your grinch is spectacular! I can see a lot of these being sent to BOC next year.
Merry Christmas!

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 11:49am

Added a step to the eye instructions
 
Ruh-Roh !!! I made an omission in my instructions on how to make the eyes...can't make 'em yellow without actually using some yellow! So go back and take a look. I'm hoping that's the only mistake I've made on this but it's been so long since I've made one (a year) so who knows. These eyes are made just like I make all my eyes...layer after layer...and you can use opaque yellow if you're not adding the dichro.

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 11:50am

Thank you Cheryl.

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 11:51am

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeenaG (Post 4482731)
Thank you! Your grinch is spectacular! I can see a lot of these being sent to BOC next year.
Merry Christmas!

Oh I hope so, that would be wonderful.

BabetteC 2013-12-17 1:12pm

Grinch wrinkles
 
2 Attachment(s)
Bonnie: Looking at a SOLD bead from your Etsy website, I found these two images helpful on step 17, putting wrinkles in the cheeks.

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 1:27pm

Perfect! Please feel free to use any photos...print 'em out and add them to your instructions. Almost all of my beads were sold via Etsy and I usually took at least 5 pictures from different angles.

MaryBeth 2013-12-17 2:36pm

Thank you so much, Bonnie! This is so generous of you and I hope you are enjoying your time with your family.

shawnette 2013-12-17 3:01pm

Awesome of you to share! Thanks!

Puddy Tat Glass 2013-12-17 4:24pm

You are both very welcome. MaryBeth I'm doing my best not to worry and I'm trying to focus on the positive.


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