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Old 2018-10-28, 6:53am
speedingpullet's Avatar
speedingpullet speedingpullet is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Jan 10, 2007
Location: Los Angeles, via London
Posts: 288
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Hi, and welcome!

I'll echo everyone else in saying that taking a basic beadmaking class is probably your best initial money outlay. You'll have a chance to see a basic beadmaking setup, and you'll also be able to ask your instructor what kinds of setups they would recommend.

Plus, when it actually comes to making your first bead, having someone there to physically guide you through the steps and closely monitor your actions is invaluable.

Youtube is a wonderful tool - I'm always looking up new stuff - but having an actual human being, literally guiding your hand if needs be, is something Youtube just can't do (yet!).

I started out in my garage with a Hothead and a thick fibre blanket folded over as an 'annealer' - and the only tools I ended up using for the longest time were a brass marver, an old butter knife and a steel pick in a handle.

I only started getting better equipment and a more powerful torch when I became interested in working with borosilicate glass and my old Hothead couldn't do the job. But I still find my most trusty tools are... my old brass marver, an old butter knife and a titanium pick in a handle

There's a temptation at the beginning to buy all sorts of fancy tools - I know I did, and theres still some bead-rollers I've only used a couple of times in my toolkit 0.o. But almost all bead making techniques involve gravity, timing and the application of glass - so unsurprisingly its pretty easy to get away with a simple toolkit like a cutter/scorer, a poker/plunger and a small shaper on a handle.

Anyway good luck! I'd love to pix of your setup once you've done it?
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