I apologize for the poor quality of the pics. Very hard to have someone photograph while you're torching!
Step One: Make the core - use a dark color for light colored petals, or a light color for dark colored petals (enhances the contrast). Here I am using black as the core for the Raku petals. It should be very thin, so marver it well! Then add 4 dots at one end for the innermost petals. I find that starting on the end furthest from your holding hand works best. I also usually score the first with a razor petals since they are right at the edge of the core and can't be raked.
Step Two: Dot each of the petals with clear. Make sure they are completely covered to the edge of the black. Melt smooth, angling the mandrel so the clear "leans" to the edge (it won't produce a nice, puckered end yet).
Step Three: Add 5 dots for the second row of petals, centering the dots on the edge of the previous petals. I do 4 dots on the first row and 5 thereafter because I've never been able to get 5 on the first row! I do think it looks best with an odd number of petals. Melt the dots flat, then heat each dot and gently rake the end to a slight point. Don't overheat or rake
too hard, or it will distort the previous layers.
Step Four: Add clear over the new petals. Rather than just dot the clear, I dot it on and slide toward the pointy ends of the petals. You need to make sure to cover all the petal, including the raked points.
Step Five: Melt smooth, and then gently marver to get a slight cone shape. You should start seeing the puckered end on one side by now.
Step Six: Add a third row of petals, rake, and case in clear. Of course you can keep adding rows as long as you like! When you have the desired number of petal rows (or run out of space on the core!), heat the whole bead again and let gravity shape it into a fat teardrop.
Step Seven: This is where I add some leaves. I use a cane made from copper green striped with black, pulled to about a 2-3mm stringer. Swipe on leaves starting from the mandrel edge and going towards the middle of the bead. Again, I usually do 5 leaves per bead.
Step Eight: I finish by adding a small dot using the leaf cane right at the mandrel edge in between each leaf. This hides any small mistakes, and makes it look finished. Lastly, warm the whole thing up again (actually, you should be doing this all along!), making sure the leaves/dots are fused to the bead but not melting them in completely.
I hope this makes sense - I never knew how hard it is to write up a tutorial until I tried to do it!
Aimee
