[JanithS]

I totally agree with you that we must have the ability to make round beads without the aid of beadrollers or presses. My first years were spent learning how to control the heat and glass, and it wasn't easy. Since then I have purchased beadrollers, first the rounds then on to other shapes. I believe that having the beadrollers gave me the confidence to try other shapes especially focals. I can now make bicones, ovals, discs and lentils without too much difficulty. I don't think I would have ventured into these shapes without the beadrollers, especially when I first started using them. Now, I find I don't really need the beadrollers too much except for the outside edge. So, I'm using my beadrollers as a curved marver, as opposed to shaper.

Originally Posted by Lisi

I just have to think this is funny now! I guess after nine years of making beads that I'm from the "old school" because I don't believe in using only these tools for making spherical round beads. (Larry Scott doesn't use them at all!) So what is funny to me is that when I was a newbie on Wetcanvas and Corina came out with the lentil press tool, the "old school" folks were very critical about the use of tools to make the lentil shapes. They went as far as describing their own lentil beads in their ebay auctions as "hand formed with hand tools and without the use of molds". Hey, any of you remember that?? hehe

They insisted that a person wasn't really a true lampwork artist if they felt they had to press beads out of a mold. Well, of course, being new and excited and crazy about Corina's beads, I didn't pay no mind to that attitude! So, I probably come off to some as having an attitude also, when it comes down to making round beads from these tools. Well, I'm not really against them, but the "old school" I'm from says this:

Learn how to make your spherical rounds from good old fashioned heat and gravity, and THEN go buy your roller tool/marble mold, whatever they have that you think you need. You could then use the roller tool to assist you in shaping the bead to push the glass gently in a way so the holes will dimple in a little, which is nice. I've used a marble mold to do that.

Trust me, you will become an even better beadmaker if you do it this way. Why? Because a true round spherical bead must have a near perfect footprint. That footprint is pretty wide, and it's just a hair under the width of the bead! If you don't get this straight first, then the beads that you roll out of those molds are going to have sub-quality shapes and holes. Because you didn't get the shape right to begin with.

Are you guys making donut rounds and then rolling them in these molds to get them round?? If you are and you are having problems with the holes, then that's why. Squishing a bead to widen the footprint can cause a lot of things to happen - breaking the release so you have a stuck bead, making the shape "off" and once done, you can't fix that footprint, and uneven holes. I have a tutorial on making spherical rounds in the free tutorials section of the forum. I think Larry Scott's tutorial on making a "round round bead" is in Cindy Jenkins' third book, "Beads of Glass". Is that the name of the book?? I have had mine packed away since the hurricane in 2006, so I forgot, sorry!

Anyway, rollers and these other tools are nice and you should buy one, but I really think you need to learn how to make a spherical round first before you buy the tool. Just some experience speaking!