This is a down and dirty quick look at how to make the hydrangea beads. I am assuming that the lampworker possesses basic skills and knowledge of safety procedures.....
1. Make a base bead of a glass of your choice with the footprint being about as wide as you want your finished bead to be.
2. Marver this bead into a cone shape, adding more glass at the larger end until the shape pleases you.
3. Add dots around the bead about 1/4 of the bead's length back from the mandrel on the small end of the cone. Melt in slightly.
4. One at time, heat and press each dot until it has a uniform flat top - Try to make all of the dots the same size and height.
5. Add clear (or a complimentary transparent) over the top of each dot to cover the surface.
6. Once again, heat each dot individually and press until a flat top is achieved. This completes the first row.
7. For the second row - add your base dots as before in the spaces between and just to the back of the first row dots. Melt in slightly and repeat steps 4 - 6 until finished. Add each subsequent row in the same manner until you have as many rows as you would like.
Your bead should now look something like this:
8. Take your pick and gently heat and pull out each of the first row petals individually. Do the same with each row - working from front to back.
9. Add your leaf dots (if desired) around the base of the bead on the shoulder near the mandrel. Cover with clear/transparent and heat and pull these out until you are happy with the shape and appearance of the bead.
After making a few, you should now have something that resembles this:
10. By pulling the tips of the "leaves" up/down/longer/shorter you can alter the appearance of your Hydrangea to make other types of flowers.