How do they make these beads?

steiconi · #1 2013-03-14, 9:57pm

Does anyone know how these beads are made?

This one says lampwork millifiore, but it looks to me like they cut up layered canes, then maybe tumble and drill them????
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wholesale-Mu...item3a7cb9e038

and this one just says millifiore, but you can see the millifiore goes all the way through the bead.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/30Pcs-4mm-mu...item19d9e04ebf

How the heck do they do these?
thanks,
Lee

jamie lynne · #2 2013-03-15, 5:52am

For the first one, maybe large raw milli cut thick enough to grind into a sphere and then drill a hole?

beadforever · #3 2013-03-15, 8:29pm

I pretty sure those beads are pressed glass beads using cane glass in the pressing. I believe it is fairly all machine done these days; before it use to be done by hand , the feeding of the glass I mean by hand into the molds and it was started in the Czech republic. The different layers are the coloring of the glass cane moving when melted in mold.
I remember reading about this years ago trying to learn as much as I could on bead making.

PerfectDeb · #4 2013-03-15, 8:41pm

they're just made in chunks and tumbled then the hole is drilled - from the same shops you can buy the raw undrilled unpolished glass, i've got some here somewhere, they make everything from pendants to paperweights out of it

i'm guessing they make the raw material by simply putting lots of chopped up milli pieces in a mold and slumping it

EchoTantuli · #5 2013-03-15, 9:21pm

I think it could be done, for the first one, it you made a coin, then added the murrini, pressed it out, added next layer, press, next layer...obviously it would be easiest if you had varying sizes of murrini. It would all round out with the heat in the end. But I think that would work for #1. #2 you would probably have to treat murrini cane like an inclusion, if that makes sense. Just my theories.

bexrox · #6 2013-03-16, 3:55pm

I'm sure they are machine produced as well, but it would be fun to experiment with anyway... '
For the first set, try making a thin tube footprint in white. Add a layer of transparent color around the center, and melt it in so that the white is encased, except for the ends. Follow that with a layer of white around the center of that, melted in, leaving the ends of the trans color exposed, and continue to do this until you have a roundish bead with all these layers. Then shape with a round bead roller or press.. Since you are adding glass to the center only, it shouldn't be too hard to create and maintain a spherical shape. I think I'm gonna try, to see if I can get anything like this result!

steiconi · #7 2013-03-18, 2:05am

Your idea would make an interesting bead, but the stripes would go opposite of the ones I'm asking about--that's the trippy thing about them--you would have to wrap through the mandrel, not around the equator of the bead.

I have some of them in blue, and have been trying to figure it out for a while. I guess they're coldworked, either ground or tumbled from bullseye murrini. I don't think they could be hotworked; the bead would be all one color on the outside, with the bullseye on each side instead of the eroded layers on these beads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bexrox

I'm sure they are machine produced as well, but it would be fun to experiment with anyway... '
For the first set, try making a thin tube footprint in white. Add a layer of transparent color around the center, and melt it in so that the white is encased, except for the ends. Follow that with a layer of white around the center of that, melted in, leaving the ends of the trans color exposed, and continue to do this until you have a roundish bead with all these layers. Then shape with a round bead roller or press.. Since you are adding glass to the center only, it shouldn't be too hard to create and maintain a spherical shape. I think I'm gonna try, to see if I can get anything like this result!

QuiteCuntrary · #8 2013-03-18, 3:16am

Am I crazy? The first ones look to me like they just made white beads, then added very large bullseye murrini in transparent and white and followed up with the same trans color around the equator.

steiconi · #9 2013-03-19, 12:10am

You can see the shading of the white getting thinner so the blue shows through (at least I can see it on the beads I have).

Also, I saw some of the second kind of beads in person today at the airport (Honolulu, in case you want to go see). I could see the ground-away part of the murinni, it was pretty cool.

beadforever · #10 2013-03-19, 8:37am

To get the coloring design of the first set of beads would be very hard to do in lampworking because of the way they are made. Yes they are machine pressed glass beads which are made from rods of glass which can be murrini rods and the holes are made during the making of the beads in the machine while pressing. When the glass rods are heated and inserted in the mold the murrini design shifts causeing each bead of the same pressing from the murrini or glass rods to come out different in the placement of the rings per bead.
The second set of beads are made simlar to the first but honestly I do not know how they get the different murrini in the molds of each bead. These days most all chinia's beads are automatic,semi-automatic machine made.
Truley I would love to be able to make them myself.