I copied and pasted this from another thread where I was advising a newbie on how to make round "non-donut round" shaped beads. The sphere or round marble shape. I did all this writing and posted it and thought, "oh wow, all that and it looks like a tutorial!" So here it is:
If you are talking round like a sphere or marble, that is a totally different skill altogether. Practice getting good donut rounds first, because this is the simple "classic" lampwork round bead shape. Once you have mastered that, you will be ready to tackle just about anything else, because you would have learned to control the glass rather than have it control you.
a) Once you have mastered the simple donut round, then to make a round sphere bead you start with a tiny evenly shaped spacer. (you mastered this, remember?) It's important for them to have an even footprint because if not, the whole bead will wonkify all over the place later.
b) Then about the width you want this round sphere bead to be, place another spacer next to it however many millimeters away you want. Get that one evenly shaped up, and flash the other one to keep it warm.
c) Then to fill in the middle empty space, get a drip of molten glass, attach it to one spacer, then wrap part of the way around the empty mandrel space, then attach to the other spacer, and then burn off.
d) Add a little more glass to this "connection" between the two spacers. Melt this in slow and you will see the glass creep along the mandrel space and fill in bubble-free. This is cool to watch!
e) You will probably have a football shaped bead at this point, but go ahead and add more glass until it fills out to a round sphere. The holes on a true sphere shaped beads are not dimpled in, but flush and clean, no sharp edges. If you feel they should be a little smoother, then a quick zip with a round ball tipped fine diamond grade Dremel bit should do it.
There's your "round" bead, and of course, a video would be better, but this description is about as descriptive as I'm going to get.
Have fun!
Making a round aka sphere shaped bead
