Bead pair: aqua encased, with silver glass feathers

It started early last year after I attended JC Herrell‘s Joy of Stringer workshop. Since then I go through periods of industriously practising putting straight lines around the “belly” of the bead. Sounds simple, no? But it’s a big pain, especially with thin stringers that are less than half a millimetre wide. I have more success with thicker (wider) stringers but I still struggle with very fine stringers because the thinner the stringer is, the less manageable it becomes.

Trying to find, and stay in, that sweet spot in the flame (actually, next to the flame) where the stringer just melts but doesn’t crumple into a big gloppy mess is difficult enough. Of course, the line should be straight, and perpendicular to the hole line—we want straight not wriggly lines. Then I set myself the task of placing three or more lines around the bead, preferably perfectly straight, evenly spaced and parallel to each other (ha!). My biggest problem lies in joining the line back onto itself. Ideally you shouldn’t see where the join is but I almost always end up with a blob. Grrr. I understand the theory: start with a taper, end with a taper, join the tapers seamlessly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crooked blobby lines

I started getting frustrated with making very many beads with crooked blobby lines. So I decided that I might as well try to improve my raking technique at the same time. Similar to cake decorating the idea is to use a tool to drag across the lines. The trick is that you have to drag just the surface of the glass where the lines lie, but somehow avoid dragging the glass underneath as well.

I used to use a special raking tool made of tungsten but I always ended up gouging a deep line in the bead resulting in badly shaped beads with ugly feathers. In retrospect, part of the problem was that I thought that the line had to be raked in one go. So I applied too much heat to the bead and when I inevitably started going too deep I would just continue regardless, rather desperately gouging my way deeper and deeper into the bead. I decided that the technique wasn’t for me and left it alone.

So, a couple of years later, here I was with my blobby, crooked lines. I figured I might as well try the rake thing again because at least it doesn’t matter so much if the lines are crooked, you’re going to mess around with them anyway.

I found out that you can make your own raking tool by pulling a point on a rod of clear glass (heat just the tip of the rod, grab and pull quickly with needle-nosed pliers, snap off about 1.5 cm from the end of the rod). This was a fantastic discovery because I can make my glass rake much, much finer than the tungsten tool. That was the big breakthrough!

Tungsten versus glass rakes

After gently heating the spot where I want to rake the lines I use my glass rake to move only the very surface of the bead. Another ah-ha moment was figuring out that the line is better made in little steps. Heat. Rake. Heat. Rake. And I also realised that if I start to go too deep into the bead, then I should just STOP. Wait. Break off the rake, which by this time is probably somewhat buried and stuck to the bead. Then continue again: Heat. Rake. I usually have about 6 or 7 glass rakes ready before I start work on a bead. When one gets too blunt I just pick up the next one. After the bead is finished I re-pull any blunt rakes.

Bead pair: fuschia with copper green feathers

There’s something very “zen” about raking. I mean, melting glass and making beads is a pretty “zen” thing anyway. Glass has its own mind. I try to control it, but I feel that glass is the master of me, not the other way around. But what I notice with raking is that time just seems to stand still: there’s just the lines, the flame, and my glass rake. I suspect that I don’t charge enough for them for the amount of time that they take. But I have made a conscious decision not to time the process: I love the nothingness of it all. (“I am one with the glass” :-))

But I also love the final result, which is a happy coincidence. Too often the bead is fun to make, but looks like junk. But I just love the alternating points and the beautiful curve that is created, in cake and glass. I still have problems putting straight, parallel, evenly spaced lines around a bead, but I’m happy to have found a way to work with them.

Bead trio: silver glass feathered twist

I can highly recommend the workshop. Annemarie is a calm teacher and the whole experience was very enjoyable. You can see photos of the workshop on Annemarie’s blog, and also on Alexandra Feo‘s blog. Alexandra is another designer (and great photographer!) at TNLP who attended the workshop as well.

The Hand

So let’s start off with the definition of a headpin: it’s basically a metal wire with something on one end to stop a bead from sliding off the wire. It is used to attach the bead(s) to a piece of jewellery. The “something on the end” could be a loop in the wire, or a ball formed by melting the end of the wire, or something more elaborate. Here is a “borrowed” photo of a ball headpin.

A ball headpin

A headpin is just one of many “findings” that are used by jewellery makers. Finding is a general term for the bits and pieces that are used in making jewellery—clasps, ear wires, etc.

Normally, one or more beads are threaded onto the headpin. The headpin is then finished in such a way that the beads are secure and can be attached to the work. I make my lampwork headpins by melting and forming the glass directly onto the end of a piece of wire. I don’t normally add any other beads onto the wire (though you can), but simply “wire-wrap” it and attach it to the piece that I am making. Wire-wrapping the end means that I make a loop in the wire, and then wrap the wire around itself.

Okay, a few photos should hopefully make this clearer…

Hana Gusari necklace

I am making a chain maille necklace in copper for a custom order. This is the first version of the necklace. The weave is called Hana Gusari. As you can see there are a series of triangles that are connected together.

Hana Gusari chain maille necklace in copper

At the end of each triangle I am going to attach one of these headpins. I made each ball by twisting opaque green glass with transparent clear glass; the “twistie” has then been melted onto the end of a length of copper wire and formed into a small ball.

Lampwork headpins

Lampwork headpin

This is what the headpins look like after they have been wire-wrapped.

Wire wrapped lampwork headpin

And this is after the excess wire has been snipped off and tidied up.

Finished wire wrapped lampwork headpins

Here is the final version of the necklace. The headpins have been attached, and I have removed the unused triangles.

Completed necklace

The clasp is also handmade (by me!) and is based on a design by Delia Stone, who makes truly wonderful wire-wrapped jewellery.

What else can you do with my lampwork headpins?

As I have shown I don’t do anything elaborate with my headpins, but there are other possibilities. One idea, suggested by a client, is to form the wire of the headpin into an earwire to make a simple and easy earring.

And, here is a photo of a sea glass pendant made by one of my favourite clients, Surfside Sea Glass. Here you see that several sea glass beads have been strung above the lampwork teardrop and then finished in a wire-wrap.

Sea glass pendant

So I hope that this post has answered the question, “What the heck is a headpin?” If you have any more questions or suggestions then please post a comment or send me an email.

I don’t have a decent photo of my display in the shop itself. But here is a (somewhat fuzzy) photo that I took with my phone of the mockup that I did here at home.

Mockup of my TNLP display

Oh, I’ve since learned that the correct term for what I’m doing is “shop-in-shop”.

TNLP will open its doors on December 1 on the Rozengracht 75, in the centre of Amsterdam, a few minutes walk from the Westerkerk and the Anne Frank House. (As I mentioned earlier) I’m having problems posting photos, so I will just direct you to TNLP’s Facebook page. Do come along and check out my shop-within-a-shop!

If you can’t make it to the show then cruise along to my Etsy shop where I am having a 15% sale that weekend. Please use the coupon code XMAS15 in my Etsy shop any time from midnight Friday November 25 to midnight Sunday November 27, local (ie, Amsterdam) time. But drop me a line if you miss out on the sale because of a time difference.

Okay, I’m having problems displaying images at the moment, so you probably can’t read the invite. Here is what it says:

“Are you are searching for a one-of-a-kind gift for someone special in your life? Or maybe something unique for yourself? Then drop by my Christmas/Sinterklaas show to view my latest work while enjoying a drink. Feel free to bring friends with you. I hope to see you there! If you can’t come then visit my online shop instead where I will be having a 15% sale. See my website for details.

Sunday November 27
14:00—17:00
Zwanenburgwal 154
1011 JH Amsterdam

This is the first one, “Another Bright Day”, curated by Sharkyswaters, which includes a set of my aquamarine lampwork headpins. I love the colours in this treasury!

Treasury: "Another Bright Day"

Number 2 is a very soothing collection called “Honey Amber”. It was selected by AngelaDesign, and it features some of my light amber lampwork headpins:

Treasury: "Honey Amber"

The third one is called, “Some of my Favorite Things for When I am Feeling Blue”, curated by Hepstyles, which again includes a set of ivory and copper green lampwork headpins (they seem to like my headpins!):

Treasury: "Some of my Favorite Things for When I am Feeling Blue"

And the last one is “With Whip…”, selected by beadifulbaublesSC, featuring some of my white-on-white teardrop headpins:

Treasury: "With Whip..."

The idea is to start off with a small-ish (9 cm x 9 cm) square, then draw a pencil line to divide the square into sections. The pencilled line is officially called a “string”.

The next step is to fill in each section with different patterns (called “tangles”). It turns out that there are lots of patterns created by lots of different people. After a while I’ve found it easier to use those rather than trying to make up my own tangles (but leaving me with a vague feeling of “cheating”).

As my title implies, I find it a strangely addictive process. One of those things where I feel like I’m “wasting” my time, but it’s very soothing (I suppose that that’s the “zen” part), and I tell myself that it’s good for my creativity, which is maybe just an excuse. Anyway if you’re interested in finding out more, this is the official site (yes, Zentangle is trademarked, copyrighted and marketed enthusiastically): http://www.zentangle.com/. And here is a site that has lots of interesting patterns: http://tanglepatterns.com/