Making your own charm beads can be fun an interesting, or it can be a huge pain. The equipment you'll require to make charm beads does need a little bit of safety training for proper use, so it's normally best to let a professional or experienced amateur show you how it is done before striking out on your own with making your own charm beads. When making charm beads, this is the information you need. There's a few different materials from which you can make charm beads. They come in silver, brass, Swarovski crystals, or glass. There's African flip-flop beads and beads made from bones and so forth, but since you're likely not in possession of a large amount of bone, it's best to perhaps focus on glass beads for the time being. There are charm beads for all. You'll need a high-powered blowtorch that gets hot enough to melt glass, and a bead-making dabber made from tungsten. Tungsten is the metal used in lightbulb filaments, as it can get extremely hot without melting, though as you've likely seen, it tends to glow rather brightly. Additionally, it's often good to get special carbon paper that won't catch fire from the high heat, which you can use to set your beads on for cooling. The glass for the charm beads comes from the store in long, thin rods. When you're ready to make your first bead, turn on the blowtorch and hold the glass rod you want to melt in the very tip of the blue part of the flame. As it begins to glow and starts to look like a viscous liquid, grab another glass rod that is a color you want to use and heat that as well. When the glass begins to roll off the end of the rod, catch the flow with metal dabber. Create a droplet on the end of the dabber with the melted glass, and add other colors as you melt them. Keep the dabber spinning, as otherwise the glass will form a droplet and fall off the dabber, causing serious injury or damage to property. Once you've got a good bead with several different colors, take it out of the fire and continue to roll it until it looks cool enough that it is not glowing or completely liquid. Wrap it in a sheet of carbon paper and let it sit for about two hours. When you come back, you'll have made a bead. How easy it is to make charm beads? Safety is always a major concern when working with molten glass. Again, always use eye protection, and find a professional to help you learn how to do this. While you may very well not burn yourself, it's never good to take unnecessary risks, especially if you want to enjoy the full benefits of your new beading obsession in health and safety for years to come. Charm beads, and making them on your own, is a fun and exciting hobby as well as something any one can easily learn how to do. Anybody can make their own beads with a little tuition from an experienced beader. For more ideas, and for more information on making charm beads, a site like Cooksongold can be beneficial.
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