Green Guy Glass Bead

This cute little glass bead from Diamond Tech is so fun to make. You can make him in seven steps using Moretti Glass rods and a beadmaking kit. This little guy is great for decorative accents.

Materials:

• 1 Fireworks Beginner Beadmaking Kit
• Moretti glass rods: opal light green, dark green, medium transparent grass green
• One each black, red and white stringers
• Mandrels coated in bead release
• Protective eyewear

Steps:

1. To form a base bead, heat your mandrel and apply 1” of light green opal glass. Heat thoroughly and use the flat marvering tool to shape the bead into a barrel. Be sure to make the base bead long enough to accommodate a glass spiral which will eventually become the worm’s body. (FIG. 1)
    
2. Use a dark green opal glass rod to randomly add dots to the surface of the base bead. (FIG. 2)
    
3. Heat the bead, gently pull on side of each dot with a bead rake to form foliage or leave-like shapes. (FIG. 3)
    
4. Heat ½” of a medium grass green transparent glass rod. Touch the glass rod to one end of the base bead, pull gently as your turn the mandrel, resulting in a thick spiral on the base bead. (FIG. 4) This will form the worm’s body. Heat the grass green rod again, add a large dot of glass at the thick end of the spiral to form the head. (FIG. 4) Note: make sure the entire head is being kept hot, but not so hot it melts the raised texture of the head.
    
5. Use a white stringer and apply two dots on the worms head, these will be the eyes. Complete the eyes using a black string and placing small dots on top of the white dots. (FIG. 5)
    
6. Use a red stringer and place a single dot for the mouth. Spot heat the mouth so that it softens enough to plunge a tip of a rake into the center. Soften mouth again, using a rake pull-out the corners of the mouth. (FIG. 5)
    
7. Fire-anneal your bead by heating and allowing it to cool for a few seconds: repeat several times then carefully place the bead in the fiber blanket to cool.
    

How to Pull a Stringer: Hold both ends of a glass rod and center in flame. Heat the center of the rod until molten, push both ends toward the middle to create a hot ball of glass. When the ball is about ½” in diameter remove from flame and pull to create a thin, thread-like piece of glass, this is a stringer. Remember glass will be hot, break off rod ends and cool before use.