| Lampwork beads, glass art, Mary Lockwood, handmade glass beads, artisan made beads, kiln annealed lampwork beads, flamework, torchwork, lampwork tutorials, beadmaking, lampwork, frog beads, floral beads, focal beads, jellyfish beads, contemporary beads |
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| How I add a bail to drop-bead focals with only a top hole. |
| All web graphics and content are copyright Mary Lockwood 2004-2008. |
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This tutorial is based on using one of these large sterling bails with an attached stem of 20 gauge sterling wire, like an eyepin on steroids. You can buy these for about $6.00 You could also adapt this to a homemade wrapped loop of sterling wire. |
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| With round nosed pliers, start coiling the end of the wire into a spring-like configuration. Keep the coil feeding off the end of the pliers and wrapping the wire around the smallest tip of the pliers. You want the coil to be the same diameter its whole length. |
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The finished coil will be tight and straight, sticking out at a right angle from the bottom of the bail. Grab the bottom of the coil and pull it down and straight away from the bail. This will stretch it out and align it with the bail. You will end up with what is shown in the picture at left. |
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| Insert this corkscrew into the top of the bead and trim the bottom of the wire until it fits completely down into the bead hole. Make sure that the bottom of the bail loop itself is partially down into the hole so that it doesn't wiggle back and forth. In my opinion, the solder joint between the bail and the wire is a weak point. The goal is to elminate movement and ultimately protect it from stress of wear. Remove the coil so you can start filling the bead hole with epoxy. |
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| Not just any glue will do! You can forget the GS Hypo Cement, Gorilla Glue and the E6000. The only glue I trust for this job is a 2 part, clear drying epoxy with a slow cure time. Brand doesn't really matter, but check the working, handling and curing times. Working time should be about 30 minutes, time to be able to handle the piece should be about 2 hours and full cure should be no less than 8 hours. |
| Mix equal portions of resin and hardener together thoroughly in a small plastic cup. I use the medicine dosing cups from liquid medicine. Use a toothpick, skewer or piece of scrap wire to dip into the epoxy and work it down into the bead hole. You need to get the hole about 1/2 filled with epoxy, the next step will fill it the rest of the way. The bead hole has to be free of bead release and completely dry. Now dip and roll the wire coil into the epoxy so that it is all covered and filled with epoxy. Insert the coil down into the hole of the bead. You will probably have a bit of overflow. You need to carefully and immediately wipe this away with a dry cloth or papertowel. Work quickly. This is why the you need a clear drying epoxy. You should end up with a bead hole completely filled with epoxy, a wire coil solidly cemented with epoxy and the bottom point of the bail also secured into the epoxy. Set this aside, upright to cure. Don't touch it or move it until the approved handling time advised on your brand of epoxy. |
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| The finished piece: |
| Thanks for reading this tutorial, hope it helps you! ~~Mary |
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