Do you see pictures of others lampwork beads and wonder how they get them so shiny? Do you think that yours lack that juiciness?
Well, I may have a solution for you:
Gentle but thorough fire-polishing.
What is fire polishing? It’s the process of bathing your bead in the flame after you’re finished decorating it. There is an art to fire polishing, but an art that is easy to learn. The trick is to not heat your bead so much that you start to lose definition in your shape and design.
Tips and tricks for effective fire polishing:
- Fire polish surfaces as you go, where decoration and shaping is complete. If you are making a bead with multiple layers, polishing them as you go will make your job easier (and faster) at the end.
- Hold your bead out further in the flame. That portion of the flame is a little cooler and more gentle on your bead. You don’t want to heat the bead all the way through…just the surface.
- Make sure you use a neutral flame. If you turn your flame down so it isn’t as intense make sure that it is still a neutral flame. A reducing flame will lead to, well, reduction, of any colors that are susceptible to that.
- Move your bead constantly. If you hold any one face of your bead in the flame, make sure you move it out quickly and alternate between surfaces. If you hold one spot in the flame too long you will go too far.
- Adjust your flame to pin point in order to fire polish specific areas of your bead while maintaining detail of any raised embellishment.
- Remember that any heat that you sink into your bead in this process will continue working, and melting. Don’t wait until you actually see chill marks or seams disappear, move in and out of the flame and let the stored heat in the bead continue to do it’s work.
- Most importantly: be patient. In and out, in and out, always moving, gently wafting the bead in the flame will yield the best result.
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This is great!!! Very helpful…I’m a stickler for fire polishing too! I think you are so right about polishing decorations and additions as you go. Thanks for sharing your knowlege!
Thanks for the feedback Rose. I hope people who don’t already do it will give it a try…It’s so worth the extra time!