What is lampworking?

Ok, so I have said I am a Lampworker or Flameworker (they are the same thing and you will see both terms used by different people) but what does this mean?  Well (very briefly) in my case (and most commonly) it involves using an extremely hot gas/oxygen torch to melt glass rods onto steel sticks or mandrels.  

These mandrels are coated in a very fine clay mixture to prevent the glass sticking to the rod.  The glass is then melted onto the rod whilst rotating it and is shaped using hand movements and tools.  There are various types of glass and manufacturers.  

The glass I use has a COE (coefficient of expansion) of 104, this means that it is quite a soft glass and melts at lower temperatures than glass with a lower COE.  You have to be careful not to mix glasses of different COE's otherwise the glass shatters, although you can use small amounts of fine broken glass of a different COE called frit for decoration, but only a small amount.  

Whilst beads are still hot they are placed into an equally digitally controlled hot kiln and left for about 10 hours to anneal which makes them strong. Once the beads are cooled they are taken off the mandrels and the resulting holes cleaned of the dried clay mixture.

There are so many different designs and ways of decorating beads, I buy alot of tutorials and go to workshops and training sessions.  I also use books and discuss different methods with other lampworkers on forums and on social networking (I have a facebook account and twitter and pinterest - phew!).
 
Lampworking/Flameworking can also be used to make sculptural work without a mandrel, 'off mandrel', which is something I have started to do, making mini paperweights and marbles and hope to move onto larger pieces this year. For my bead work and current mini paperweights and cupboard/drawer knobs I use the soft glass still, but hope to move onto using much tougher glass which melts at much higher temperatures and also is less prone to thermal shock (what happens if you spend too long admiring your hot bead in a cooler atmosphere!).  The tougher glass is called borosilicate (pyrex!).

If you type lampworking into your search engine you can find good links to places which can tell you more.  I have put some links in my links section (including to my Facebook, Twitter, Etsy shop, website and pinterest pages).