Tapered Mandrel Bead Experiments

The glass bead makers of Turkey work in a tradition that is millennia old.  In the villages of Izmir and Görece, the glass bead makers practice their trade while sitting around a specially built wood fired furnace. I decided to try my hand at making glass beads on a bare tapered iron mandrel as they do. Not having a wood fired glass furnace, I had to settle for my oxygen and propane torch. My mandrel was made out of an old and very rusty iron rod. I cleaned the rough rust off and hand filed a nice taper on one end of it. See photos below.

I was surprised by my results. Gathering hot glass around a bare rod wasn't much different then using a modern coated stainless steel mandrel. The trick was removing the bead from the mandrel while it was still hot. If the glass was wound on too hot, it would bond to the rod. If you tried to tap it off it would break apart. It was strange the first time that I successfully knocked a bead off of the mandrel and into my annealing oven. I had discovered a bead making time machine! 

View of a finished bead on the mandrel that it was formed on.

The mandrel in my hand for a size comparisons.

A group of 10 eye beads that were made on the tapered mandrel. These beads are modeled after "Phoenician" stratified eye beads.

For further reading, I suggest Anatolske glasperler by Torben Sode, or Anatolian Glass Bead Making by Prof. Önder Küçükerman. 

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