Barley Beads          
         
   
Tutorials

These tutorials have been created as PDF files that can be printed out for your convenience.
The purchase price for each tutorial is $25.00.

When you click on the links for the tutorials, you will be taken to a site where you can purchase the tutorial directly, via Paypal. Please contact me if you want to make your payment with a personal check, money order or visa/mastercard.

If you want the file sent to an email address other than the one that you use with Paypal, please let me know.

 
      Baleen Bead Tutorialllllllllllllllllllll lTo purchase, click here

This tutorial explains in detail the steps that I take to make my Baleen Bead. There are eighteen pages with clear and concise photos for each step. The file size is 2.1 MB
   
      This tutorial is intended for the person who has experience working with soft glass on a mixed fuel torch. I use a propane/oxygen torch but I have taught these techniques with great success in classes using oxygen concentrators. I don’t have experience with Hothead torches, so I can’t say if a Hothead would be adequate.
               
                         
             

Window Bead Tutorial llllllllllllllTo purchase, click here

I have always been interested in the idea of layers. It’s interesting to expose or hide things between the layers. It might be layers of paint that have been partially scraped away to leave hints of what may lie beneath Or it could be layers of glass with ‘windows’ exposing the layers underneath. In this tutorial, I explain the steps taken to create windows in your bead to expose the layers underneath. You will not need any special tools or glass. I use the basic palette from Effetre and silver leaf. Although the focus of the tutorial is how to create the windows, you will learn many other techniques that I use to create the other designs in this bead.
This tutorial is nineteen pages long with clear pictures accompanying the description of each step.

   
                     
  This tutorial is intended for the person who has experience working with soft glass on a mixed fuel torch. I use a propane/oxygen torch but I have taught these techniques with great success in classes using oxygen concentrators. I don’t have experience with Hothead torches, so I can’t say if a Hothead would be adequate.  
                                 
                         

Custom Cane Pulling Tutorial

To purchase, click here

This is actually three tutorials.

The first tutorial shows how I blend colors and pull custom colored cane. I have been working with a limited palette for the last twenty years. Primarily, I’m still working with Effetre colors. By blending these colors and pulling my own cane, I’ve been able to create new and interesting colors that allow me to make beads that are unique from what others are making.
           
       
                         
 

In the second tutorial, I demonstrate how I use a twelve point optic mold to make striped cane. I show how I use these canes to make the ‘hanabi’ or star patterns seen in many of my beads. I also show you the way that I make my twisted or straight striped cane. Please note that the optic mold is not necessary to make the cane.

In the third tutorial, I make a bead using a custom colored cane and apply the ‘hanabi’.

For the last ten years, I have been teaching workshops all over North America as well as in Europe and Japan. In my demonstrations, most students react with surprise at how I approach these techniques. I think that making my own cane is one of the most important things that I do to make my beads stand out from other beads. These tutorials will show you in detail how to blend your own glass to make your own custom colors and how to use them in your beads.