Who Makes These Beastie Beads?
My name is Teila Hanks.
I am a wife and mother of 5 beautiful & fantastic kids. Besides being a stay at home mom, I also homeschool my children. My hubby and kids are my first love, priority, and the inspiration behind everything I do.
As my long day winds down, I often turn to my lampwork for relaxation!
I find that for a short time..I can melt my everyday worries away. There is nothing funner than taking rods of glass and turning them into little critters!
Working in our home studio located in Oklahoma..this fantastic glass journey of mine began along the side of my mother and my aunt, in the Spring of 2003 under the direction and teaching of Cindy Brown. Like most lampworkers, I was a goner the moment I sat down in front of the torch! I took both the begining and advanced lampwork classes from Cindy and the rest has been a self taught adventure.
In 2004 I combined my addiction of melting glass with my love for animals. My little horse designs were the beginning of my Beastie Beads. Since then the Beastie Bead Zoo has grown to many species of animals and continues to grow everytime I sit at my torch. Animals are my main focus and I specialize in focal beads. On a rare occassion you might see me make a set of 5 or more beads but not often! I personally love big beads and I can't help myself from making them...I love beads that you can see comming from a mile away...nice and chunky...beads that can stand on their own!
What Materials Are Your Beads Made With?
All the beads that I make are made from or with a mixture of what is called soft/soda lime glass. Most of this glass that I use comes from Italy, U.S.A. and Germany. From factories such as Moretti/Effetre, Vetrofond, Lauscha, ASK, CiM, and Glass Works.
The glass comes in a wide variety of colors... So...NO I do not paint my beads.
I start my beads out by winding the glass around a special coated steel rod called a mandrel. All the sculpting is done right in the flame of my HotHead Torch. Most of the time, all I use to shape the glass is my special razor blade, tweezers, and a graphite paddle. And of coarse, the best tool of all...Gravity.
Are The Beads Annealed?
Yes, Always!
In fact, my beads go straight into a pre-heated digital kiln the moment they leave the flame for proper annealing.
They sit in the kiln for a nice long soak time and then they are very slowly brought down to room temperature. This process takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours from the time that the last bead enters the kiln for the day.
What Does Annealed Mean?
Nothing is worse than paying big prices for a bead that will self destruct!
Beads that are not annealed have no guarentee that they will not self destruct at some point in the future. Beads that are not annealed can explode at the slightest temperature changes. It is said that you can hit an unannealed piece of glass with a hammer and nothing will happen to it, but then scratch or lightly bump it and it will result in glass shards flying everywhere.
No bead should ever just up and blow up in half or into tiny little shards on it's own!
There is science to this and this can turn into a very long discussion, so I will try to keep it short here.
When glass is melted & shaped into beads (or any other kind of object)there is built up stress that remains inside the beads after cooling them. This is caused by the glass expanding when hot and contracting when cooled. Glass cools from the outside to the inside. Therefore the temperature needs to be controlled to come down slowly and allow the atoms in the glass to move at a rate that stress can flow quickly out of the glass.
Some lampwork artists will flame anneal their beads (evening out the heat and slowly cooling the bead in the flame as they flash it many times in and out of the flame) then they finish letting their beads slowly cool in a speical fiber blanket or vermiculite. This does not remove all the stress. No matter how well you flame anneal there is always stress left in the bead because the process is an uncontrolled cooling. I never knock this method of cooling as long as the beads are later batch annealed in a kiln, but I never recommend it either as you take the chance of some of your beads comming out of the kiln broken anyways from all the stress to the glass involved. Nothing is more heartbreaking than spending all that time making your little work of art...only to see it break afterwards.
I personally prefer the method of going straight into the kiln. I always even out the heat in my finished beads and then take them directly from the flame into a pre-heated kiln that is set for the temperature that is required for the glass that I am using.
A properly annealed bead should withstand the test of time as long as long as you take care of it. Annealed glass is still glass. That means it is still fragile. You can't drop it and expect it not to break. This is especially true with sculpted glass because of all the cross sections at different locations in the bead that are made up of different sizes and thickness. When you add manes, tails, ears, and other small details you must heat the area where you are adding the details to assure proper attachment. Then when annealed in a controlled environment it makes these joints even stronger but not unbreakable. You can expect the smaller parts of the bead to break off first if dropped or banged around harshly. So you need to take extra care of sculpted beads.
To find out more about annealing I recommend the book More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Glass Beadmaking by James Kervin. He really breaks it down and covers all the science talk about atoms and molecules!
Do you offer Wholesale Pricing for Resellers?
Lampwork Beads are pieces of art. Alot of time, hard work, and love goes into each bead!
Prices depend on several things that are involved with making them. I price my beads by the size, color, and complexity of the bead design. Pricey colors and extra materials used such as cubic zirconias, silver, aventurine, and certain frits will add to the cost of a bead.
I also take the time it takes to create the bead into consideration. It can take anywhere from 5 minutes to make a plain basic bead up to over 2 hours to make a sculptural bead. I make my beads with my heart involved, so it often times takes me well 1 to 2 hours to make just one animal bead.
I am not a mass producer or a huge business. Therefore...No...I do not offer wholesale prices to resellers.
I do my best to keep my prices fair and honest for the collectors of my art beads and for those that want to add them into their own jewelry and crafty projects.
Are Your Bead Holes Cleaned?
Yes, Always!
When making beads you first coat a steel rod, called a mandrel, with a clay substance called "bead release". This prevents the bead from sticking to the mandrel which forms the hole of the bead. When dried this stuff makes a powder. In large amounts this stuff is toxic and should not be inhaled. So after my beads come out of the kiln they automatically go into a tub of water to soak. This eases the removal of the bead and helps trap the powder from the bead release from getting into the air. After the beads are removed they soak a few minutes longer and then I take a diamond coated file and clean out the hole of the bead. Rinse the beads off and throughly check them for stress fractures or major defects.
What Is The Guarantee On The Beads?
My Guarantee.... All my beads are thoroughly inspected for quality and I stand behind my work. I love my creations and enjoy all the time that I spend making them. Every bead is made with tender-loving-care and with great attention to details. I only sell my best beads & I do guarantee them against stress cracks. No bead should ever just up and blowup in half! If a stress crack is overlooked accidently I will refund your money or if you desire we can make arrangements for an exchange of equal & comparable value once the item is received. This guarantee does not cover beads that are broken from being dropped, banged harshly around, or used improperly in designing, or mistreated in any other way.
What Do I Use These Beads For?
Your imagination is the limits!
I strive to make each one of my sculpted beads free standing. Therefore they are great just to sit around on your favorite shelf, stand, or desk!
Since they are each unique they make great gifts for those loved ones that seem to have everything and are hard to buy for.
Besides making jewelry/pendants with them, there are many ways you can design them into your own crafty projects. Some ideas are the following...
Fan/Light Pulls, Curtain Tie Backs, Wine Stoppers, Pens, Letter Openers, Ornaments, Lamp Finials, ID Badges, Rear View Mirror Buddies..just to name a few!
Can I Use These Beads In My Jewelry Creations?
I focus on making collectable animal beads, beads that are special and that can be cherished, each one being unique and that no one else will have.
Not all my creations are wonderful for jewelry designs. Please take this into consideration when buying my beads if you are a jewelry designer.
Most of my beads will work great as focal points or as pendants but you do need to make sure that they are stationed stable and free from being hit and banged and bumped around. You don't want to apply huge amounts of pressure to any of the fragile parts of the beads either.
I never recommend any of my sculpted animal beads for designing into bracelets.
Handle with care, glass is delicate! If you are adding my beads in your designs that you sell, please make sure your customers aware of how fragile they can be and that care is needed to prevent breakage.
I Broke My Bead! Can I Glue It?
#1. Never ever subject your beads to sudden & drastic temperature changes. This can cause them to shatter, any glass item for that matter. Annealed or Not Annealed!
#2. If you drop your bead and it breaks or if your bead should ever develop a crack or fracture then discontinue use immediately and properly dispose of the bead(s). I don't recommend even trying to glue them back together again. Any cracking can lead to injuries. A bad cut just isn't worth it!
What Does SRA Stand For?
SRA means Self Representing Artist.
A Self Representing Artist is someone who creates and sells their own or their immediate families work.
As a SRA member I strive to bring you only top quality beads. Made by me, in my own home studio. My beads are not mass produced.
They are each made one by one, while striving for quality and perfection in each bead.
The quality of my beads and your happiness with them are my top priority. Should you ever be unhappy with your purchase, please contact me immediately so that I can work with you to make it right.
To learn more about SRA Members, and for a whole list of more dedicated glass artists please visit the following link.
SELF REPRESENTING ARTISTS
