The first meeting of the New Year began with new President,
Margaret Baldini, welcoming our speaker, Ray Youngs, from The Glass Bead and
Marble Company. Ray, is based in a studio at Blakemere Craft Centre, where he
hand makes his beautiful lampworked glass beads and marbles, which he then
forms into jewellery.
After a short history and explanation of the lampworking technique, he then turned on his gas torch and gave a demonstration of this fascinating process. Slowly, he introduced a glass rod into the flame to prevent cracking from thermal shock. The glass was then heated until molten, and then wound around a specially coated steel mandrel, to form a glass bead. The coating is a bead release agent that allows the bead to be easily removed from the mandrel later. He then embellished the bead’s surface using glass in particles (frit or powder) and also adjusted the final shape of the bead. After several more demonstrations showing various techniques and styles of decoration, two brave volunteers, Val and Heather, then had a go themselves under Ray’s careful direction!
If you are interested in coming along to similar demonstrations, visitors and new members are always very welcome! We have a varied programme of events arranged for the year plus other regular activities including........craft workshops, a book club, walking group, Garden club (new for 2015), bowling team, darts team, Cheshire Show entry team, cinema & theatre trips and trips to local places of interest
For more details check-out our website www.whitegatewi.weebly.com or contact Alison on 01606 888359.
After a short history and explanation of the lampworking technique, he then turned on his gas torch and gave a demonstration of this fascinating process. Slowly, he introduced a glass rod into the flame to prevent cracking from thermal shock. The glass was then heated until molten, and then wound around a specially coated steel mandrel, to form a glass bead. The coating is a bead release agent that allows the bead to be easily removed from the mandrel later. He then embellished the bead’s surface using glass in particles (frit or powder) and also adjusted the final shape of the bead. After several more demonstrations showing various techniques and styles of decoration, two brave volunteers, Val and Heather, then had a go themselves under Ray’s careful direction!
If you are interested in coming along to similar demonstrations, visitors and new members are always very welcome! We have a varied programme of events arranged for the year plus other regular activities including........craft workshops, a book club, walking group, Garden club (new for 2015), bowling team, darts team, Cheshire Show entry team, cinema & theatre trips and trips to local places of interest
For more details check-out our website www.whitegatewi.weebly.com or contact Alison on 01606 888359.