Triangle Beads

Question: How do you make a triangle shape on your beads?

Answer:  Remember the technique for making dots?  Well, this is just another way of placing your dots.  If you use enough glass and place the dots properly they will push on each other and create the triangle shape while your are heating your bead.

To practice you will need a dark transparent color for your base bead, black is good.  Then you need a white rod and your favorite dark transparent color (not black).

Make a smallish bead with the black glass.  Now here's the first trick....place four white dots that have a large footprint evenly around on the left shoulder of your bead.  Don't let any of the dots touch each other.  On the other shoulder place the same four dots except place them directly across from the spaces on the other side so that they are offset from the first.  Gently round out your white dots so that they aren't pointy or lopsided but don't melt them in yet.  Did you check to see that they aren't touching each other?  If they are start again.  It just won't work if they touch.

Now, using your transparent color stack a dot directly on top of the white dots all around your bead.  Gently even them out in the heat after they are placed just like you did with the white dots.

Here's the last trick....Don't melt the bead in the heat only at the equator of your bead.  The bead needs to have heat from all sides to create the triangle shapes.  Begin heating your bead from one side by the mandrel so the side gets hot.  Then do the same on the other side by the mandrel.  This will help pull the dots down so the transparent will cover the white completely.  Finally begin to heat the equator to even out the temperature in the entire bead.  Continue heating the bead from all sides, not just from the equator until the dots have flattened into your bead. 

If you melted it properly you should have fairly nice triangles with slightly rounded corners that have a nice even color.  If not you will see the white creeping up around your transparent color. 

Possible problems and how to fix them

The white crept up around my dot....next time make a larger transparent dot on top of the white and melt more around the mandrel ends first.

The triangles aren't really triangles, they look more like squished circles..... Sometimes the base bead color can influence this.  But try it again and use more glass on your dots.  You can even put a second layer of transparent dots on top of the first ones so you have more glass there.  The bigger the dots to begin with the more they will want to spread out.  This technique uses that influence to push the dots into the triangle shape.