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Beads are made by wrapping the melted tip of a glass rod around a thin stick of stainless steel, called a mandrel. In order to remove the mandrel, naturally it must be straight. Lampwokers, however, have always been intriged with the idea of making beads with non straight mandrel channels. The traditional method of doing this has been to employ a soft metal which can be burned out of the finished bead with acid. Messy and toxic, this isn't a popular process! I was particularly attracted to the prospect of making V and U shaped beads, so, in 1999, I designed a tool which enables me to do both as well as X's, Y's, diamonds, and much more.
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