craftgrrl | Lampwork Crystal Beads

I mentioned before that I got a few glass presses from Zoozii's for Christmas. I want to say first that I really love Zoozii's and I could probably buy almost everything they have! Really great presses, well made, very good quality, and so many to choose from. Love it.

When I first saw people making press beads, I honestly was a bit snobbish about the whole thing. I was like, well gee, anybody could do that. Just get your blob of glass, press it, and boom, you have a bead. No creativity there, right? But then I started to become soo enamored with the lentil shape and a press is the best way to achieve that. So that's where I got started.

You know what I learned REALLY quickly? Presses are actually very tricky to use. You have to have a good shape before you press the bead. You have to have exactly the right volume of glass - not too much, not too little, or else the bead won't turn out quite right. Some presses are a bit more forgiving than others mind you. But at any rate, I lost my "that looks too easy" attitude. I started trying to learn how to eyeball just the right volume of glass for the different presses and different sizes. (It's especially difficult if you are doing much decoration on the bead that you are planning on melting in, because you might do your whole design, then press it, and realize you had too much glass on there. And it won't turn out - you will have a bead with stuff squishing out the edges or else not big enough to fill out the press so it won't be fully formed. Either way, not a bead I would be able to sell.)

ANYWAY I guess now that I've lost my attitude about using presses, and I'm getting over the learning curve that exists with presses, I am starting to get more deeply addicted to the shapes that these things can produce. I especially REALLY loved this crystal shape. I got the chunky crystal press for Christmas and they are big, funky chunky beads. Focal beads really. I loved the shape so much I ordered the other crystal press, that has the teeny crystal sizes, because now I just can't get enough of this crystal shape. And every time I start looking at presses, I see about 10 more I would like to buy. I sense an addiction here.

Here are some crystal beads I've gotten started with, which have made it into my Etsy shop so far. Again, these are the large size ones - about 18mm from hole to hole so pretty big and chunky. Love them.