Glass Grape Pendant Bead

In this class, the student will learn how to make a lampwork glass grape pendant.  The class is intended for the beginning student and does not require a lot of experience or expensive tools and materials.  The class will start with a review of the class syllabus including the prerequisites, cane preparation, making the bead, finishing the bead and finally the wrap up.  The class will start with preparing two types of cane.  This first is an encased cane where the instructor will show the students how to layer transparent glass over an opaque glass to form a barrel.  The barrel will then be melted down and pulled into a one millimeter cane that will be used to form the dot grapes.  The second cane will be constructed by making a paddle from a base color of olive green.  The paddle will be striped with yellow, orange and brown and pulled into a flat ribbon cane to be used in making the grape leaves.  Once both canes are made, the base bead of opal yellow will be constructed into an oval bicone shape.  The instructor will demonstrate how to lay down the vines first and melt them flat.  Once that step is completed, the grapes will be applied with the encased cane.  Four bunches of grapes will be applied to the base bead along with the stems the leaves.  We will finally put amethyst caps on each end of the bead to finish the design.  The instructor will demonstrate how to anneal the bead in the kiln, then cool and clean the bead and finally, how to put on the silver findings to complete the pendant.  A short congratulatory wrap up will conclude the class.