Stringer

Getting detail onto glass beads can often involve the use of stringer. Stringer can be made by the artist or bought commercially. Stringer can be used to get lines and dots on beads as well as being used to form twists / swirls in beads.

How is stringer made?

Choose the rod of glass that you want to use as stringer and heat the end of the rod to form a gather. once the gather has formed allow the glass to begin cooling and then use tweezers to grip the end of the gather and pull. The faster you pull the thinner your stringer will be, if you want a thick stringer allow the glass to cool quite a bit and pull slowly. The stringer can then be broken off from the rod and used in designs later on.

Stringer control

This takes practice!!!