About Lunacy Beads

Lunacy Beads is small family based glass tudio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, established in fall of 2002.

Artist Lucie Weir was born 1976 in Boskovice, Czech Republic. After graduating with a Masters Degree in Arts (majoring in Animation) from the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design in Prague, Czech Republic, she moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Main productions of Lunacy Beads are lampworked glass beads, small objects and finished jewelry. They are all created with love and enthusiasm in original designs and small series.

Enjoy!

How are beads made?

...by hot working glass in a process called Lampworking. That is because in the old days, glassworkers would use the flame of an oil lamp as a heat source to melt the glass.

Glass comes in rods of many different colours. These are hand pulled in Murano,Italy. The ending of the glass rod becomes molten in the high temperature flame of the torch. These days gas/oxygen torches are most common lampworking tools.

As soon as the glass is heated enough and becomes flexible, it is wound around stainless steal wire (mandrel). The core of the bead is shaped and decorated with stringers and other techniques. Layers can be added on top of each other to achieve different effects. Precious metals, as well as dichroic glass, can be incorporated into bead designs.

After the bead is finished, it is placed into a kiln, to soak in a high temperature heat to relieve all the possible stress inside and to prevent bead from cracking. When cooled down, the beads are taken off the mandrels and cleaned. Large Lunacy beads are signed "Lu"with murrinni cane.

For Lunacy Beads italian Morretti glass rods and sheet glass are used, which is soft (soda-lime) glass. Czech glass and Pyrex glass are used occasionally.

Murrinni canes (millefiori)

This is one of the oldest hot-working glass methods. An ornament (a flower for example) is built up in the flame by layering small amounts of glass on the core glass rod and building it towards outside. The large ornament (pattern) is built, heated up and when flexible, it is stretched (pulled) into thinner size stick (cane). The ornament itself "shrinks" in scale. After cooling down, this cane can be cut into smaller pieces, fused together and pulled again.

When the cane is finished it is cut into thin slices and these can be incorporated into bead designs, pendants etc. This technique allows lampworkers to use very precise, detailed small designs in their work. It is also quiet common and often used in polymer clay (fimo) works.

Fusing

Glass sheets are cut into desired shapes and patterns and glued into place. Then they are placed into a kiln and the temperature is brought up until glass melts. This process is repeated until desired effect and shape are achieved.

For a bracelet, a strip of fused glass is placed across a large oval tube (bracelet mandrel) inside of the kiln. The temperature is brought up until glass is flexible. The glass then slumps around the mandrel and a bracelet curve is finished by hand by pushing the endings with a graffite marvel tool. Then the bracelet is annealed and, when cooled down, cleaned signed and dated.

A Short History of Glass and Lampworking

One of the earliest pieces of glass discovered is a small lump of translucent blue raw glass excavated in southern Mesopotamia, dated in 21st century B.C. Small glass beads are known as the first glass objects produced by man. Syrian bankers were using small glass (and metal) rings with relief patterns to mark clay tiles as a signature for their transactions.

Glassworking was also quite popular in ancient Egypt (second millennium B.C.). Advanced knowledge of glass allowed Egyptians to create large core-formed vessels as well as smaller objects, even though it seems that all of the raw glass was imported. The oldest large workshops were found in Thebes and el-Amarna. Egyptian glass workers knew lampworking, murrini cane making, slumping and kiln casting. Small glass pieces were used to inlay eyes on sculptures. Murrini slices were used to compose miniature mosaic motifs.

Glass knowledge was spreading fast. Beads were used for a trade. Phoenicians, great traders, were producing and distributing three dimensional head beads around 1200 B.C. Mediterranians were producing core-formed vessels and slumped bowls as soon as first millennium B.C., often decorated with feathered patterns. Large beads with stacked dots were being produced in China around 200 B.C.

Deep improvements in glassworking came with Hellenistic cultures around 1st century A.D., when the blow pipe was invented. Glass was blown into molds and this technique has dominated glassworking ever since. But glass beads were still produced to wear and trade and different decorating techniques are known, like simple dots and cane portraits.

The true renaissance in glassworking happened in late 19 century A.D. in Venice. Fighting high competition from other countries and rediscovering almost forgotten glass techniques, the Murano old-time traditions in glassworking were blossoming again.

This time is also a breaking point in lampworking history. Domenico Bussolin is known today for "reinventing" millefiori cane making. He introduced the hydrogen-carbonate gas flame enriched with an air jet to lampworkers, replacing old fashion animal fat burning lamps. This new innovative technique brought the ability to work faster and with better colour results/lower costs. This step is not too far from today's systems of lampwork.

Bussolin's followers were Battista and Franchini (old beadmaking families), and Vincenzo Moretti and his family,who is best known for his copies of ancient mosaic glass canes and realistic complicated portrait canes.

Today the art of Lampworking is gaining popularity again.